S.Africa sounds alarm on US cutting off WHO funding

By Hassan Isilow

JOHANNESBURG (AA) - South Africa has sounded the alarm over U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to cut funding to the World Health Organization (WHO).

“South Africa is particularly alarmed that the decision is made amid a global health crisis that requires a full-capacity WHO to provide support in combatting the deadly COVID-19 pandemic,” the country’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) said in a statement late Wednesday.

DIRCO said it is alarming that Trump took the regrettable decision as COVID-19 strikes Africa and the poorest and most vulnerable states in the world.

South Africa further said the WHO, a lead UN agency mandated to promote health and ensure universal healthcare coverage globally, needs support in fighting COVID-19.

“It is the sole global health agency, with the core focus on universal healthcare. As such, its efforts to coordinate a genuinely global response against this scourge should be recognized and supported,” DIRCO said.

South Africa added it believes that, now more than ever before, the WHO deserves increased support from member states in particular to bolster its efforts to suppress transmission and stop the virus’ spread.

“We are hopeful that the government of the United States will reconsider its decision and re-join the international community in fighting this pandemic,’’ the statement said.

Trump announced Wednesday he will halt funding to WHO because it has allegedly failed in its basic duty to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak.

In a late night briefing, South African Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said, without mentioning Trump, that his country has full confidence in both the WHO and its director-general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“We believe that their leadership has been fairly helpful. They have been sensitive. They’ve also managed this issue of the pandemic in an exemplary way that we believe has been able to give us guidance in the right time,” he said, as quoted by South African news site Business Live.