20 May 2002
On 20 May 2002, South African Health Minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, announced at a meeting of the World Health Assembly in Geneva that South Africa was pledging R20 million to the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Ironically South Africa was still, at the time, lagging behind other African countries and the rest of the world with regards to the free availability of HIV/Aids drugs.
South Africa only began the programme to give out free HIV/AIDS drugs in 2004, after years of confusion and delays. The program started in Gauteng, where five major hospitals, including Chris Hani Baragwanath, the largest in Africa, were selected to administer the drugs.
Tshabalala-Msimang became South Africa's Health minister in 1999 (until 2008), and her term was riddled with controversy. Her emphasis on treating South Africa's AIDS epidemic with vegetables such as garlic and beetroot, rather than with antiretroviral medicines, was the subject of much international criticism.
References
"Health HIV/AIDS responses in a new democratic era since 1994", from South African history online, [online], Available at sahistory.org.za [Accessed 5 May 2009]|"Partnership to Fight HIV/AIDS in South Africa", from The United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, [online], Available at https://www.pepfar.gov