ZIMBABWE — HARARE - The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria yesterday disbursed US$169 million to Zimbabwe following the return of US$7.3 million stolen by Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono meant to buy medicine for sick people.

 

Gono would not be able to sink his grubby fingers into this mouth-watering donation, neither will Mugabe's ‘theocracy’ have access to these funds, which will be held in off-shore accounts.

 

The Round 8 donation is the highest amount of new financing approved by the Global Fund for Zimbabwe ever despite the theft of money meant to buy medicines for sick people by the central bank governor.

The Global Fund says this money will significantly help Zimbabwe in achieving global targets such as universal access to AIDS treatment and prevention, and cutting the number of deaths from tuberculosis and malaria by half by 2015, said a statement to ZimDaily from the Global Fund Board.

Michel Kazatchkine, the Executive Director of the Global Fund said a large chunk of the money will go to malaria programs accounting for 51 percent. Proposals for AIDS and tuberculosis account for 38 percent and 11 percent, respectively, of the approved funding.

He said Global Fund’s next funding round will be approved in November 2009, and the donor agency will demand full audit of the money.

The Fund considered the appeal by AIDS activists and other concerned Zimbabweans that the Fund could not punish sick Zimbabweans by withholding funding for killer diseases just because of theft by the central bank governor.

Martha Tholana, an AIDS activist, praised the Global Fund’s decision but said “continued vigilance of the money’s disbursement is essential.”

 

She noted that even leading state hospitals in Harare, the capital, are closing wards as the economic crisis continues.

The RBZ last week hastily returned the money after a global outcry after its embarrassing theft from sick people. Gono remains in office, with the useless ant-corruption commission and its parent ministry doing absolutely nothing to probe this official theft. Calls for a national inquiry by human rights organizations have fallen on deaf ears.

The Global Fund had requested the immediate release of the stolen money in September, but the Reserve Bank requested time to repay the money setting itself a November 6 deadline.

ZimDaily heard that the RBZ has agreed to proposals by the Fund that all funding recipients will be permitted to use US dollars for all transactions within Zimbabwe, eliminating exchange rate risks in Zimbabwe’s hyper-inflationary environment.

ZimDaily understands the Global Fund previously had a portfolio of five grants in Zimbabwe with an approved maximum value of US$88 million. The Global Fund disbursed just over US$39 million between 2004 and 2007 resulting in a significant scale up of life-saving interventions, including 13,000 patients enrolled for Antiretroviral Treatment, and over 330,000 insecticide treated bed nets distributed.

The large majority of spending of the Global Fund supported grants in Zimbabwe is in the form of procurements of goods which take place through payments made to suppliers outside Zimbabwe.

 

 

JOKE OF THE DAY - In life never be moved like Mugabe,

Never give up like Tsvangirai.

Grab opportunities like Mutambara,

strive to grow like inflation.

When they chase u away keep coming back like the zeros.

Enjoy your day!!!!!!

 

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