The EU says it cannot plug the funding gap should the Trump administration withdraw aid to SA and the rest of the continent, but it is seeking strategic partnerships in Africa.
Brussels lacks funds to counter US President Donald Trump’s threats, says EU foreign minister Kaja Kallas, adding that reform of global multilateral institutions that support development should be prioritised to accommodate the halt in funding.
“We can’t step in with our funds automatically. This is just not possible because we in Europe have a huge issue with defence spending now.
“Our call to African countries is to support us in the UN, for example, regarding our adversaries, because the threat is so big and we need to invest more in defence,” Kallas said on Wednesday on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers meetings in Joburg.
“And these are great funds that we have to allocate for this existential threat that we have right now, but we are not leaving our friends behind,” Kallas said, referring to the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia.
“Considering the steps that America has taken, then all the countries in the world who are in need and also organisations, multilateral organisations are at our door.”
The EU has expressed support for SA’s G20 presidency as Pretoria seeks to show it is not isolated amid the diplomatic spat with the US.
The confrontation between the two countries came to a head in January when Trump signed an executive order halting funding to SA and providing refugee status to white Afrikaners.
“It is a time of building partnerships and strengthening the partnerships we have. Finding old friends and making new friends. Whatever differences there were, I feel that they are in the past and we can settle them,” Kallas said.
More than 2,000 EU companies operate in SA, creating more than 500,000 direct and indirect jobs. The EU and SA are due to hold a joint summit next month.
“A lot of partners are turning to us because we are the reliable, the predictable, partner. So that has value in these current turbulent times,” Kallas said.
Trump’s administration has thrown HIV/Aids programmes funded by the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) into disarray. Last month, Trump imposed a 90-day freeze on all foreign aid pending a review, followed by “stop-work” orders that brought HIV/Aids programmes worldwide to a standstill.
SA receives 17% (R7.45bn) of its funding for HIV/Aids programmes from Pepfar. Treasury draft budget documents released on Wednesday show that the health department’s budget was allocated an increase of R28bn over the medium term.
The allocation was not intended to plug the financing gap left by the Trump administration, but rather to accommodate unemployed doctors, address shortfalls in the wage bill and improve hospital infrastructure.
With Tamar Kahn.
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