The South African government on Thursday described as “alarming” US President Donald Trump’s decision to suspend funding to the World Health Organization in the middle of a global health crisis that demanded greater international cooperation.
The Ministry of International Relations said Pretoria was alarmed at Trump’s vindictive decision against the WHO, especially as it was made amid a global pandemic.
“It is alarming that this very regrettable decision is announced as this deadly virus strikes Africa, and the poorest and most vulnerable states,” the ministry said in a statement.
It said South Africa is “particularly alarmed that the decision (by Trump) is made amid a global health crisis that requires a full-capacity of the WHO to provide support in combatting the deadly Covid-19 pandemic.”
The total number of infections globally has passed two million and over 130,000 deaths have been recorded – 30,000 of them in the US itself, the largest number of any country.
South Africa has so far recorded more than 2,500 cases of the disease, which has taken 34 lives since it broke out in the country in early March.
Critics say Trump made the decision to pull the plug on WHO funding to deflect attention from his embarrassing failure to respond to the disease in time.
In announcing his decision on Wednesday, Trump blamed the UN agency of failing to warn him and his country on how to handle the outbreak.
But the critics have reminded Trump of his multiple denials as the virus became a danger, telling the press that they were merely peddling a “new hoax” from the opposition Democratic Party to discredit him and his presidency.
The denials were made when Americans were dying on a daily basis at a homecare for the aged in the western US Washington State, and when China was on a nationwide lockdown due to the pandemic.
NM/jn/APA