First of December marks World AIDS Day, a day meant to honour courage, survival, and our collective commitment to ending the spread of HIV/AIDS; however, Gauteng finds itself in the middle of a humanitarian crisis created entirely by the Gauteng Department of Social Development’s failure to provide food and support.
According to the Gauteng Department of Social Development’s second quarter report for the 2025/2026 financial year, people living with HIV and those affected by HIV-related poverty have been cut off from the food support they rely on to stay alive.
This is the direct result of the department’s reckless decision to dismantle a functioning network of about 277 Home-Based Care (HCBC) NPOs and regional foodbanks while centralising food distribution into one single warehouse in Centurion.
This centralisation of food banks was implemented without proper planning, readiness, or capacity, and has been nothing short of catastrophic.
The department’s second quarterly report confirms:
1. HIV and AIDS is the worst performing programme, spending only 34% of its annual budget halfway into the year.
2. Food parcels for HIV patients were moved out of Programme two, yet Programme five contains no output indicator, no tracking system, and no data to show whether HIV affected households received any support.
3. Home-bound HIV patients, many of whom cannot queue or travel, have now lost access to essential nutrition needed to take ARVs.
4. The department’s own oversight analysis warns that this decision has created a “service delivery gap” and left thousands without assistance.
On World AIDS Day, this is a profound moral and governance failure.
People living with HIV cannot take life-saving medication on an empty stomach.
They cannot travel kilometres to a central warehouse for the food that previously arrived at their doorstep. They should not be punished because Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s government chooses bureaucratic centralisation over community-based care.
While the current government has chosen administrative chaos over human wellbeing, a caring DA-led Gauteng Provincial Government would act immediately to restore dignity, access and accountability. We would:
1. Restore decentralised HCBC food distribution through trusted local NPOs and regional food banks, ensuring food reaches people where they live.
2. Ring-fence the HIV and AIDS budget to prevent underspending and ensure that nutritional and psychosocial support is delivered on time.
3. Implement home-based distribution for the chronically ill, including bedridden HIV patients who cannot collect parcels themselves.
4. Strengthen partnerships with civil society, clinics, and community caregivers who form the backbone of HIV support in Gauteng.
These are not abstract ideas; these are the practical, humane steps that any caring and competent government should be taking right now.
World AIDS Day must not become a day of empty speeches.
It is unacceptable that on a day dedicated to fighting stigma and strengthening support for people living with HIV, the Gauteng Department of Social Development is presiding over a rapidly escalating crisis of hunger, invisibility, and abandonment.
The DA stands with every individual, family, and community affected by this failure.
We will continue to hold Lesufi’s government accountable, and we will continue fighting until people living with HIV receive the food, support, and dignity they deserve not only on World AIDS Day, but every day.