The Solidarity Fund will be wrapping up its operations, with a complete closure coming into effect at the end of September.

The fund, whose mandate was intently focused on a rapid response to the Covid-19 pandemic, was established with a very specific and limited mandate and was never intended to be a long-term solution, but rather an urgent, interim, impactful and significant intervention in augmenting government’s response to the unfolding Covid-19 crisis, chairperson Gloria Serobe said at a media briefing on March 17.

The fund believes it has fulfilled its current mandate and states that its funds are effectively fully allocated or disbursed and that no further fundraising, active or passive, will take place.

With immediate effect, no further fundraising and no new interventions or funding will be considered, remaining funds are in the process of being defined, allocated and aligned to the closure timeline of the fund, though the discipline and rigor on maintaining high-impact, low-cost implementation will remain.

External audits for the 2022 and 2023 financial periods, together with Solidarity Fund Impact & Close Out Reports will follow following the fund’s closure.

The bulk of the formal process to close the fund will take place from this month through to July, and the final plans and processes will take place through August and September.

Serobe stressed that Covid-19 remains a threat and said the need for non-pharmaceutical interventions and vaccination continues.

However, the nature of the pandemic has changed, in large part, thanks to the vaccine roll-out.

As such, Serobe commented that South Africa, and the world, are out of the crisis phase of the pandemic, and are now entering a stage where the approach to Covid needs to be normalised and managed alongside many diseases in society.

Further, as the pandemic ebbs and flows, Serobe noted that its impact on society had become better understood and the public and private healthcare sectors had evolved such that there was a much-reduced need for interventions such as those of the fund.

“The fund has played its part in helping to capacitate the national and provincial healthcare systems and believes it stands ready to tackle any future waves [of infections]. The world has reached a point where organisations are realigning their response to Covid-19. It can be argued that we are entering a more ‘endemic’ than ‘pandemic’ response period,” she noted.

However, within the fund, there is a wealth of learning and experience that must not be forgotten, and so, the business entity of the fund will continue to exist in a state of dormancy, with the expectation that it can remobilise rapidly and effectively should another overwhelming national crisis happen again.

SIX-MONTH UPDATE

As at March 16, just under R3.8-billion in Covid relief funding had been received by the fund and just under R3.3-billion had been disbursed.

All amounts received have been allocated, bar about R100-million (just under 3%) of total funds received.

The proposed use of the remaining R100-million in funds is in the process of being defined, allocated and aligned to the closure timeline of the fund, explained COO Nozipho Sangweni.

The funds disbursed are made up of R2.3-billion disbursed under the Health Response Pillar, R429-million under Humanitarian Support and R458-million under Behavioural Change and Communications and R100-million transferred to the Humanitarian Crisis Relief Fund (HCRF) fund, which was established shortly after last year’s civil unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng.

Following the July 2021 unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, a further R497-million was donated to the fund and R100-million internal resources allocated for use in the HCRF.

Of this amount, R573-million has been disbursed to date. The balance of the funds have been allocated to programmes, leaving R1-million available.

However, the National Government Vaccination Roll-out Programme still remains a priority.

As such, the fund has allocated R171-million to fund over 200 government-run outreach sites which have administered 850 000 vaccinations to date across the nine provinces.

“Our national Essential Equipment programme has had a total allocation of R436-million. This equipment will outlast the pandemic and is part of the legacy of the fund,” commented Sangweni.

Meanwhile, the Eastern Cape Nurses Project was allocated R51-million in support of the Eastern Cape’s Vaccine Roll-Out Outreach programme. The Gauteng Nurses project was allocated R23.5-million, and provided much-needed support to hospitals during the third wave and is available for subsequent waves.

The fund is also providing ongoing technical assistance to the National Department of Health (NDoH) through a co-funding contribution of R69-million to the DG Murray Trust to support the implementation of an effective nationwide Covid-19 vaccination programme.

The Solidarity Fund-funded NDoH Covid-19 Vaccination Contact Centre has handled about 1.3-million calls to date.

The fund’s “#RollUpYourSleevesSA” campaign integrated demand creation campaign launched in September 2021 and reached over 23-million people on television, over 25-million on radio and 25-million through digital channels.

The fund also supported the NDoH’s Vooma Vaccination Weekends.

Under the humanitarian pillar, the fund approved a further R52.8-million for a third phase of the Solidarity Fund’s Farming Inputs Voucher Programme, with a further 25 000 subsistence farmers scheduled to receive one-off vouchers of R2 000.

The HCRF partnered with the National Empowerment Fund to help rebuild local economic activity by supporting affected small, medium-sized and microenterprises, saving about 4 000 jobs through a total allocation of R273-million.

In addition, 39 nonprofit organisations are in the process of receiving grant funding of R87-million in support of activities related to food security, healthcare, economic recovery and peacebuilding.

A one-off R3 000 digital cash voucher was approved for about 20 000 former employees and informal traders affected by the unrest – R62-million has been allocated towards this programme.

“The fund is unique in the world – bringing government, business and civil society together in a unified battle against a great threat. It stands as a global example for solidarity and impact delivery in a time of crisis.

“I know I speak for the whole Solidarity Fund team when I say it has been the privilege of a lifetime to serve our country in this manner,” CEO Tandi Nzimande said.