THE withdrawal of Global Fund support to an HIV-AIDS organisation, Lironga Eparu, is the result of personal grudges against its executive director, Emma Tuahepa.
Moses Ikanga, the organisation’s board chairperson, on Friday said the alleged malice has ‘escalated into full-scale bullying of Lironga Eparu’.Ikanga said the board plans to brief President Hifikepunye Pohamba, the organisation’s patron, on the dire straits it finds itself in.About 45 000 people living with HIV-AIDS are out in the cold after the Global Fund, through the Ministry of Health and Social Services, withdrew all funding to the NGO late last year.Ikanga said Lironga Eparu was instructed to review its management structure, but that it has allegedly emerged that there is a vendetta against Tuahepa. ‘That change meant that Emma Tuahepa should go without valid or substantial reasons is therefore uncalled for, unconstitutional, completely unlawful. In particular, to withdraw funding and get the whole community of people living with HIV to suffer because of ulterior motives by those entrusted by us in the country goes against the Government Policy of Vision 2030,’ he said.On Friday, the board handed over a car and computers to the Global Fund.According to Ikanga, they will now have to look for alternative financial means to continue with its activities.’We have been at the mercy of slander and all sorts of misrepresentation in recent years, which resulted in the decision to stop and rethink these relationships that bear no fruit.’He said Lironga Eparu ‘will be in consultation with its members and important stakeholders in the process of rebuilding the organisation from the perceptions that were created by power-hungry, manipulating and unscrupulous individuals over the years’.Earlier, it was reported that despite Pohamba being the patron, Government has done nothing to come to the organisation’s rescue.It was also reported that the funding was withdrawn after Lironga Eparu apparently refused to adhere to a call for a leadership change as well as the shaping up of its internal controls.The organisation’s former financial manager is currently serving an eight-year jail term after he was convicted of fraud.Ikanga on Friday said their books are open for scrutiny.
