Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, South African health minister: The fight against HIV/AIDS continues.
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 537 Ratings
🗓️ 9 February 2026
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
“Even though we say we want to be self-sufficient, we don't think global solidarity must be dropped. Because if it gets dropped, the world will be in trouble.”
Mayeni Jones the BBC’s Africa correspondent speaks to Dr Aaron Motsoaledi South Africa’s health minister a year on since the US announced foreign aid cuts. At the time he called the USAID freeze a wake up call for Africa.
Dr Motsoaledi, has been at the centre of South Africa’s public health response for more than a decade. A medical doctor by training, he first took on the health portfolio in 2009, overseeing the world’s largest HIV treatment programme.
In this conversation he explains how the country is filling the aid gap and where progress stands in the fight against HIV and AIDS. The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Syria’s only female cabinet minister, Hind Kabawat, Ugandan human rights lawyer Nicholas Opiyo and Mexican actor, Diego Calva. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presenter: Mayeni Jones Producers: Ed Habershon, Farhana Haider Editor: Justine Lang
Get in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.
(Image: Dr Aaron Motsoaledi Credit: PHILL MAGAKOE/AFP via Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:06.1 | Hello, I'm Miami Jones, the BBC's Africa correspondent, |
| 0:09.8 | and this is the interview from the BBC World Service, |
| 0:12.6 | the best conversations coming out of the BBC, |
| 0:15.2 | people shaping our world from all over the world. |
| 0:19.3 | If you're not a little bit afraid, then you're not paying attention. |
| 0:24.0 | You have never seen a people so united. |
| 0:27.5 | Do not make that boat crossing. Do not make that journey. |
| 0:30.2 | Being born in America, feeling American, having people treat me like I'm not. |
| 0:34.2 | We're more popular than populism. |
| 0:40.7 | For this interview, I met Dr. Aaron Motswaledi, South Africa's health minister in Pretoria. Dr. Motswaledi has been at the center of the |
| 0:46.5 | country's public health response for more than a decade. A medical doctor by training, he first |
| 0:52.1 | took on the health portfolio in 2009, overseeing the |
| 0:55.4 | world's largest HIV treatment program. A year ago, cuts to USAID funding sent shockwaves |
| 1:03.6 | through the global HIV response community. This is a matter of life and death, the words of a major |
| 1:10.6 | HIV charity. |
| 1:12.6 | In response to Donald Trump's order to freeze US foreign aid for 90 days, |
| 1:17.9 | well, the decision has left refugee camps and emergency hospital clinics around the world in a real state of uncertainty. |
| 1:24.9 | He ordered this 90-day halt to nearly all existing a new foreign aid, |
| 1:29.3 | sending shockwaves across those organisations delivering humanitarian assistance, |
| 1:34.0 | leaving a trail of chaos and confusion about whether people... |
| 1:37.2 | I mean, one example is PEPFAR, which is a huge programme that is administered by the State Department to try and suppress |
... |
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