Rabia Mayet | rabiamayet@radioislam.co.za

02 December 2025

2-minute read

SA/US tensions are running high with Trump administration policy on land reform and diplomatic fault lines, and to exacerbate the problem, cuts to funding for scientific research have caused worry amongst scientists.

At the forefront of HIV/AIDS scientific research, Professor Glenda Gray emphasized that this “has definitely caused a huge dent” in research in South Africa and Africa and hindered their plan to test vaccines and do vaccine discovery and design. The National Institute of Health in the US has a budget of $47billion, but almost 800 grants have been terminated.

Their ambitious program came to a halt when funding of R1billion was stopped in January, causing job losses and staff retrenchments because “we cannot afford to keep them,” Professor Gray stated, adding that further retrenchments are bound to take place if funding continues to be withheld. New clinical trials are also being put on a backburner, and new patients and clients cannot be enrolled.

Relief funding of around R600million provided by the South African government “helped a little bit,” but is not sustainable and does not even begin to equate the money lost through the NIH. South Africa vies with other countries around the world for the NIH based on competitive funding and does receive a comparatively substantial amount, although nothing close to what we have been getting all these years. “We don’t just get money thrown at us,” said Prof Gray.

With SA being the only one who can solve the global problems of TB and HIV “we can’t lose hope,” she reiterates, alluding to the research labs, the population and the researchers in the country. It’s time to “differentiate science from politics,” and to make a meaningful contribution to science on all levels, Professor Glenda Gray concluded.

Listen to the full interview with Ml Sulaimaan Ravat and Prof Glenda Gray here.