Tshepang Trust

The Tshepang Trust (also known as Tshepang) is a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) registered as a Trust under section 21 of the companies’ act and has Public Benefit Organisation (PBO) status. Tshepang was initiated by the South African Medical Association (SAMA) and originally supported by the Nelson Mandela Foundation (NMF). SAMA is a representative body of 70% of all doctors registered with the Health Professions Council of SA. In July 2002, during its national council, SAMA started questioning its role as a medical professional body in the fight against HIV and AIDS. At this assembly, a gap was identified in HIV and AIDS initiatives of the time. There was no treatment initiative for patients in need of treatment. It was through these discussions that Tshepang was conceptualised whose primary vision is to act as a grant seeking organisation that ensures that patients in need of treatment received treatment by providing them with ARVs and GPs trained in HIV clinical management as well as to promote reducing the spread of new HIV infections. The Tshepang Trust was launched in December 2002. Since the implementation of the national treatment role out in April 2004, Tshepang’s role to embrace this great milestone has been to bring forth the much needed human resource support, its GPs. The aim of the Trust has been to demonstrate and develop the capacity of the private sector to provide the needed infrastructure to support comprehensive care delivery for people living with and exposed to HIV and AIDS. This approach aligns the distribution of medical practitioners of whom approximately 70% are in the private sector to the distribution of patients where only 16% of the South African public has medical insurance, with a significant number of them not fully covered for access to ARVs for a full calendar year.