Is it true that NAC has been operating without a board for 18 months?

Verdict: False

According to the Herald of 9 March 2019, the NAC board was dissolved with immediate effect on March 4, 2019. The publication quotes a letter written by Health and Child Care Minister, Obadiah Moyo dissolving the board.

A Newsday story published in July 2019 under headline: “Calls mount for NAC board reconstitution” makes reference to the NAC board having been dissolved four months ago, placing the time in March 2019.

“The previous board was dissolved almost four months ago and at the time the Health minister in a letter said the board had been improperly appointed and that President Emmerson Mnangagwa had concurred to its dissolution,” reads the NewsDay article.

From the research, at the time Labode made the claim, NAC had been operating without a board for nearly a year, therefore it can be safely said that her claim is false and unfounded.

Source: Chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Childcare, Ruth Labode.

Background

Speaking in Parliament on February 19, 2020, Ruth Labode, chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care, claimed the National Aids Council (NAC) had been operating for the past one and a half years without a board.

Labode was recorded verbatim on in Hansard of that day as follows:

HON. DR. LABODE: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I once raised the point of privilege in this House on my concern about the fact that the National Aids Council (NAC) one and a half years later still has no board.  This is an organisation that every one of you in this House pays 3% levy every month but there is also no Chief Executive officer.  So we wonder who is actually managing that funding.  The same NAC is the recipient of the Global Fund and the TB Fund. 

I raised this concern as one seconded to the CCM by Parliament which controls the Global Fund.  I raised it in that forum where the donors were in attendance.  I was told by the Permanent Secretary the reason why there is no board and why the Ministry has gone ahead and sought permission going round the Act that governs NAC to interview a CEO which they have since done as a Ministry contrary to the Act.  This is because the President’s Office for the past one and half years has failed to adjudicate Members of the board.  Please can the Minister be asked to come and give us further details because something is not right somewhere.  I thank you.