President Cyril Ramaphosa should do the honourable thing and explain to South Africans why he signed the National Health Insurance (NHI) Act into law shortly before last year’s elections.
On 6 May this year, the North Gauteng High Court ruled, in the case involving the Board of Healthcare Funders and the SA Private Practitioners Forum, that the President should provide the record of his decision-making to enact and sign the legislation.
In terms of this ruling, the President needs to indicate whether all the legal requirements were met.
In response, the President applied for leave to appeal to the Constitutional Court.
The Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) believes that President Ramaphosa signed the NHI Act just before the election solely to garner votes to save the ANC from political ruin. The fact that the President now wishes to appeal the High Court’s decision demonstrates that his conduct was not in the country’s best interests or to ensure South Africans’ health and well-being.
It begs the question: What is the President hiding?
Meanwhile, the Minister of Health has spent R9,6 million since October 2024 desperately defending the NHI in court with an inflated legal team consisting of five senior and seven junior advocates. It borders on utter absurdity.
There are currently seven cases against the NHI being heard in the country’s courts, with more to follow. All while medical malpractice claims amounting to approximately R75 billion are pending against the Department and R3 million per month is squandered on NHI advertisements. In addition, the Department faces a budget shortfall of R7,5 billion due to the withdrawal of USA’s PEPFAR and USAID funds.
What the President’s legal costs relating to the NHI case will eventually amount to is anyone’s guess.
One thing is sure, though, the funds are crucial for restoring and rebuilding the country’s public healthcare service. Instead, it is being squandered by a stubborn President and Minister of Health.
South Africa urgently needs doctors, nurses, medicine, medical equipment, hospitals and clinics, but funds are disappearing into the bottomless NHI pit.
Now is the time for the President to be honest and transparent with South Africans, halt the NHI in all its forms, return to the drawing board and, with the help of medical experts from both the public and private sectors, design a system that will benefit everyone in the country.
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