South African News

‘Cancel your medical aid’: Maimane challenges Ramaphosa and Cabinet

Kamogelo Moichela|Published

Build One South Africa (Bosa) leader Mmusi Maimane. Picture: Itumeleng English, Independent Newspapers

BUILD One South Africa (Bosa) leader Mmusi Maimane has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa, his family and Cabinet to cancel their medical aid cover contracts and start using public health care services before inking the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill into law.

“Before he signs the NHI Bill, I challenge the president, his whole family, the Cabinet, and all their family members, to publicly cancel their medical aid and to use public health care with immediate effect. There must be no health care obtained overseas,” Maimane said.

Ramaphosa is expected to sign the NHI Bill into law on Wednesday at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.

This comes after five years of heated debates and public hearings over the authorisation of the bill. The bill was tabled in 2019.

According to Maimane, the bill under ANC governance will not go a long way to ensuring that people receive proper health-care services.

“The NHI as envisaged by the ANC is going to be devastating for this country. You will have profound skills flight out of this country and ultimately it will drain the fiscus,” said Maimane.

“This is a R500 billion investment that needs to go, with a government that is already heavily indebted, incapable of managing financial resources, and has ultimately caused the public health-care sector to collapse due to poor leadership at multiple places,” he said.

Maimane continued to stress that citizens will not get the best health care, stating that health care will end up being outsourced elsewhere.

Several organisations, health experts and some citizens have condemned the decision to authorise the bill, saying this will only damage the country’s health system.

ActionSA said it was disappointed that Ramaphosa had ignored the pleas to avoid signing the NHI bill into law, to avoid ‘State Capture 2.0’.

While the NHI is well-intentioned to address health-care inequality in South Africa, ActionSA said that in its current form it will expose the health system to corruption.

The party said the NHI would not solve the health-care system and infrastructure, but would instead worsen the problems.

Additionally, DA leader John Steenhuisen said they will be challenging this “reckless” legislation in court to safeguard citizens’ futures.

"The DA will, upon its signing into law by Ramaphosa, challenge the ANC's NHI to the Constitutional Court. Ramaphosa's NHI Bill will be a death sentence for South Africa's health care and will further burden taxpayers,” Steenhuisen said.

RISE Mzansi leader Songezo Zibi said the NHI Bill was misleading the nation into believing that they would be well taken care of.

“We must not allow the ANC to mislead us into thinking the NHI is a silver bullet, we need health-care facilities that belong to South Africans, and are at least 15 minutes away from each home,” he said.

Meanwhile, the DA is set to address the media on Wednesday outside the Union Buildings on its next steps to stop what it called the unconstitutional NHI Bill.

‘Cancel your medical aid’: Maimane challenges Ramaphosa and Cabinet