Latest news with #NationalHealthInsuranceAct
Eyewitness News
6 days ago
- Health
- Eyewitness News
Motsoaledi defends spending R9m on lawyers, says health dept being sued on several fronts over NHI
CAPE TOWN - Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said that his department was being sued on several fronts over the National Health Insurance (NHI) and was forced to hire twelve counsel. Motsoaledi told the National Assembly that the legal team, which is made up of five senior counsel and seven junior counsel, had been paid R9 million to defend the department's universal health policy and the National Health Insurance Act. ALSO READ: • Ramaphosa eyes direct appeal to ConCourt over NHI Act challenge • BHF confident it will be able to prove the NHI Act is unconstitutional • BHF, SAPPF given green light to challenge NHI Act • BHF disappointed with Motsoaledi publishing draft regulations for NHI Act, despite several court challenges The minister was responding to questions in the House as part of the social services cluster of ministers. Minister Motsoaledi was asked by the Democratic Alliance (DA)'s Michéle Clarke why he needed such a big legal team to defend the department at such a cost. "I would like to ask the minister how he justifies paying for such a huge legal team, given that hospitals can't afford food for patients and overtime for doctors?" Motsoaledi justified the cost, saying they were facing seven different litigations on two separate but related matters. "We regard this team as appropriate. The president is suing for only one case. We are sued for seven cases. And this amount of money is those that have been involved in litigation, will know how expensive senior counsel is." Motsoaledi also told MPs that medico-legal cases due to negligence were another costly burden but were mostly as a result of fraudulent claims.
The Citizen
21-05-2025
- Business
- The Citizen
Rupert in Ramaphosa delegation, 'spit in face of democracy'
South African golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen are also expected to join Ramaphosa when he meets Donald Trump. The inclusion of South Africa's richest man Johann Rupert in President Cyril Ramaphosa's delegation to meet his US counterpart, Donald Trump has been condemned by the EFF. The much-anticipated and robust meeting between Ramaphosa and Trump is expected to take place at the White House on Wednesday at 5.30pm (CAT). South African golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen are also expected to join Ramaphosa when he meets Trump. While Rupert, Els and Goosen will be part of Ramaphosa's delegation, it is understood that the South African billionaire and owner of Starlink, SpaceX and Tesla Elon Musk will not attend the highly anticipated meeting. 'Spitting in the face of democracy' While the EFF also condemned the inclusion of Musk, it's understood he will not attend the meeting. 'Elon Musk and Johann Rupert are two sides of the same coin. Both are egoistical businessmen who parade their control over the presidents of these two nations and both hold a considerable stake in both of these economies,' the EFF said. 'They are both racist to the core and are opposed to transformation and equity because it threatens their ill-gotten wealth and control over the political fortunes of the United States and South Africa. 'The inclusion of Johann Rupert in a diplomatic delegation is spitting in the face of our democracy, which has grown to appreciate the need for redress in education, health care and land ownership through the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act, the National Health Insurance Act and the Expropriation Act,' the red berets said. ALSO READ: WATCH: 'Fear not' Ramaphosa says, as Johann Rupert and Ernie Els expected to join Trump meeting Ramaphosa optimistic Meanwhile, there is speculation about how the meeting will go, with fears Ramaphosa is walking into a 'Zelensky-style ambush', referring to the viral clash that took place when Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the White House in February. However, Ramaphosa told journalists in Washington on Tuesday that he was hoping for 'really good' discussions with Trump and his administration. 'I'm looking forward to a really good and positive meeting, and we're looking forward to a very good outcome for our country, for our people, for the jobs in our country and good trade relations and [normalising] relations between our two countries.' Humiliation Ramaphosa was not fazed that he may face 'humiliation' similar to the shouting match involving Trump, his deputy JD Vance and Zelensky. 'Well, South Africans are never humiliated, are they? South Africans always go into everything holding their heads high.' ALSO READ: WATCH: Is Ramaphosa in trouble? US Secretary of State Marco Rubio calls out SA ahead of Trump meeting
Eyewitness News
14-05-2025
- Health
- Eyewitness News
BHF confident it will be able to prove the NHI Act is unconstitutional
CAPE TOWN - The Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF), which represents private medical aid schemes, appears confident that it will be able to prove that the National Health Insurance Act is unconstitutional. Although it does not expect the president to comply with last week's high court ruling to provide the record of his decision to sign the bill into law, it said that this judgment was a critical first step in bolstering its next legal steps against the act. At the closing session of its annual conference in Cape Town on Wednesday, the BHF's legal team announced its plans to add two more NHI cases to the growing list, based on constitutionality and public participation. The BHF is one of at least three healthcare bodies that have launched legal cases against the National Health Insurance Act. BHF lawyer, Neil Kirby, said by denying citizens the choice of how and where they sourced medical services would not meet constitutional muster. "There's no way the current structuring of the NHI Act, both in terms of what it proposes in relation to the functioning of the fund, the fund itself, and the role the private sector plays within that context, will ever match what is required in terms of the Constitution." The preparatory work for introducing the bill was more than a decade in the making, before spending five years in the parliamentary pipeline. But the SA Private Practitioners' Forum lawyer, Glenn Penfold, said the act remained vague on too many aspects of health services and delivery. "We effectively have an act of Parliament, that I think not even the drafters know what that act will actually look like in practice." The SA Medical Association, meanwhile, has cited reduced access to primary healthcare and the stripping away of provincial healthcare powers among its concerns.
Eyewitness News
14-05-2025
- Health
- Eyewitness News
Board of Healthcare Funders set to file two more legal challenges to NHI Act
CAPE TOWN - The Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF) announced on Wednesday that it's mounting two more legal challenges against the National Health Insurance Act. It follows last week's successful judgment in the Gauteng High Court that the president provide it with his record of decision that led to him signing the bill into law a year ago. Speaking at its annual conference in Cape Town, lawyers representing the board said the new cases would target the public participation process leading up to the bill being passed by parliament, and the constitutional right to health care. Buoyed by last week's court ruling that found the high court did have jurisdiction to review the president's decision to sign the NHI Act into law despite public reservations and submissions to him, the BHF said it's preparing to make its next legal moves. BHF lawyer Helen Michael said the first of the cases, which would be filed imminently, directly with the Constitutional Court, would argue that public input was not properly considered. ALSO READ: BHF, SAPPF given green light to challenge NHI Act "The case being that the public hearings that were held by government and which were intended to facilitate some kind of comment on the NHI Bill, were in fact and meaningless and flawed." The BHF, which represents scores of medical aid schemes, says both its new applications will be backed up by expert reports. "The BHF's [other] challenge to the NHI Act is on the basis that various provisions of the act are in fact unconstitutional." The president has been given until Friday to submit his record of decision to the high court, which the BHF hopes will bolster its new court challenges.
IOL News
11-05-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
ANC's failures fuelling DA's anti-transformation agenda
Democratic Alliance (DA) Federal Council Chairperson Helen Zille at a media briefing on May 5, 2025 in Johannesburg. The persistent bickering between the ANC and DA is to be expected. The GNU is, after all, a marriage of inconvenience, says the writer. Prof. Sipho Seepe THE DA's decision to challenge the Employment Equity Amendment Act has the ANC fuming. In a strongly worded statement, the ANC accused the DA of 'drifting from the spirit of the Government of National Unity and positioning themselves outside the project of nation-building and shared prosperity. Transformation, equity, and diversity are not up for negotiation." This legal challenge follows closely on the DA and EFF's successful bid to stop the Treasury from increasing VAT by 0.5 percent. These challenges, including the DA's intention to challenge the implementation of the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act and the National Health Insurance Act, are part of a strategy to wear the ANC out by keeping it busy. The persistent bickering between the ANC and DA is to be expected. The GNU is, after all, a marriage of inconvenience. Neither party has ever expressed love for the other. The GNU has all the hallmarks of a marriage on the rocks. This includes a lack of trust, public display of disrespect and contempt for each other, and lack of commitment. Both parties have tried to argue that the GNU was born out of necessity. Having lost 22% of the vote share in six years, the ANC came into the marriage as a mortally wounded partner. President Cyril Ramaphosa has since tried to spin this reality by arguing that the voters 'through their votes, determined that the leaders of our country should set aside their political differences and come together to overcome the severe challenges that confront our nation.' The DA has not fallen for this nonsense. Helen Zille, the Federal Chair of the DA, could not have been blunter. She averred. 'We are not in the GNU to please the ANC or anyone else.' The GNU has been the best gift for the DA. It has the upper hand. It can influence government policy and still assume its role as the major opposition party. It has nothing to lose. The ANC has become synonymous with failure. Any success of the GNU will be attributed to the presence of the DA. The DA went into this arranged marriage with two publicly stated intentions. The first is to present itself as a viable alternative to the ANC. The second is to finish what is left of the ANC. There is no better time for Helen Zille to fulfil her promise in 2019 to oversee the death of the ANC. The DA can count on the ANC's identified weaknesses. Fewer individuals can speak with authority on the ANC's leadership challenges than Dr Mavuso Msimang, who (in)famously stated: "It's a pity that the ANC has a person like Mbalula as its secretary general. It is an embarrassment. For an organisation party that once boasted the likes of Sol Plaatjie, Oliver Tambo, Duma Nokwe, and a few others, to end up with Mbalula is a commentary on the state of the organisation. How did we elect a person like this to that position?" The problems extend to the Office of the President. With the Phala Phala scandal hovering over his head, Ramaphosa has become a highly compromised leader. No less a figure than the former Chief Justice Raymond Zondo has reportedly argued that Ramaphosa should have resigned following an exposé of the Phala Phala. Given that Phala Phala has all the signs of fraud, corruption, money laundering, kidnapping, and torture, Ramaphosa's refusal to resign has weakened the fight against corruption and criminality. Internationally, Ramaphosa's attempts to portray himself as a crusader against corruption hit the skids. The ANC's fall from glory was long in the making. Delivering his political report in 1997 on the occasion of the ANC's 50th National Conference, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela argued that 'a cursory study of the positions adopted by the mainly white parties is the national legislature during the last three years, the National Party, the Democratic Party, and the Freedom Front will show that they and the media which represents the same social base have been most vigorous in their opposition, whenever legislative and executive measures have been introduced, seeking the end the racial disparities which continue to characterise our society.' Viewed from this historical lens, there is nothing new about parties such as the DA in opposing legislative and executive measures meant to redress the past. Mandela should have known better, as Sizwe Sikamusi so eloquently put it. 'White people would never voluntarily dismantle the system that privileges them…it's just logic…No system has ever collapsed because its beneficiaries felt guilty. Systems collapse when they're challenged, disrupted, and replaced.' Perhaps more chilling, however, is Mandela's foresight. He noted that 'the defenders of apartheid privilege continue to sustain a conviction that an opportunity will emerge in future, when they can activate this counter-insurgency machinery, to impose an agenda on South African society which would limit the possibilities of the democratic order to such an extent that it would not be able to create a society of equality, that would be rid of the legacy of apartheid.' It is a sad commentary that after 31 years in office, the ANC government has left the apartheid architecture intact. The socioeconomic material conditions of Africans, bar a few, have worsened. What Mandela could not have foreseen was that his party would find common cause with the very party that he once accused as a party of white bosses and black stooges. Unbeknown to him, the ANC would metamorphose into a party of black stooges whose only purpose is to seek accommodations in spaces of white privilege. As they say, there are no accidents in politics. * Professor Sipho P. Seepe is an Higher Education & Strategy Consultant. ** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL, Independent Media or The African.
