SACP General Secretary, Solly Mapaila has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to implement the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme.
Although the NHI was signed into law by Ramaphosa before the May 29 national election, it has not yet been promulgated.
The NHI forms part of the government’s strategy to create universal healthcare.
The NHI is set to be a centralised national insurance fund. The government will buy healthcare services from providers in both the public and private sectors.
All eligible South African residents, as defined in the NHI Act, could visit these providers whenever they need healthcare without payment. The government’s coffers will fund the system.
Ramaphosa previously said that the NHI aims to level the playing field and merge the country’s fractured healthcare systems. The private sector caters to only a small percentage of the population, while the public sector remains overburdened and underfunded.
Some organisations have taken the matter to court but Mapaila said access to quality healthcare for all through the NHI is crucial for human development.
“One death resulting from the cost-of-living crisis, where the victim was deprived of access to quality healthcare, is utterly intolerable.
“Such a death is not merely an individual tragedy, but a profound indictment of the systemic inequalities that perpetuate social suffering. In a just society, no one should be denied essential healthcare based on their class location or position,” Mapaila said when delivering his Red October launch statement in eMalahleni on Sunday.
“The struggle to ensure universal access to quality healthcare is central to the fight for genuine freedom and dignity for all. This is a key priority for our Red October Campaign 2024–2025.”
Mapaila said one of the key milestones of the organisation’s Red October Campaign has been its early emphasis on land redistribution, food security and sustainable livelihoods.
“We drew attention to the persistent land ownership and related production inequalities rooted in South Africa’s colonial and apartheid history. These inequalities are now daily reproduced by the dog-eat-dog capitalist market.
“Our focus on land redistribution, food security and sustainable livelihoods continued over the years. We have advocated for land to be redistributed to the workers and poor people, who the state, in line with the Freedom Charter, must empower with resources and technical capacity to use land productively to support their lives, Mapaila said.
The Mercury