The signing of the National Health Insurance (NHI) has got tongues wagging and has also sparked a real debate on the policy, just days before the general elections.
Some in the political establishments and health services believe that the government does not have the resources to implement a system as huge and complicated as free health care.
Some derived their scepticism from the fact that government had a potential of running state-owned enterprises to the ground, some even citing the SA Post Office and SAA as examples.
These statements were echoed by the EFF’s second-in-command Floyd Shivambu, saying that South Africans were no fools and that they could see right through the government’s “propaganda”.
Shivambu took to X to say that the governing party should celebrate on the NHI Bill as it was the last one they would ever sign.
“They are celebrating because it’s the last time the man signs anything into law. The people of South Africa are not cowards and will never retreat on their determination to remove the ANC and puppet president from power. It’s no surrender! No retreat!” he wrote.
In responding to Shivambu, ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula accused the EFF of being anti-progressive, saying it was a political party that was against transformation.
“We’re told this is the ‘left’ we can rely on to move forward the transformation agenda… such pettiness that they can’t read the momentous occasion of the signing of the NHI Bill into law! They join the chorus of counter-revolution,” Mbalula said.
In responding to Mbalula, Shivambu told him that there was nothing “left” nor progressive about the NHI law that was signed by his “puppet president SG Mbalula”.
He continued to describe the move as illogical, reminding Mbalula that the country’s health care was in crisis due to the government’s lack of prioritising health services.
“South Africa is not a crisis of funding. It’s a crisis of the dismal failure to prioritise primary health care and also government failure to build a responsible responsive single tier healthcare system.
“NHI in its current will present an opportunity to scrupulous health care institutions to withdraw from the fund without doing any work,” he concluded.
Furthermore, Shivambu said there was nothing momentous about Ramaphosa’s NHI, saying that was the reason his party rejected the bill in Parliament.
The National Executive Committee (NEC) member of the ANC, Andile Lungisa, also entered the fray by accusing Shivambu of being bought, saying that he knew that the NHI was one of the attributes of building a strong developmental state and public service.
Lungisa explained that the universal health-care system would cover everyone employed or unemployed, earning low income or high income regardless of their socio-economic status.
“No revolutionary can fight against this progressive move by the government of the ANC as lead by President Ramaphosa even if we come from different formations. We will fight against anyone who attacks NHI as we did against whose who attacked free education in the past,” he explained.
The Star