Civil society organisation AfriForum served a summons on government yesterday in a bid to have the National Health Insurance (NHI) Act declared unconstitutional, reports Polity.
The respondents are President Cyril Ramaphosa, Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza and chairperson of the National Council of Provinces Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane.
AfriForum said the flawed draft regulations for the Act have, once again, confirmed that the government is incapable of launching or managing such a complex system.
“Due to the numerous court cases brought against NHI and the state’s enormous budget deficit, it was questioned whether the Minister of Health should have proceeded to publish draft regulations. Now, the published draft regulations lack any clarity about what South Africans can expect from the system,” said AfriForum campaign officer for health Louis Boshoff.
He noted that some of the regulations are “so poorly written that they contain even less detail than the original explanatory articles of the NHI Act”.
“Other regulations and sub-regulations are simply confusing or so vague that various interpretations can result from them,” he said.
In 2024, the organisation had launched a class action lawsuit against the government, Ramaphosa, Parliament and the Minister of Health, for what it said was the damage South Africans would suffer under the NHI policy.
Polity article – AfriForum serves summons on govt over controversial NHI Act (Open access)
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Many not grasping what NHI will entail – Afriforum
NHI ‘nothing more than a cash grab’ – AfriForum