By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Deputy President Paul Mashatile is hopeful that the National Health Bill (NHI) will passed by National Council of Provinces tomorrow, despite critisism that the Bill in its current form is “utterly unimplementable” and will have severe consequences for South Africa.
Mashatile is delivered the Annual Address to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) in Parliament, Cape Town.
This was the last sitting of the NCOP for the year 2023. The theme of this years programme is ” The Indispensable Urgency – Accelerating the provision of social services, safety, and the advancement of economic reforms for economic recovery in the interest of the people”.
Mashatile said South Africa was founded on the values of engagement and dialogue. It is in that spirit that government was still willing to talk to business about the NHI Bill.
Business had objected to the bill, saying it was approved by the Select Committee in the NCOP without taking into account submissions made.
Opposition parties have already warned that they will challenge the bill in court.
The bill was supposed to have been adopted by the NCOP last week, but it was withdrawn at the last minute.
NCOP chairperson Amos Masondo did not provide reasons for the withdrawal of the bill, but said it was rescheduled for Wednesday.
Mashatile said they hope that they will continue to talk to business about the NHI Bill.
He said the aim of the bill was to provide universal health insurance to millions of South Africans in order to get quality healthcare.
“However, there is still significant inequality in access to quality health care. As a result, the ANC government will continue to engage key stakeholders, including organised business and labour, to find amicable solutions on critical areas that may hinder the passing of the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill to enable every South African to receive appropriate standardised quality health care, regardless of their ability to pay.
“The NHI Bill is currently before the NCOP; having received enthusiastic support from most participants during the public hearings in provinces. We remain optimistic that the NCOP will allow stakeholders to develop progressive solutions towards finalising this important bill. We are a democracy anchored on dialogue and finding one another, no matter the difficulty,” said Mashatile.
Mashatile also said load shedding remains one of the most stubborn challenges to the country’s economy.
His remarks comes as Eskom had implemented stages 2 and 3 of rolling powercuts on Tuesday morning.
Stats SA also announced a 0.2% drop in the GDP during the third quarter.
Mashatile said government has a five point-plan to address the energy crisis, which includes fixing Eskom.
“Load shedding remains a stubborn challenge in our efforts to grow the economy. Load shedding has adversely affected the economy, people’s overall quality of life and the safety and security of our citizens.
“The ANC government continues to implement the Energy Action Plan to end load shedding and achieve energy security, and a plan includes five key pillars which are; Fix Eskom and improve the availability of the existing supply, enable and accelerate private investments in generation capacity, fast track the procurement of new generation capacity from renewables, gas and battery storage, unleash businesses and households to invest in rooftop solars and fundamentally transform the electricity sector to achieve long-term energy security.”
Watch Live in the video below:
Video Courtesy of Parliament.