EDITORIAL: Make up your mind, Mr President
Ramaphosa cannot decide where he stands on the private sector, so his NHI messaging is chaotic
It’s been a head-spinning few days. One minute President Cyril Ramaphosa is riding roughshod over private sector input on the National Health Insurance (https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/national/health/2024-05-15-ramaphosa-signs-nhi-bill-into-law/) (NHI) Bill and assenting to legislation that he knows will be challenged all the way to the Constitutional Court. The next he’s telling this paper’s sister publication the Sunday Times that he’s considering a mechanism “that will allow for more engagement and collaboration with business” and that SA’s legislative framework “allows for amendments to be made”.
This is no way to make policy. No president should be giving the go-ahead to legislation that heralds sweeping reform, and then signalling to a key constituency whose submissions have been roundly ignored that the law he has just agreed to can be changed...
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