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Health minister Aaron Motsoaledi. Picture: BRENTON GEACH/GALLO IMAGES
Health minister Aaron Motsoaledi. Picture: BRENTON GEACH/GALLO IMAGES

It is maddening to see health minister Aaron Motsoaledi trying to find international support and possibly investment for an ill-conceived idea such as National Health Insurance (NHI) at the World Economic Forum’s Davos ’25 (“SA fighting an NHI war, Motsoaledi tells WEF”, January 23).

Discovery is hardly right wing, and to trash the private healthcare system shows how unhinged Motsoaledi is from reality. All his ANC honchos are contracted into the private healthcare system.

Most SA state hospitals are in a perilous state. In many cases patients have to bring their own toilet paper, linen and water. If private healthcare were to be managed like state-run hospitals there would be no healthcare in SA.

Yes, we have one of the world’s highest wealth gaps, but the ANC has been hell-bent on driving a socialist agenda for decades, but is riddled with corruption and incompetence. Thirty years of mismanagement and uncontrolled expenditure have led to little fiduciary scrutiny or disciplined management of state hospitals.

NHI is nothing more than another economic extortion effort by the ANC. Motsoaledi’s ANC has shown no competence regarding state-owned enterprises, with the likes of Transnet, Eskom and SAA just a few examples of delinquent management and well-documented corrupt histories.

Fleecing the taxpayer is not the way forward when the SA economy is on life support.

Eckehardt Ficinus
Dunkeld

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