Health Dept: High court ruling has no bearing on NHI
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi will appeal a ruling by the High Court in Pretoria that declared sections 36 to 40 of the National Health Act unconstitutional.
In a statement on Friday, the minister criticised what he called misleading media reports suggesting the judgment impacts the National Health Insurance.
The ministry intends to challenge the court’s focus on economic property rights over healthcare rights.
Health Department spokesperson Foster Mohale said the court ruling, brought by trade union Solidarity, does not affect the NHI.
"We have been inundated with calls and enquiries from concerned people who were made to believe that, indeed, NHI has been declared unconstitutional by a court of law.
"It has become apparent to us that some organisations and individuals who are using the judgment to criticise NHI have not even read Act No. 61 of 2003 and hence are not in a position to understand what Wednesday’s judgement all is about. Nevertheless, they have even started celebrating their perceived demise of NHI.”
Mohale says the sections of the law that have been ruled unconstitutional are in the National Health Act of 2003.
"These provisions were drafted 20 years before the NHI Act," said Mohale.
"They have nothing to do with the National Health Insurance, which is being established by the NHI Act. It is pure mischief to assert a connection and is a part of the deliberate campaign to discredit the NHI.”
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