Western Cape challenges NHI public participation process

A stethoscope seen on a hospital bed.

The Western Cape government has told the Constitutional Court that the provincial public participation process on the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme fell short of legal requirements.

The apex court is sitting for another day in Johannesburg to hear oral submissions in the legal challenge against the legislative process behind the NHI Act.

Counsel for the provincial government, Advocate Geoff Budlender says that in two of the nine provinces, the process failed fundamentally.

Budlender submitted that there is no evidence of the relevant public participation in Gauteng, therefore depriving citizens of the opportunity to influence the process.

He also took issue with the National Council of Provinces’ refusal to grant an extension for the Western Cape government’s submissions.

“It’s simply not enough, we submit, for a bill of this scope, a bill of this complexity, and a bill which affects the right of everyone in South Africa for the public participation process in the NCOP to be as cursory as this was. No consideration of the submissions, never any consideration of amendments, no debate.”