Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen promised on Tuesday that if President Cyril Ramaphosa rams through the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill, the DA will immediately take him to court to protect the country’s health system against what the DA calls the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) gutting of the country’s health system.

Steenhuisen was outlining the DA’s blueprint to “rescue South Africa” after the 2024 general elections, when he said a new government would immediately prepare to introduce a new Budget to reflect its new priorities.

He said the DA would bury the ANC’s “job-killing policies”, including land expropriation without compensation, the nationalisation of mines, farms, industry and the Reserve Bank, as well as the “madness” of the NHI.

Steenhuisen said the DA fully supported the call by business leaders for Ramaphosa not to sign what is widely being called an “unconstitutional” NHI Bill, and to instead refer it back to Parliament. He applauded Business Unity South Africa and Business for SA for taking what he described as a principled stand against the NHI, after they also urged the President to refer the Bill back to Parliament.

The NHI Bill was passed by the National Council of Provinces in late 2023, and sent to Ramaphosa to be signed into law. Government has stood firm in its support for the Bill, brushing off warnings that it undermines universal healthcare instead of advancing its progress.

However, the Bill has been sharply criticised by doctors, health facility providers, and health insurance companies.

Steenhuisen noted that the process that led to the Bill ignored public input and said the Bill itself was riddled with unconstitutional clauses.

On December 14, the DA wrote to Ramaphosa imploring him to refer the NHI Bill back to Parliament, making the point that given the flaws in the Bill, it was, in fact, his constitutional duty to refer it back.

Last month, the DA received a response from Ramaphosa’s Parliamentary Counsellor Gerhard Koornhof. Steenhuisen noted that without even so much as addressing the substance of the party’s request, Koornhof simply said:

“You are kindly reminded that the DA participated in the Parliamentary process related to this Bill. The Bill was thereafter approved by both Houses, in a Parliamentary process in which the DA participated.”

Steenhuisen criticised Ramaphosa for seeing fit to send such a “politically-motivated response”, which in no way dealt with the issue of the unconstitutionality of the Bill. He said this demonstrated that the ANC was putting the country’s health sector at risk purely for political reasons.

“Ramaphosa’s apparent determination to ram this Bill through apparently to stick it to the DA, would be a violation of his constitutional duty to this country. We, therefore, also welcome the announcement by business leaders that they are considering legal action against Ramaphosa if he persists along this route,” he said.

ECONOMIC GROWTH AND JOB CREATION

Meanwhile, Steenhuisen highlighted that if it came into power, the DA’s “jobs-friendly” Budget would redirect priorities from destructive policies, towards job creation.

He said for the first time in three decades, entrepreneurs, businesspeople, investors and hard-working South Africans would see a Budget that respected them.

“For too long, the ANC has viewed economic growth with suspicion, and the people who create jobs as the enemy. With the DA in government, investor sentiment will soar and our new Budget will kickstart economic growth and job creation,” he added.

The immediate stimulus of a jobs-friendly new Budget will be followed by the introduction of the DA’s Responsible Spending Bill and the Social Impact Bill. The former will introduce a debt rule that limits the amount of debt any government can add to the fiscus.

The race-based Black Economic Empowerment will be replaced with “means-tested” empowerment that will benefit the 30-million people who still live in poverty and who are struggling with a cost-of-living crisis.

At the same time, the DA recognises that the biggest threat facing those South Africans is the prospect of government money running out, leaving social grants unfunded.

Steenhuisen said decades of ANC “corruption, looting and economic mismanagement” had come to pose an existential threat to social grants.

“Only a government anchored by the DA and built upon our track record of job creation and prudent financial management can protect the sustainability of social grants well into the future. A Parliament that works for the people. A private electricity market to end loadshedding. A capable State free from cadre deployment and corruption. An independent crime-busting entity and stronger local policing. A budget that creates jobs and protects social grants,” he explained.