The South African Institute of Race Relations (IRR) has petitioned President Cyril Ramaphosa not to sign the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill of 2019 into law, but rather to refer it back to the National Assembly for reconsideration.
It says under Section 79 of the Constitution, President Ramaphosa cannot give his assent to a bill if he ‘has reservations about its constitutionality’.
Instead, said IRR head of policy research, Anthea Jeffery, he must send it back to the National Assembly “so that its defects can be cured”.
The much-contested NHI Bill was adopted by the National Assembly in June this year and by the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on 6 December 2023.
Government maintains that the objective of the NHI Bill is to provide universal access to quality health care for all South Africans as enshrined in the Constitution
Jeffery said however, that both houses of Parliament “failed to facilitate public involvement in the legislative process on the Bill, as the Constitution requires”.
She said the Constitutional Court had struck down several statutes for a lack of proper public consultation.
“In doing so, it has clearly explained the consultation standards that Parliament is expected to meet,” Jeffery said in a statement.
“The Court has repeatedly stressed, for example, that legislative timetables cannot be allowed to trump the constitutional right to proper public consultation. But President Cyril Ramaphosa vowed in September 2023 that the NHI Bill would be adopted by the end of November – and the NCOP seemed determined to meet his deadline.”
Jeffery said both the National Assembly and the NCOP have breached their “constitutional obligations to facilitate public involvement in the legislative process on the NHI Bill”.
“For this reason alone, Mr Ramaphosa cannot lawfully give his assent to the Bill,” she said.
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