Health Portfolio Committee meeting about NHI Bill – FF Plus and other opposition parties walk out

FF Plus

Health Portfolio Committee meeting about NHI Bill - FF Plus and other opposition parties walk out
Health Portfolio Committee meeting about NHI Bill - FF Plus and other opposition parties walk out

The FF Plus and other opposition parties walked out of a meeting of the parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health this morning to demonstrate its dissatisfaction concerning the proposed National Health Insurance (NHI).

The dissatisfaction stems from the fact that political parties in the Committee are not being afforded enough time to obtain their own respective legal counsel on the NHI Bill.

The legal opinions obtained from Parliament and the state’s legal advisors were tabled in the Committee last Wednesday and had serious discrepancies.

The FF Plus requested the Committee chairperson, Dr Kenneth Jacobs, last week in writing to postpone the 22March 2023 meeting to allow parties enough time to obtain their own legal advice.

Parliamentary and state advisors had two months to compile their legal opinions.

Dr Jacobs responded to the FF Plus’s letter last Thursday by saying that in his opinion a week, which includes a long weekend, is sufficient time to obtain legal advice.

During this morning’s meeting, the acting Committee chairperson, Mr Elvis Kholwana Siwela, raised the issue again.

The FF Plus requested that the meeting must be postponed to 29 March 2023 to allow it to obtain a thorough legal opinion. The ANC, however, once again used its majority to deny the request.

The other parties that share the FF Plus’s view concur that the situation is unacceptable. Thus, the party walked out of the meeting with the DA hot on its heels.

The FF Plus will not allow a bill to be steamrollered through or the ANC to exploit the democratic process to do so.

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Read the original article in Afrikaans by Philip van Staden on FF Plus