1 week ago
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A widely circulated video from late April shows Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi telling a campaign event that after the elections, if the ANC wins, anyone will be able to access the best private healthcare.
But is this true?
In the video, Lesufi can clearly be heard telling an enthusiastic audience that whether or not they have medical aid, they will be able to get treatment for free from experts in the private healthcare sector after 29 May 2024, in other words, voting day. He explains that this will be as a result of the National Health Insurance legislation.
After the video went viral, Lesufi released a statement claiming that the video was “manipulated” and that in the full version of his speech, he was urging President Cyril Ramaphosa to sign the NHI bill into law “for its benefits to be due”.
It is true that the video doing the rounds is just a one-and-a-half-minute clip.
There is, however, no reason to believe that it has been digitally manipulated.
We don’t have access to the full record of what Lesufi said in the rest of his address, so he may indeed at some stage have urged the President to promulgate the NHI legislation.
Read more in Daily Maverick: The NHI debate revisited — accurate information and understanding the potential impact are essential
It is very clear from the video, however, that he is promising voters that directly after election day this year they will be able to access private healthcare regardless of their financial situation if the ANC wins.
This is unambiguously untrue.
The Health Minister himself, Joe Phaahla, has clarified that the NHI benefits Lesufi was promising voters will only be available, “far down the line, probably in three years or more”.
Even that may be an optimistic estimate.
The bill has yet to be signed into law by President Ramaphosa. The DA has promised that they will challenge that law in court because they believe aspects of it are unconstitutional, and beyond this, there is widespread agreement that the ambitious promises of the NHI bill are currently unaffordable.
In summary: it is not true that if the ANC wins the vote, South Africans will be able to get the best healthcare for free after the elections.
That prospect, while desirable, is a very distant one indeed. DM
