On August 28, Cometh Dube-Makholwa wrote a letter on the NHI Bill and the petition started by the chairperson of the South African Medical Association (SAMA), Dr Mvuyisi Mzukwa, calling on the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) not to pass the Bill in its current form.
In his letter, Dube-Makholwa made the following pertinent opening statement: “I am getting confused about the significance of petitions.”
As Change.org SA’s senior campaigner, and in particular, the lead campaigner supporting the NHI Bill petition, I worked closely with Mzukwa and Sama, to publish the petition and launch the campaign around it – to raise awareness around the potential effects on ordinary South Africans.
However, the petition was not created for signatures alone, but rather to be submitted to the NCOP – on July 21 2023, with just more than 53,000 signatures. As the final house of parliament to vote on the Bill, before it is signed into law by the president, Sama requested that the NCOP chairperson “read out [the submission], and present the accompanying petition, to the members of the National Council of Provinces prior to voting on the Bill.”
On August 7, the NCOP announced that instead of voting on the Bill, it was opening it up for further public comment with a deadline of September 15.
To say that this move by the NCOP is unusual is an understatement. The NHI Bill was introduced to parliament in 2019 and underwent an extensive public participation from 2021 to 2022. Ordinarily, after taking public comment into consideration, a bill is amended, after which the National Assembly votes on whether to pass it – which it did in June.
Public participation is still open , and comments can be placed on a Google Form that can placed by googling "NHI Bill Submissions to NCOP".
Lee-Anne Germanos
Change.org South Africa
READER LETTER | NHI Bill public comments still open
Image: 123RF/HXDBZXY
On August 28, Cometh Dube-Makholwa wrote a letter on the NHI Bill and the petition started by the chairperson of the South African Medical Association (SAMA), Dr Mvuyisi Mzukwa, calling on the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) not to pass the Bill in its current form.
In his letter, Dube-Makholwa made the following pertinent opening statement: “I am getting confused about the significance of petitions.”
As Change.org SA’s senior campaigner, and in particular, the lead campaigner supporting the NHI Bill petition, I worked closely with Mzukwa and Sama, to publish the petition and launch the campaign around it – to raise awareness around the potential effects on ordinary South Africans.
However, the petition was not created for signatures alone, but rather to be submitted to the NCOP – on July 21 2023, with just more than 53,000 signatures. As the final house of parliament to vote on the Bill, before it is signed into law by the president, Sama requested that the NCOP chairperson “read out [the submission], and present the accompanying petition, to the members of the National Council of Provinces prior to voting on the Bill.”
On August 7, the NCOP announced that instead of voting on the Bill, it was opening it up for further public comment with a deadline of September 15.
To say that this move by the NCOP is unusual is an understatement. The NHI Bill was introduced to parliament in 2019 and underwent an extensive public participation from 2021 to 2022. Ordinarily, after taking public comment into consideration, a bill is amended, after which the National Assembly votes on whether to pass it – which it did in June.
Public participation is still open , and comments can be placed on a Google Form that can placed by googling "NHI Bill Submissions to NCOP".
Lee-Anne Germanos
Change.org South Africa
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