Cyril Ramaphosa shows the signed bill for National Health Insurance signed into law in Pretoria, South Africa on May 15.South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday signed a new law which aims to provide universal healthcare, two weeks before a general election and despite pushback from the opposition and business groups.
The president slammed the opposition which has been critical of the new law and insisted that South Africa was acting in line with a global commitment.South Africa inherited 14 health systems from the apartheid era.A merged system has limped along post-1994 to spark a parallel industry of private but pricey quality care, which the state argues is unfair and unsustainable.
The fund would redress the burdened public healthcare system and private sector’s unaffordability, the president said. The ANC is “willing to sacrifice the country’s entire healthcare system to remain in power for another term,” said the Freedom Front Plus , a small right-wing and predominantly white Afrikaner party.