Defend the NHI Act, defend human dignity, and take forward the human rights enshrined in the constitution

[SACP Communications]

South African Communist Party

Defend the NHI Act, defend human dignity, and take forward the human rights enshrined in the constitution

Tuesday, 5 May 2026: The South African Communist Party (SACP) notes the Constitutional Court hearing on the National Health Insurance (NHI) Act starting today.

A coalition of reactionary forces has collaborated to initiate these proceedings with the sole purpose of opposing and preventing the implementation of the NHI Act. This collaboration includes right-wing organisations such as the DA-led government of the Western Cape, AfriForum, a conglomerate of private health providers – including private hospitals – medical aid scheme organisations led by the Board of Private Healthcare Funders, and other anti-public healthcare forces. They have taken the government to court to declare the NHI unconstitutional, utilising unfounded allegations based on alleged procedural flaws and other false statements. The same forces have planned legal attacks on the NHI Act in the high court, which remain in abeyance until the completion of the Constitutional Court process.

The SACP condemns the attacks against the NHI Act. We condemn the subjugation of our people to oppressive healthcare policy. We call for the immediate implementation of the NHI Act.

For more than 30 years, workers and poor communities have waited in long queues, overcrowded clinics and underfunded hospitals. Now those defending the unequal healthcare system want the poor to wait even longer. Their principal aim is to undermine and suppress the expansion of public healthcare provision under the auspices of the NHI and instead subject our people to the exploitation of private healthcare networks, which guarantees the elite unending profits at the expense of the people.

The elimination of the NHI would result in a thoroughgoing and permanent dismantling of quality public healthcare services and the ‘Americanisation’ of our health system, where the concept of a hospital would be synonymous with lifelong indebtedness. Healthcare is not a privilege of the few but a right for all, regardless of socioeconomic status. To defend the NHI is to defend human dignity and to take forward the human rights enshrined in the constitution. To utilise the Constitutional Court and the legal system, in general, and to impede the government’s capacity to implement a legitimately enacted law that aims to fulfil the right to healthcare is the ultimate definition of a political oxymoron.

The future of healthcare in South Africa, as envisioned by the NHI, is universal healthcare built on public health principles. The opposition launched against the NHI policy will receive stern resistance from the Communist Party.

The Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS) increase of 9.5 per cent is not just a medical aid matter but, objectively, a wage cut for workers who must sacrifice their immediate needs to meet medical needs. At the same time, the government issues about R38 billion annually in medical aid tax subsidies for private healthcare. We call for the redirecting of that R38 billion subsidy to fund the NHI. We call for the immediate activation of the NHI fund and its integration into the national budget in line with the spirit of the NHI Act. These actions will initiate our march towards eliminating the two-tier health system.