Steenhuisen: Don’t fall for NHI gimmicks

Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen made an impassioned plea to thousands of supporters on Sunday not to be fooled by the ANC’s National Health Insurance (NHI) electioneering ploy to get more votes on Wednesday.

Addressing scores of supporters at Willowmore Stadium in Benoni on Sunday, Steenhuisen said the approval of the NHI bill during the election season is an assault on the aspirations of the South African people by the ANC, which is playing political games with the lives and health of citizens.

“This scheme will not solve the ANC corruption and mismanagement that has destroyed public healthcare. Instead, it will expropriate medical aid from the millions of South Africans who – despite the misrule of the ANC – have worked hard to make it into the middle class since 1994”, he said.

The NHI bill’s objective is to provide universal, quality healthcare for all South Africans.

President Cyril Ramaphosa came under fire last week from businesses and civil society groups after he signed the NHI bill into law. The bill was criticised as being “unworkable, unaffordable”, and not in line with the Constitution in its current form.

Steenhuisen said the bill was a populist stunt which would not benefit the country. “We are asking you to make a clear choice for unity and progress and to reject the social and political forces that are working hard to undermine the gains of freedom made over the last three decades.”

The DA, which won the second-largest share of the vote in the last election, urged supporters to use their pens to close the ANC chapter, which it said was riddled with “unemployment, corruption and misrule”, and write a new one when they cast their vote on May 29.

“The DA did not appear out of nowhere to promise you the sun, the moon and sky. We don’t wait for elections to try and manipulate you with desperate stunts like the NHI,” he said.

The DA leader said if voters continue to vote for the ANC, the Economic Freedom Fighters or the Patriotic Alliance then NHI will be implemented, property will be expropriated without compensation, corruption will engulf us, and the economy will collapse.

“It will be Doomsday for South Africa,” he said.

He added that the government would improve community safety as it has done in Cape Town through initiatives like the R1.2 billion LEAP programme that he claims has already taken over 27 000 criminals off the streets in the Western Cape.

“Today, DA governments already run the best public schools, hospitals and clinics you will find anywhere in this country, DA governments are busy enhancing the dignity of our poorest citizens by delivering excellent public education and healthcare, while DA-led Cape Town is investing more in poor communities than ANC-led Johannesburg and eThekwini combined,” he said.

Around 27 million registered voters are expected to cast their votes for a new government in an election which will see the inclusion of independent candidates vying for political power for the first time in the history of South Africa.  

Another first for the country will be the three ballot system which was partly necessitated by the introduction of independent candidates.

He added that the DA had united with their “like-minded” parties to form the Multi-Party Charter which had pooled together the biggest bloc of opposition votes since 1994. “Together, we can get to the 50%-plus-one we need to rescue South Africa”, Steenhuisen said.

Steenhuisen kicked off his second term as DA leader in April last year with a commitment to dislodge the ANC from power through the moonshot pact with the Inkatha Freedom Party and other parties. 

The project has gained traction and the support of eight smaller parties, but recent polls show that it may still fail to secure a majority in the face of the ANC’s clawing back public support going into the elections.

A new survey released this month by the think tank Social Research Foundation found that the ANC would receive numbers in the range of 45%, the DA 23% and the IFP 5% which would mean the ruling party would not be unseated and a coalition for all the parties will be needed.

The DA and the IFP are understood to have been quietly talking to the ANC — some of whose leaders are also speaking of the possibility of a national dialogue or a government of national unity — while remaining publicly committed to the moonshot pact. The moonshot pact is the plan by the DA and other smaller parties to unseat the ANC as the ruling party also known as the Mulit-Party Charter.

Steenhuisen said the Multi-Party Charter would rid the country of corruption by leading departments with zero tolerance for corruption.