Parliament has pushed back against claims that the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) failed to properly consider public input from Gauteng during the legislative process for the National Health Insurance (NHI).
This defence follows legal challenges from the Western Cape Government and the Board of Healthcare Funders (BHF), who are questioning the validity of the NHI Act.
The Western Cape Government has petitioned the court to refer the Act back to Parliament, specifically to redo public hearings for the Western Cape and Gauteng provinces.
Meanwhile, the BHF is seeking to have the Act declared unconstitutional and invalid.
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Both parties argue that there was no meaningful public participation during the legislative process.
However, Parliament’s attorney, Advocate Ngwako Maenetje, maintains that public participation was facilitated through the provincial legislatures.
He further noted that there were no objections raised by the Democratic Alliance’s representative from Gauteng regarding the province’s submission to the NCOP.
“You can rest assured Mr Bara was not going to sleep in those meetings; he would have raised it and you would have seen it in the minutes in the reports of the meetings on the 31 October, 02 November, 9 November and 14 November,” Maenetje stated. “He doesn’t say, ‘but people in Gauteng said ten things no one is talking about’—he didn’t say that.”
Dimakatso Leshoro
www.ewn.co.za
