Our collapsing public service makes NHI impossible
11 October 2019
The Democratic Alliance (DA) can today reveal that the collapse of the South African public service’s ability to execute its most basic functions is accelerating. Two months ago, the DA reported that national and provincial governments owed businesses a combined R7.1 billion in unpaid invoices older than 30 days at the end of March 2019. Today we can reveal that, in the span of only three months between April and June 2019, provincial governments have racked up an additional R4.3 billion in debt that it failed to pay to the hardworking businesspeople and workers of South Africa.
The only exception to this outright state of collapse is the DA-run Western Cape, which accounts for only 0.01% of outstanding debt. Because the DA views a flourishing private sector as the key to unlocking growth and prosperity, we make sure that we pay our suppliers on time. In contrast, it appears that the ANC is hellbent on collapsing the private sector, with ANC-led provinces like Gauteng and the Eastern Cape refusing to pay the close to R1.5 billion and R1.8 billion debt they each racked up in just three months – that is on top of the billions they still owed at the end of the last financial year.
In light of the ANC’s plan to eliminate private healthcare in favour of National Health Insurance (NHI), perhaps the most alarming fact of all is that in 7 out of the 8 collapsing ANC-led provinces, the department of health is the worst offender. On 30 March 2019, provincial health departments owed R5.8 billion in unpaid invoices older than 30 days. Just three months later, they had racked up additional unpaid debt of R3.7 billion.
This constitutes clear evidence that the public service is nowhere near equipped to run the R256 billion NHI fund. The government cannot even ensure that the current public health sector pays providers and other contractors on time, yet they expect South Africans to put their lives in the hands of the same incompetent and corrupt cadres who cannot even process invoices.
In light of this new information, the DA reiterates our call on the ANC to scrap its plans for nationalizing healthcare and creating a giant “Eskom for healthcare” through the NHI, and instead adopting the DA’s Sizani Plan for Universal Healthcare. Our plan provides universal coverage that is free at the point of care without putting people’s lives in the hands of cadres. Instead of its NHI fantasies, the government should focus on getting the basics right by building a capable state that creates opportunities for citizens to prosper. We can only achieve this by eradicating cadre deployment, basing appointments on merit and skill, and giving the Public Service Commission much greater power to act against the officials suffocating the life out of our economy.
Issued by Leon Schreiber, DA Shadow Minister for Public Service and Administration, 11 October 2019
