Deputy Chair, supporting this budget will be like accepting the status quo of the failing health care by the ANC-led government. The department is going to disburse R47 billion to provinces. However, there are no stringent measures of monitoring and accountability in place. A case in point: Mpumalanga, KwaZulu- Natal and the Northern Cape have received qualified audits from the Auditor-General of South Africa for five years in a row, since 2014,
with no consequences. To support this budget, it will be giving the ANC another cash cow through the National Health Insurance, NHI, like the other state-owned enterprises. This will do nothing in improving the current health care, both private and public. As the DA, we stand firm on universal health care.
IsiXhosa:
Sifuna ezempilo ezibeka abagulayo phambili kwento yonke eyenzekayo.
English:
That will be affordable within the current budget. That will not lend in self-to-mass corruption. That will place the patient at the centre of its conception. The DA's Sizani Health Care is the answer to South Africa's failing health care system. We support quality universal health care for all South Africans, but we don't need to follow the NHI model that will ultimately nationalise health care, lead to a brain drain and cripple the economy. That is why we will not support the NHI in its current form. We would further implore the Minister of Health to publicise the outcomes of the NHI Pilot projects which we believe were a dismal failure across the country.
Fix the management of public health facilities and address the shortage of doctors and other health care professionals. Shortage of
medication must be addressed and ill treatment of patients in health facilities be addressed with immediate effect. As the DA, we do not support this budget. It is not in the interest of ordinary South Africans. Thank you, Chair.