The Freedom Front Plus says it has persuaded the National Assembly’s Portfolio Committee on Health to grant opposition parties more time to obtain their own legal opinions on the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill.
On 22 March, opposition MPs walked out of the committee in protest after the chairperson declined their request to postpone deliberations on the bill so they could have more time to consider the legal advice they received the previous week.
MPs received divergent views on the bill from deputy chief state law adviser Ayesha Johaar, who said the bill met constitutional muster, and parliamentary legal adviser Sueanne Isaac, who said the bill was open to constitutional challenge on several fronts.
Read: NHI: MPs hear conflicting legal opinions on limiting the role of medical schemes
After the opposition MPs walked out, ANC MPs presented their party’s position on the input received from the two law advisers. They agreed with the state law adviser’s opinion, saying the bill was rational and in line with the Constitution.
FF+ MP Philip van Staden, the party’s chief spokesperson on health, said the FF Plus’s legal team delivered a letter to Parliament over the weekend, putting Parliament on terms regarding the matter and insisting that, among other things, parties must be given enough time to obtain legal opinions.
The FF+ argued that the parliamentary and state advisers had two months to compile their legal opinions, while opposition parties were given only two days, he said in a statement issued on 29 March.
The letter from the party’s legal representatives was tabled during a meeting of the portfolio committee on 29 March, Van Staden said. The FF+ pointed out that its legal representatives had not received a response to their letter.
In its letter, the FF+ had requested an extension until 19 April. The committee postponed the meeting to 5 April.
The committee is in the final stages of its work on the NHI Bill. Once the committee has finalised its amendments to the bill, it will be submitted to the National Assembly for approval. If passed, the bill will be sent to the National Council of Provinces for concurrence.
