The NHI is a tempting pot of gold for looters

The ANC’s tried and tested means of dealing with the multitude of problems which beset our society are to issue a strongly worded press release … or to form a committee to discuss the problem.

It seems that President Cyril Ramaphosa’s newly launched Health Sector Anti-Corruption Forum is a sophisticated version of the latter approach to problem-solving.

The forum is intended to be “a mechanism” (another good government word, that) to ensure the upcoming National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme is not exposed to fraud and corruption.

Presumably, then, this is the place where whistleblowers will come to lodge their revelations of graft in the new medical service.

The problem, as we see it, is twofold.

First, corruption seems to be so ingrained in South Africa – in all sectors of society but noticeably more damaging in the public sector because that runs on taxpayers’ money – that it might never be eliminated.

Second, the NHI is going to be a massive, tempting pot of gold for the looters because the government wants to control all funds related to healthcare, including those from the private sector.

Preventing theft and corruption in such a vast and now much more complex system, is going to require more than press statements.

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