DA hands over 87 000 submissions on NHI Bill to Parliament

Cape Town - The DA on Tuesday brought to Parliament 87 000 written submissions it collected on its website on the National Health Insurance bill.

Briefing the media on the steps of the National Assembly, DA MP Siviwe Gwarube said they understood the limitation of public participation and the parliamentary processes.

She said her party had run a petition on their website where South Africans could make submissions.

"We have collected 87 000 from ordinary South Africans raising concerns about this bill and how it will impact on their lives. What we have done today is we put together representation of what 87 400 submissions look like in boxes," Gwarube said.

"We will not be printing these out. We'll be making an electronic submission to Parliament in an effort to save the planet," she said.

Gwarube said the submissions should be taken seriously by Parliament in addition to the more than 100 000 already received.

"One of the fights we are going to have and we are to mount in Parliament is each an every one single submission including those sent directly to Parliament need to be scrutinised by Parliament and by the committee itself," she said, adding that there should be no outsourcing of the sorting of the submissions to third parties.

"We as public representatives need to go through these submissions ourselves and we need to ensure that the views of South Africans are taken into consideration in passing this bill."

Political Bureau