Johannesburg - The ANC and DA have a good understanding of health issues, the Treatment Action Campaign said on Thursday.
“A number of parties standing in the elections seem to have a very poor understanding of the complexities of delivering healthcare in a country like South Africa,” the TAC said in its analysis of political party responses to the people's health manifesto.
“Furthermore, the poorly formulated responses submitted by many parties show a disregard for the issues from our communities that we put to these parties.”
TAC said it sent out its people's health manifesto with 11 questions to 20 political parties last month.
Ten parties responded. They were: the ANC, DA, African Christian Democratic Party, Agang SA, Azanian People's Organisation, Freedom Front Plus, Inkatha Freedom Party, Pan Africanist Movement, Patriotic Alliance and the United Democratic Movement.
The African National Congress and the Democratic Alliance submitted the best responses, the TAC said.
It said it was disappointed that parties such as the Congress of the People and Economic Freedom Fighters did not respond.
“While we are most concerned by the failure of some parties to respond, the poor quality of some of the responses that we did receive is also worrying.
“We are disappointed that a number of parties engaged only superficially with our 11 questions,” the TAC said.
Agang SA had made a good point about needing more qualified and capable people in the health system, but it failed to show any understanding of the system beyond this one issue.
TAC said UDM did the worst and failed to respond directly to the questions and only sent general comments.
“Parties that have shown they do not understand or appreciate the importance of health services also display a contempt of the Constitution.
“Rather than uninformed rhetoric, we much prefer the ACDP's approach of simply admitting to it when they are not on top of the issue,” the TAC said.
Sapa