President Cyril Ramaphosa has assented to many pieces of new legislation in May, with the National Health Insurance Act and the act creating the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption among them.

The president has set his sights on what he calls a “Rolls-Royce quality NHI” scheme for SA. Attaining a uniformly high standard of healthcare will go a long way towards promoting the achievement of equality, which is one of the nation’s main goals. It will cost a great deal money.

The huge funding the NHI will need will make it a sitting duck for corrupt activities.

It is accordingly prudent that the NHI be protected against the ravages of kleptocrats, tenderpreneurs and its capture by the corrupt. An anti-corruption entity that is compliant with the criteria applicable in law and of Hummer quality is needed; one that is equipped to gold standards of efficiency and effectiveness to prevent, combat, investigate and prosecute serious corruption that can be anticipated in the NHI rollout.

The Investigating Directorate Against Corruption is not, and never will be, an anti-corruption entity of the quality required to serve the Rolls-Royce NHI properly. Raking back the loot of state capture is a means of securing funding for the NHI. The Investigating Directorate Against Corruption, like its predecessor the Investigating Directorate, is unlikely to crack this hill climb.

The president needs to take a close look at the DA’s proposed Chapter Nine anticorruption commission when it is debated in parliament in the coming months. It is up to Hummer standard. Idac, on the other hand, brings to mind the VW Golfs the vulnerable Scorpions used before the ANC summarily dissolved them in 2009, to open the way for state capture during the nine wasted Zuma years. The Investigating Directorate Against Corruption is equally vulnerable to the same fate, the Hummer is not.

A Hummer to protect a Rolls-Royce is required if the NHI is to be spared from looting.

Paul Hoffman SC
Accountability Now