Civil society organisation AfriForum will on Wednesday serve a summons on government to have the controversial National Health Insurance (NHI) Act declared unconstitutional.

The case is being served on President Cyril Ramaphosa, Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza and Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane.

In 2024 Ramaphosa signed into law the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill.

AfriForum have since been vocal, criticising the Act, saying the flawed draft regulations for the NHI Act have, once again confirmed that the South African government is incapable of launching or managing such a complex system.

“Due to the numerous court cases brought against NHI and the state’s enormous budget deficit, it was questioned whether the Minister of Health should have proceeded to publish draft regulations. Now, the published draft regulations lack any clarity about what South Africans can expect from the system,” explained AfriForum Campaign Officer for Health Louis Boshoff.

Boshoff has since said some of the regulations are so “poorly” written that they contain even less detail than the original explanatory articles of the NHI Act.

“Other regulations and sub-regulations are simply confusing or so vague that various interpretations can result from them,” he said.

The organisation had in 2024 launched a class action lawsuit against the government, Ramaphosa, Parliament and the Minister of Health, for what it said was the damage that South Africans would suffer under the NHI policy.

Boshoff pointed out that AfriForum’s legal action against the NHI Act would be launched during a media conference at Kempton Park Hospital to highlight how often State-run healthcare in South Africa fails.

AfriForum will explain, among other things, why it is essential that the destructive NHI Act be opposed.

It will also look at the political and economic implications of the NHI Act.

Meanwhile, last year the Health Funders Association launched a legal challenge against key aspects of the NHI Act, citing the Act as “unaffordable, unworkable and unconstitutional”.

The association noted that while it supported the goal of universal health coverage, it believed that, in its current form and without private-sector collaboration, the NHI Act was “fiscally impossible and operationally unworkable and threatened the stability of the economy and health system impacting everyone in South Africa”.