NHI set to be shelved for now

If winners never quit and quitters never win, then which bright spark came up with 'quit while you're ahead'? The president has had a tough time getting ahead as he cut a sombre figure on Sunday acknowledging the depth of the crisis facing the country, promising to hold, you guessed it, another economic summit to assess the damage caused by the pandemic as well as to speed up structural reforms, many of which have long been in the pipeline. In his closing remarks to the ANC national executive lekgotla — a biannual meeting to discuss the governing party’s priorities — Ramaphosa said this was the most important lekgotla the ANC has held in recent times. But it was his comments on NHI, the ANC government's marquee policy that really caught Michael Avery’s attention:
"While the pandemic has underscored the need for the National Healthcare Insurance (NHI), we must look at what impact it has had on our ability — whether from a capacity or fiscal position — to proceed with the implementation of the NHI," Johann Serfontein of Healthmann, discusses alternative universal health coverage models now that the penny has finally dropped that South Africa cannot afford NHI.