Dear Dr Paahla I remember you frommy student days at the then University of Durban-Westville and under the student leadership of Y. Omar you were invited to deliver speeches to us in G5 (the famous lecture theatre). I remember how you used to conscientise us on the plight of the poor and how the apartheid government treated the masses by giving them the very basics to live but by and large made them suffer the indignity of being treated worse than animals. The carrying of the pass, the segregated public spaces and the control of all aspects of their lives.

As a doctor in training then it was one of your goals to make the lives of the oppressed better. Now that we are a democracy, do you really think the NHI is going to help our people or make it worse. We are miles, in facts years behind other western or 1st world countries that have NHI and their population does not have such a high unemployment rate like ours. More than half of our population are living far far below the bread line. It would make sense if we had a 100% NHI serving our population, but in our case our NHI will be more like 10%. It would be like this: a family of 4 will sustain itself on 1 loaf of bread, but a family of 15 will NEVER sustain itself on the same 1 loaf of bread. Will our cabinet ministers also be using NHI? I ask this because most of our ministers hop on a plane and travel to places like Russia and other overseas countries for their medical treatment, can the masses of our people do the same? After long and lots of head scratching I now know that the NHI is not going to help us create a better health system. On the contrary it will cause a lot of misery for everyone in our country. Please sir, my humble request, on behalf of ALL South Africans is: PLEASE SCRAP THE NHI BILL and save our country and let our people get quality medical treatment and ensure that all our well trained doctors remain and prevent a brain drain.