Note to editors: Please find attached soundbite by Michele Clarke MP.

The DA notes Momentum Health Solutions' warning that it would cost more than R1.3 trillion per year for the National Health Insurance (NHI) to provide each South African with the same quality of care as received under the private health system. The DA has always been in support of universal healthcare especially for the poorest of the poor however NHI in its current form won't solve this and can bring a collapse of the healthcare sector.

We once again ask President Cyril Ramaphosa and National Treasury to explain how the NHI will be funded. We also require detailed information on how the NHI Fund will be safeguarded against the institutionalised looting and corruption rife within the public health sector.

The DA has never and will never support the NHI. We believe that universal access to quality health care can only be provided when the root causes of decline are addressed - corruption, maladministration, dangerous infrastructure, broken equipment, medical stockouts, and insufficient personnel.

The DA has never wavered in our efforts to improve public health care by holding the executive to account. We have done multiple oversights in the provinces, requested investigations from the Human Rights Commission, the Special Investigating Unit, and the Public Protector, and pushed for intervention and consequence management. Instead of addressing the systemic failures that erode the public health system, the Department opted for a centralisation of power and funds, that will make looting much easier while also crushing an overburdened public health system.

All the pleas of the DA, health experts, medical professionals, and civil society have fallen on deaf ears.

We will continue to question and rally against the NHI. We will not waver to hold the Minister to account. And we will be keeping a very close eye on how the NHI is funded and implemented.