08 April 2002
To mark the 9th anniversary of the murder of its late General Secretary, Chris Hani, the South African Communist Party (SACP) will launch the Chris Hani Health Trail on 10 April. All SACP members will participate in what we call Chris Hani Health trail.
This year’s commemoration is in line with the ANC Monthly Focus on Health and in recognition of the role Chris Hani played to launch the Health-Housing-Hunger Campaign in 1992. Through this campaign, Chris Hani was making a contribution to improving the health of all our people based on an efficient public health system. During this period, Chris Hani said “Socialism is not about big concepts… It is about safe drinking water… health care… a life of dignity”.
The SACP recognises that South Africa faces a massive public health crisis which is compounded by unemployment, poverty, high prices of essential medicines, inadequate resources for public healthcare and the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The majority of our people do not have access to good quality, good service, efficient and affordable public health care.
The SACP understands that the health of our people is also related to social and economic inequalities we inherited from our apartheid legacy - poor nutrition, unavailability of clean water and proper sanitation, unhygienic environmental conditions, unaffordability of drugs and medicines, inadequate or unavailable health services and infrastructure, low levels of education, the effect of rapid urbanisation and social breakdown within communities.
In addressing these the SACP is therefore launching the Chris Hani Health trail, in order to systematically and programmatically address this problems, this requires work amongst all the SACP structures, throughout the year. These would mean working with health structures, Unions, NGO’s and other organisations involved in the health sector. On the basis that two – third of our country’s health resources are in the hands of private medical aid schemes, at the expense of the public health system which is serving the majority of our people. For example, this private medical aid industry is serving less than (7) seven million, whom less 9% are Africans, which is in line with Apartheid’s pattern of access to resources.
As the SACP we believe that even the way in which “our” medical aid system is structured, it discriminates against the poor and the working people. For example the poor people are not benefiting from the services provided by these industry. Only the rich are the sole benefactors, people living with HIV/AIDS are not entittled to certain benefits of this industry, the elderly people are unfairly discriminated against. We believe that these schemes are part and parcel of the broader untransformed Financial Sector, and therefore the SACP calls for the transformation of the medical aid scheme so to make them benefit our people. In seeking to ensure that our people's heath needs are addressed we must bring this medical aid scheme to the reach of the majority of our population, like out of those served by the medical aid schemes 7 million people, only (9%) percent are Africans, which is a reflection of skewed distribution of resources in the hands of this profit – seeking medical aid schemes.
The SACP believes that health needs to be promoted in the home, community and the workplace with emphasis on: -
As part of developing a comprehensive social security health system, the SACP reiterates its call for the urgent consideration of a National Health Insurance scheme, to cater for the poor, the unemployed, the disabled, the elderly and the people living with HIV/AIDS. These are the kind of struggles Chris Hani led and would have been involved in today.
To commemorate Hani’s life and continue the struggle he led, the SACP also emphasises the centrality of the financial sector in achieving the above. The SACP has highlighted the fact that the financial sector holds massive financial resources, including the medical aid industry.
CONTACT
Mazibuko K. Jara (surname Jara)
Department Media, Information and Publicity – SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY
Tel : (011) 339 – 3621/2 Fax: (011) 339 – 4244/ 6880
Cell : 083 651 0271
e-mail – sacp1@wn.apc.org
Website : www.sacp.org.za