President Cyril Ramaphosa has filed an application for leave to appeal a recent high court ruling that his decision to sign the National Health Insurance NHI Bill into law is reviewable by the judiciary.
In a ruling on 6 May, Pretoria high court Judge Twala J also ordered Ramaphosa to provide reasons for his decision within 10 days.
The Judge ruled in favour of the Board of Health Funders BHF and the South African Private Practitioners Forum SAPPF , which challenged the rationality, process and legality of the Bills assent.
Court erred in NHI ruling: RamaphosaRamaphosa seeks to appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal SCA or a full court of the high court. He also intends to file an application for leave to appeal directly to the Constitutional Court by 27 May 2025.
In the event that the Constitutional Court decides to grant his application, he would withdraw his SCA or high court appeal, he states in his application.
Ramaphosa persists with his argument that the high court lacked jurisdiction on the matter because it was politically sensitive which meant the Constitutional Court enjoyed exclusive jurisdiction.
The Court also erred in failing to take into account the breadth of the discretion enjoyed by the President, he adds.
In doing so, and in further seeking to determine how to exercise his constitutional obligation, the Court committed the separation of powers harm warned of by the Constitutional Court.
The President acknowledges that the ambit of his discretion can be defined, but argues that, in view of the delicate delineation of separation of powers that this inevitably involves, only the Constitutional Court may do so.
He faults the high courts finding that his discretion in assenting to Bills is reviewable on the widest grounds including ulterior purpose confined in our law to administrative action and whether the exercise was proper which is not a recognised ground of review.