Civil rights organisation AfriForum and the public participation platform DearSA raised concerns about governments’ handling of the public participation process regarding commentary on the newly proposed amendments to the Health Act.

South Africans were given until 24 April to make their inputs on the proposed changes to the health regulations.

“These proposed regulations are extremely invasive and will allow the Department of Health (DoH) to force people into quarantine camps against their will and also force them to receive certain medical treatments, among other things. The fact that the department now seems to be bungling the public participation process, is of grave concern,” said AfriForum campaigns manager Jacques Broodryk.

It has been reported that the DoH has received 15 000 public comments. 

AfriForum and DearSA are disputing this since the two organisations have received more than 310 000 comments through their official participation platforms and all of these comments were sent directly to the DoH.

DearSA CEO Gideon Joubert explained that the two organisations were still processing the final results of about 283 000 comments, but preliminary indications show that over 95% of comments outright reject the proposed Health Act regulations.

Joubert added that 3% did not fully support the proposed, while around 2% supported it.

“It is clear that these proposed amendments do not enjoy public support, but rather public opposition. Equally we are concerned about the manner in which government has approached and managed the public participation process,” he said.