Athol Williams’ Deep Collusion was a recent read. The book outlines the role of the international consultancy Bain & Company in the “capture” of state entities such as Telkom and the South African Revenue Services (SARS) during the Zuma presidency years. Of particular interest to me was the author’s conceptualisation of the process of state capture. He compares the differences between corruption and state capture. The different degrees and influence and control (decision making) that “illegitimate and unelected parties” have over the functions of the state determines the differences. In what he categorises as a “just democratic state” there is no influence or control by illegitimate parties over state resources. With…
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National Health Insurance … what is government saying?
I have written on several occasions about the proposed National Health Insurance Bill (NHI) that is currently before the South African parliament. I have proposed a rational debate and have raised my concerns about what is proposed in the draft legislation. I was thus interested in an interview with Dr Nicholas Crisp, the deputy director-general tasked with National Health Insurance in the National Department of Health published in the Sunday Times on 3rd April 2023. Dr Crisp, who is one of the most senior officials in the National Department of Health, was posed a series of questions by Chris Barron and his responses, if he was correctly quoted, I found…