Health care is a right

OUR Constitution — the supreme law of our country — enshrines in its Bill of Rights the principles that allow us to live and flourish within our borders.

- DR IMRAN KEEKA, MPL

These rights include access to health care, particularly emergency medical care. Then there is the right to access maternal health and contraception, also explicitly protected in South Africa’s constitutional and legislative framework, and rooted in our country’s broader human rights commitments. This includes commitments we have made to the latter in terms of our international obligations.

While we recognise the crisis within our healthcare system, the blame for its failings lies squarely with government.