Political Leadership in South Africa: (A) National Health Insurance (B) HIV/AIDS

Abstract

In 2009, when Jacob Zuma was elected President of South, he selected Aaron Motsoaledi as Minister of Health. Motsoaledi was a medical doctor and former provincial education minister. While Motsoaledi faced many new challenges in his position, two stood out: scaling up the national HIV/AIDS response and developing and implementing a national health insurance (NHI) scheme to improve the equity, efficiency, and quality of health care. Motsoaledi has been commended for South Africa’s success in transforming its national HIV response. Under his leadership, the country made major strides in increasing access to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment and HIV prevention programming. The development and implementation of the NHI has struggled to gain momentum, however, with long delays in sharing proposed policies and unifying diverse stakeholders. The two papers explore the question of political leadership in South Africa under Aaron Motsoaledi by examining the cases of HIV/AIDS policy and NHI development. The cases teach students about the importance of strategic communication, consensus building, and stakeholder engagement when developing health policies that involve many parties and have dramatic impacts on the health system at large. The case gives students insight into the complexities involved in passing large-scale health reform and the decisions Minister Motsoaledi and his staff made in bringing forth NHI and HIV/AIDS national policies and programming.