Abandon illegal race rules for medical sector, SAHPRA hears
16 July 2025
Solidarity admonished and warned the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) that it will take legal action if this authority does not abandon the strict intended racial requirements in its proposed policy documents on black economic empowerment (BEE).
If this policy were to be applied, Solidarity argues, it would be both illegal and irrational as well as harmful to the entire industry in the country and to South Africans as a whole.
According to Peirru Marx, network coordinator of Solidarity's medical networks, SAHPRA's BEE policy runs counter to everything that can be considered international best business practice.
“With this, SAHPRA completely folds under political pressure. Instead of merely ensuring medical products meet regulatory requirements, SAHPRA instead bows to race laws. Actually, one could say that SAHPRA would prefer to see the country dead rather than white.
“Based on this, SAHPRA is prepared to deprive people of medication for the sake of black empowerment. It is not in the interest of the communities it must serve to establish requirements that smaller businesses in the industry cannot meet. Foreign firms are also excluded by this,” Marx said.
Marx added that all over the world, pharmaceutical companies are called upon to be regulated in precisely such a way that they can bring medication to the market faster and cheaper.
By implementing this policy, companies’ access to the market is hindered by even more barriers that prevent them from being able to deliver essential medicines to people.
“Similar policies that focus on race have already caused major damage, for example in the communications sector. However, this situation has way more serious consequences than mere expensive mobile data or poor internet.
“People may even die due to the shortage of certain medical products, while treatment would otherwise have been available without such a discriminatory policy,” Marx added.
While the health sector in South Africa is already facing weakening private investment due to irrational ideas with the National Health Insurance (NHI), Solidarity believes that racial policies such as this will result in further pressure.
SAHPRA is requested to provide notification within ten days that it will abandon this policy.
See Solidarity’s letter to SAHPRA attached.
Issued by Peirru Marx, Network Coordinator: Medical Sector, 16 July 2024
