Carrim defends passing of Insurance Bill

Parliament’s Finance Committee Chairperson, African National Congress MP Yunus Carrim has rejected the arguments by Democratic Alliance (DA) MP David Maynier that there was insufficient public participation on the Insurance Bill.

The DA did not support the bill, which was passed by the National Assembly on Tuesday.

The bill seeks to revamp the country’s insurance setup.

Carrim has defended the consultation process.

“Now on the matter of Public Hearings, we are the only committee in this Parliament that I know of that allows public hearings beyond what the rules provide for. You can come on the day we vote on a bill and you can have a say on a bill. So what is the problem without consultation? In fact this system primarily benefits the DA’s constituency, because who turns up to Parliament all the time? So on Public consultation, we are absolutely clear. Up until the day we voted on the bill, everybody and anybody were free to come,” says Carrim.