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I think Malema's statement that people are more willing to take out medical aid for their pets than for their employees is grossly exaggerated. Most middle class and poorer communities certainly do not have the money to take out medical aid for pets. I came to hear about medical aid for animals only relatively recently, and we have always had friends and neighbours with pets..... and have always had dogs and cats ourselves. Medical aid was never heard of.
On the other hand, both Malema and your staff member who drew up the questionnaire which we are invited to fill out have forgotten one very important option: namely, that many of us pay for our employees' medical expenses as they arise. Yes, we would not be able to pay for operations, etc., but that is where the government hospitals need to take over. I have both a domestic servant and a handyman/gardener, and I have paid for every visit to the doctor, every medication and treatments by the physiotherapist. I provide food, shelter, transport, etc. They live on my property and are cared for until they retire one day.
I have friends who bought their domestic servant's son a Wendy house to live in, put her children through school up to Grade 12 (even after she had died), helped the next domestic servant's daughter study for her Matric exams and then put her through a one-year course at a university of technology. Others have paid the deposit for their domestic servant's house and stood surety for her until she had paid it off.
Let Malema put that into his pipe and smoke it.
