Health minister Aaron Motsoaledi has walked back his comments which appeared to question the impartiality of the Constitutional Court. In a statement on Friday, the health department said the minister’s remarks should not be construed as second-guessing the judiciary’s ability to remain impartial when adjudicating challenges to the constitutionality of the National Health Insurance. “The minister wishes to state categorically that he has full confidence and trusts in the fairness and integrity of the judiciary and its commitment to upholding the rights enshrined in the constitution and the rule of law.”The minister’s remarks, made during a speech to mark International Nurses Day on Tuesday, had been intended to highlight that “judges, parliamentarians like himself and many other prominent and well-to-do South Africans” were beneficiaries of South Africa’s unequal, two-tiered health system. His speech was posted on Facebook by the Eastern Cape health department. “If by talking about disparities the minister is understood to have been attacking the judges, the minister would like to unreservedly apologise and withdraw whatever statements may have been offensive. The minister wishes to reiterate that he will not only accept but fully respect any verdict from the judges of our Constitutional Court,” said the department. In his address, the minister said the Constitutional Court judges presiding over challenges to the NHI Act were beneficiaries of the very system NHI sought to change. “I was looking at those judges, looking at them in their eyes,” said Motsoaledi. ”There is a medical aid called Parmed, and now I’m asking judges who have got this benefit … please make a judgment over it. That’s the trouble I am having,” he said. Parmed is a medical scheme available to judges, MPs and members of provincial legislatures. The minister attended the Constitutional Court hearing on two separate challenges to the NHI Act brought by the Board of Healthcare Funders and the Western Cape provincial government. The minister’s comments were condemned by the advocacy group Judges Matter, and prompted the DA’s spokesperson on justice and constitutional development Glynnis Breytenbach to ask President Cyril Ramaphosa to look into the matter. Breytenbach submitted a question in parliament to the president, asking if he considered the minister to have breached the ethics code, and if so, if he would refer the matter to the public protector for further investigation.