{"id":23947,"date":"2026-02-19T05:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T03:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/sas-afriforum-serves-summons-on-president-health-minister\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:34:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:34:41","slug":"sas-afriforum-serves-summons-on-president-health-minister","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sas-afriforum-serves-summons-on-president-health-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"SA&#8217;s Afriforum serves summons on President, Health Minister"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><span data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">The announcement was made on Wednesday at a media briefing held outside the derelict Kempton Park Hospital in Johannesburg, in the Gauteng province, a setting AfriForum described as a symbolic warning of what it believes could happen to the country\u2019s health sector if the NHI is implemented.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>AfriForum said the legal action marks the first formal court challenge against the NHI Act since it was signed into law. The organisation argues that the Act threatens taxpayers, violates constitutional rights and risks collapsing SA\u2019s already strained health system.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Louis Boshoff, AfriForum\u2019s health Spokesperson, said the country\u2019s political and economic climate cannot sustain a single\u2011payer NHI model that would require vast public funds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\u201cIn light of SA\u2019s current political and economic climate, the worst thing that can happen to taxpayers is the allocation of funds equivalent to 10%\u00a0of SA\u2019s gross domestic product to a health financing system that will never function effectively,\u201d Boshoff said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>He added that the true cost of NHI extends beyond its financial implications. \u201cThe loss of constitutional rights and patients\u2019 freedom of choice will ultimately result in a much higher price being paid.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>AfriForum argues that the Act centralises power within the state, undermines medical\u2011aid schemes and removes patients\u2019 ability to choose healthcare providers. The group said the planned litigation will focus on constitutional infringements, governance failures and the financial sustainability of the proposed system.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>&#8211;SABC\/ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13733,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44,26],"class_list":["post-23947","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"South Africa's (SA) Civil rights organisation AfriForum has served summons on President Cyril Ramaphosa and Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi as part of its legal challenge to the constitutionality of the National Health Insurance (NHI) Act.\u00a0","published_date":null,"news_description":"South Africa's (SA) Civil rights organisation AfriForum has served summons on President Cyril Ramaphosa and Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi as part of its legal challenge to the constitutionality of the National Health Insurance (NHI) Act.\u00a0","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26769,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23947\/revisions\/26769"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=23947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}