Who and what is AfriForum?

AfriForum is an Afrikaans civil rights organisation that protects the rights of minority groups at national as well as provincial level, and anyone who can identify with AfriForum’s principles and objectives may join the organisation. AfriForum’s community plan focuses on mobilising communities to thus take control of their own streets and neighbourhoods again. AfriForum ensures that your constitutional and civil rights are recognised and protected at national level.

Wie en wat is AfriForum?

AfriForum is ’n Afrikaanse burgerregteorganisasie wat die regte van minderheidsgroepe op sowel nasionale as provinsiale vlak beskerm, en enigiemand wat met AfriForum se beginsels en doelstellings kan identifiseer, mag by die organisasie aansluit. AfriForum se gemeenskapsplan fokus daarop om gemeenskappe te mobiliseer om só weer beheer terug te neem oor hul eie strate en woonbuurtes. AfriForum verseker dat jou grondwetlike én burgerregte op nasionale vlak erken en beskerm word.

Media statements | National health insurance Media statements

AfriForum intensifies fight against NHI after NCOP approves the bill

ByAfriForum 06/12/202306/12/2023

AfriForum is ready to wage the fiercest battle yet against National Health Insurance (NHI) after this damning bill completed the last round of parliamentary approval. The civil rights organisation has sent a letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa demanding that he refer the bill back to the National Assembly. The letter emphasises the dangers of NHI and warns the president that AfriForum will not back down while he turns his back on the health of South Africans. Furthermore, the organisation approached opposition parties about a joint legal action against NHI, should the bill be passed into law.

Delegates from eight of the nine provinces voted in favour of the bill on Wednesday afternoon (December 6) in the latest session of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), with only the Western Cape’s delegates voting against it. This means that Ramaphosa is now able to pass the bill into law or to refer it back to the legislature due to its obvious unconstitutionality.

According to Louis Boshoff, AfriForum’s spokesperson on NHI, the organisation was expecting this approval due to the ANC’s absolute majority in the NCOP. That is why AfriForum continues to follow a twofold strategy in which public pressure is placed on the president not to pass the bill and for opposition parties and pressure groups to unite in a joint Constitutional Court case against NHI. Ramaphosa has a constitutional obligation to have a bill that raises any concerns with him be sent back to be revised, while the Constitutional Court can ultimately rule on the constitutionality of a bill.

“The ANC’s ideological blindness has been shown to the world anew. After almost every health expert in the country has given some kind of warning or suggested amendments, the ANC simply continues to implement their centralist plans without adjustment,” says Boshoff. “A government that considers their own position of power more important than the health of the citizens of the country – can they stoop any lower?”