{"id":94064,"date":"2025-12-10T18:57:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T18:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently"},"modified":"2025-12-10T19:06:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T19:06:07","slug":"south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently","title":{"rendered":"South Africa Can Fund Universal Healthcare Independently"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>Health Department Director General, Dr Sandile Buthelezi, has asserted that South Africa possesses the financial capability to provide healthcare for all its citizens without reliance on foreign aid.<\/p>\n<p>However, Buthelezi emphasised that the health sector&#8217;s prospects would significantly improve if the National Treasury were to abandon austerity measures and budget limitations.<\/p>\n<p>The Director General was speaking during public submissions on Wednesday on the Special Appropriation Bill, which seeks to secure R750 million. This funding is necessary following the recent withdrawal of healthcare funding for HIV\/AIDS by the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Buthelezi highlighted a critical imbalance in current healthcare expenditure, noting that 51% of the total spending currently serves only 14% of the population. This leaves the remaining 86% of South Africans to utilise just 49% of the allocated funds.<\/p>\n<p>He attributes this disparity primarily to persistent inequality within the country.<\/p>\n<p>Buthelezi contends that this inequality has fostered a damaging perception that South Africa&#8217; public healthcare sector can only survive through external &#8220;handouts,&#8221; a notion he strongly refutes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Inequality will always exist, and we will start believing that the public healthcare sector can only survive on foreign handouts, whereas our country can afford to provide healthcare to everybody if it is done in an equitable manner,&#8221;he stated.<\/p>\n<p>He says the department negotiated for a long period over austerity measures, and fortunately treasury understood and an additional R20 billion was allocated to the department in May.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">South-Africa<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. Health Department Director General, Dr Sandile Buthelezi, has asserted that South Africa possesses the financial capability to provide healthcare for all its citizens without reliance on foreign aid. However, Buthelezi emphasised that the health sector&#8217;s prospects would significantly improve if the National Treasury were to abandon austerity measures and budget limitations. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":94062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,12],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-94064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-policy","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>South Africa Can Fund Universal Healthcare Independently - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Health Department Director General, Dr Sandile Buthelezi, has asserted that South Africa possesses the financial capabil ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"South Africa Can Fund Universal Healthcare Independently\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Health Department Director General, Dr Sandile Buthelezi, has asserted that South Africa possesses the financial capabil ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-10T18:57:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-12-10T19:06:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/12\/sm_1765380920.44535.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"South Africa Can Fund Universal Healthcare Independently\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-10T18:57:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-10T19:06:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently\"},\"wordCount\":252,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/12\/sm_1765380920.44535.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently\",\"name\":\"South Africa Can Fund Universal Healthcare Independently - South Africa\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/12\/sm_1765380920.44535.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-10T18:57:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-12-10T19:06:07+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Health Department Director General, Dr Sandile Buthelezi, has asserted that South Africa possesses the financial capabil ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/12\/sm_1765380920.44535.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/12\/sm_1765380920.44535.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"South Africa Can Fund Universal Healthcare Independently\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"South Africa Can Fund Universal Healthcare Independently\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\",\"name\":\"South Africa\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"South Africa Can Fund Universal Healthcare Independently - South Africa","description":"Health Department Director General, Dr Sandile Buthelezi, has asserted that South Africa possesses the financial capabil ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"South Africa Can Fund Universal Healthcare Independently","og_description":"Health Department Director General, Dr Sandile Buthelezi, has asserted that South Africa possesses the financial capabil ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently","og_site_name":"South Africa","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2025-12-10T18:57:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-12-10T19:06:07+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/12\/sm_1765380920.44535.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"South Africa Can Fund Universal Healthcare Independently","datePublished":"2025-12-10T18:57:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-10T19:06:07+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently"},"wordCount":252,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/12\/sm_1765380920.44535.jpg","keywords":["South-Africa"],"articleSection":["all news","community","policy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently","name":"South Africa Can Fund Universal Healthcare Independently - South Africa","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/12\/sm_1765380920.44535.jpg","datePublished":"2025-12-10T18:57:00+00:00","dateModified":"2025-12-10T19:06:07+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Health Department Director General, Dr Sandile Buthelezi, has asserted that South Africa possesses the financial capabil ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/12\/sm_1765380920.44535.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/12\/sm_1765380920.44535.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"South Africa Can Fund Universal Healthcare Independently"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/south-africa-can-fund-universal-healthcare-independently#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"South Africa Can Fund Universal Healthcare Independently"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/","name":"South Africa","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}