Way down south

The Globe and Mail reports that Canada's "socialized" health-care system has become a hot topic in yet another country: South Africa.
The governing African National Congress party wants to do something about the horrible inequities in South Africa's system, and it's looking at Canada's system as a model.
Writes Geoffrey York: "The debates in the United States and South Africa are oddly similar. Both countries feature a vastly unequal two-tier system, where the elites enjoy the luxuries of unlimited care, while millions are too poor to afford medical treatment."
As in the U.S., the discourse in Africa's southernmost country includes interventions from lobby groups for the status quo who say Canada's system is a mess. Presumably, just as in the U.S., these people aren't proposing a way to ensure access for all like a civilized society.
My first thought when I saw the Globe story was "Why would Canada's system get this much attention in a country so far away?"
It's not as if Canadian medicare is the only universal health care system in the world. There are plenty of other systems that South Africa could use as models.
In fact, South Africa could look to any industrialized country other than the U.S. for models of how to ensure decent health care for rich and poor alike.
Colour me puzzled.
(Thanks to New Canadian Bob for alerting me to the Globe story.)