Moonstone

The Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) has received 46 complaints from Bonitas members following the medical scheme’s change of administrators and managed-care providers on 1 June, with two cases considered sufficiently urgent to warrant the regulator’s expedited investigation process.

The Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS) has confirmed that the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) has not approved its proposal to reduce the scheme’s weighted average 2026 contribution adjustment from 9.5% to 7.5%, leaving the higher contribution adjustment in place. The proposal followed GEMS’s announcement in May that sought to reduce the weighted average contribution adjustment to 7.5%, effective from 1 July 2026 and subject to approval by the CMS.

Over the past two decades, South Africa’s retirement fund industry has become more regulated, more complex, and more demanding to administer. The introduction of default regulations, stronger governance requirements, enhanced tax reporting, preservation reforms, and, most recently, the two-pot retirement system have all added new layers of administration. Yet during the same period, one of the industry’s biggest costs moved in the opposite direction.

The South African Reserve Bank has ordered the forfeiture of assets worth nearly R11 million belonging to former Steinhoff executive Chris Grové, a former senior Reserve Bank exchange control official who later became the retailer’s liaison with the central bank. A notice published in the Government Gazette on 23 June 2026 declares the forfeiture of Grové’s assets previously attached under the Exchange Control Regulations.

According to the latest Medical Aid Insights 2024/2025 report, which analyses two decades of Council for Medical Schemes data, the number of beneficiaries in open medical schemes declined by 1.2% between 2023 and 2024. Restricted schemes, by contrast, grew by 2.4%, meaning overall industry growth came almost entirely from employer-based schemes. Only five open schemes recorded beneficiary growth during the year. Bestmed was one of them.

Efforts to improve trust tax compliance appear to be paying off. More than 130 000 trust tax returns have already been filed for the 2025 tax year – a sharp rise from the 84 000 submitted in 2024 and the 69 000 the year before. A further 80 000 outstanding returns for prior years have also been lodged. Yet, overall compliance remains low. South Africa has an estimated 450 000 active inter vivos trusts (excluding testamentary trusts) registered with the Master of the High Court.

Discovery Health Medical Scheme (DHMS) ended 2025 in a stronger financial position than a year earlier, but its latest integrated report also shows that South Africa’s largest open medical scheme is still facing pressure on its beneficiary base and risk-pool profile. The scheme grew principal membership in 2025 after a decline in 2024. Principal members increased by 9 008, from 1 359 379 at the end of 2024 to 1 368 387 at the end of 2025.

A Financial Services Tribunal (FST) ruling dismissing an application for an exemption from the qualification requirements indicates how exemption applications are assessed and the limited circumstances in which the Financial Sector Conduct Authority’s refusal of such an application will be overturned on reconsideration.

How does a medical scheme recover after falling below the statutory solvency requirement? For Medihelp, the answer did not begin with its balance sheet. It began with claims. The scheme’s 2025 annual results, released on 25 June 2026, show a financial turnaround that has been building over the past three years. Its solvency ratio recovered from 20.99% at the end of 2024 to 27.01%, moving back above the statutory minimum of 25%.

The Long-term Insurance Amendment Bill has moved a step closer to becoming law, but although it aims to protect consumers from paying for multiple Funeral Class policies that provide no additional benefit, questions remain over whether it tackles the biggest problems facing the funeral insurance market. The Amendment Bill, which was introduced to the National Assembly on 5 June, is largely unchanged from the draft legislation published for public comment last year.