There was such a flurry of electioneering by nominees vying for three trustee positions becoming vacant this year at Discovery Health Medical Scheme that the AGM was changed to an online only event (last week), “due to operational considerations and circumstances” beyond the company’s control, the company said.
The DHMS AGM, which usually attracts around 200 attendees, was moved online during the pandemic, but as this eased, the board of trustees continued with a hybrid approach, in which the AGM was hosted virtually as well as in-person, reports News24.
However, this year, DHMS told members it was again hosting its AGM online only, “to ensure all scheme members have an equal opportunity to attend and participate and vote for trustees”.
The vote also saw the SA Zionist Federation (SAZF) entering the fray, after a viral WhatsApp campaign about alleged “anti-Israel” candidates – shortly before Discovery’s decision to move the meeting online.
Among the 77 candidates vying for the three posts are an assortment of lawyers, chartered accountants, academics, and at least one holder of a theology degree. Other candidates include several chemical engineers, a statistician who works for Statistics SA, a former bank manager who was also an officer in the SA National Defence Force (SANDF), and a syrup maker who works for Coca-Cola.
The list also included the three current trustees whose terms are coming to an end, which necessitated the vote. All three were still eligible for re-election, as they have only served one term as trustees.
They are: former vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town Dr Max Price, advocate Joan Adams, and retired actuary Marius du Toit.
There are currently seven trustees on the DHMS board, including chair Michelle Norton, who also serves as a trustee. The other trustees are Dr Dhesan Moodley, Lalita Harie and Dr Rendani Mbuvha.
Dr Susette Brynard had previously also been on the board of trustees but her term ended in June 2024.
Apart from the opportunity to influence the direction of SA’s largest open medical scheme, candidates are also vying for the hefty pay packages enjoyed by DHMS trustees, the 2024 integrated report showing they earned total combined remuneration of just under R12.6m last year.
The most well-paid member of the DHMS board of trustees in 2024 was the Chair, Norton, a senior counsel who graduated with an LLB summa cum laude from the University of Natal and who also holds a doctorate from Oxford.
Norton earned total remuneration of R2.32m from DHMS in 2024, including base pay for trustee services of just under R1.5m plus another R763 000 for sitting on the DHMS committees for product, remuneration and stakeholder relations and ethics. She also received R71 000 for travel expenses.
DHMS told News24 that trustee remuneration is based on a professional fee and an hourly rate, which take into account that the scheme is a non-profit entity. Its board of trustees generally has seven scheduled meetings a year that typically last a full working day, though this excludes time spent sitting on various board committees.
According to the DHMS integrated report for 2024, the scheme’s board of trustees must comprise at least five and a maximum of eight members, consisting of a majority of trustees.
Results can be expected within the next 14 days.
Review membership
Meanwhile, after taking a barrage of flak from some quarters for its participation in conferences hosted by Future of Health (FOH), a community of global healthcare leaders whose origins are linked to Israel, Discovery has said it will review its membership of the body.
FOH was first initiated in 2018 during the 70th birthday celebrations of Israel’s Sheba Medical Centre, where the idea was birthed of establishing a community for CEOs and senior leaders in the global healthcare industry.
Other member organisations include the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia, Stanford Healthcare in the US and Sweden’s Karolinska University Hospital, to name a few.
Discovery hosted the group’s summit in Cape Town in November last year, at which delegates from Israel’s Sheba Medical Centre were invited to speak.
However, the event sparked controversy among certain delegates, many of whom were not affiliated with FOH, prompting Discovery to apologise for any unintended distress they experienced.
Controversy around the group’s involvement with the FOH summit surfaced again during the AGM last week, and during a question-and- answer session, Discovery was forced to fend off a number of strongly-worded questions about the event.
One question labelled Discovery’s decision to invite Israeli speakers to the FOH summit as “disgusting” given the situation in Gaza, and argued that the group had to be held accountable for complicity in “genocide”.
In response, CEO Ron Whelan said Discovery acknowledged the “distressing and painful” events in the Middle East and hoped for a peaceful resolution. He also emphasised that as a JSE-listed entity with operations around the world, Discovery had “no political or religious affiliation whatsoever”.
“There was certainly no malintent in hosting this conference in SA. We sought to do good. We have undertaken a full review by our ethics committee around our participation in the conference. It’s undergone an internal review as well as an independent external review to ensure our actions are fully in accordance with our values and our core purpose.”
Whelan added that the FOH summit had been attended by more than 80 international healthcare leaders from countries including Switzerland, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Singapore, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Brazil. About 100 healthcare leaders from SA also attended.
“Among the 180 attendees, there were five delegates from the Sheba Medical Centre in Israel. All delegates were healthcare professionals and hospital administrators – it is important that I emphasise that.”
Sheba Medical Centre has been rated as one of the top 10 medical centres globally by Newsweek, he said.
“It is one of the leading medical centres in the world and is particularly innovative. We recognise, however, that given the conflict in Israel and Gaza, and at the moment extending into Lebanon and Iran, there is significant sensitivity around this topic.”
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