The DA has called for intervention in the SA Military Health Service Regular Force Medical Continuation Fund (SAMHS) which faces imminent collapse, threatening the healthcare cover of around 36 000 military veterans and pensioners.
While Defence & Military Veterans Minister Angie Motshekga told a parliamentary questioner that the SAMHS continues to deliver services, the DA alleges otherwise, reports DefenceWeb.
The veterans’ medical needs are the responsibility of the Regular Force Medical Continuation Fund (RFMCF), which historically formed part of the broader conditions of military service, providing post-retirement medical support, primarily through SAMHS, to qualifying members.
The fund is a medical pension type fund, not a registered medical scheme.
But confirmation of the bleak financial situation came from Motshekga when replying to a parliamentary question from National Council of Provinces (NCOP) DA MP Nicholas Gotsell recently.
He was told that the RFMCF funding level is just 3.5% as per an actuarial valuation done in March 2025.
This, the ministerial response has it, is a monthly shortfall of R40m. Additionally, the RFMCF “is unable to invest the current contributions made by active members to honour their medical benefit promise” and the Fund “has been disinvesting since November 2023 to honour monthly expenditure”.
The RFMCF has a total shortfall of R2.4bn.
One RFMCF member called the fund and its financial situation a disaster. “It appears the kitty has been looted to pay for medical services and scripts that cannot be performed or filled at military hospitals and sickbays.”
The SAMHS is also outsourcing certain services, including surgeries, to the private sector.
National Treasury has said it is unable to accede to a request to recapitalise the fund to address its shortfall, and has instead proposed a strategic policy intervention to help address the healthcare needs of retired military personnel.
With the RFMCF “being effectively insolvent”, Gotsell said this leaves thousands of military veterans and pensioners risk losing healthcare cover.
But an RFMCF member said veterans’ healthcare was not an RFMCF function – “it resides in the Department of Military Veterans”.
The RFMCF is a private entity, and relies on funds contributed by members when they were in service. Until 2016 it comprised SANDF members, trustees, retired and union representation, but a financial and management crisis had developed by 2016 and by January 2017, the board was dissolved by the Military Command Council.
An interim board was appointed by the Minister of Defence.
While the fund had grown under effective management, rising healthcare expenditure had led to shortfalls in recent years. Gross liability surged from R8.4bn in 2019 to R18.8bn in 2023, with the Fund only 6.83% funded at that time.
The DA said it would use “every oversight mechanism available to ensure this crisis is addressed with the urgency it deserves, starting with a letter to the Minister of Finance, demanding immediate intervention”.
DefenceWeb article – Military pensioners’ medical fund not financially well (Open access)
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