Medscheme has removed from the court roll its urgent application against Bonitas, in which it seeks to interdict the appointment of two new service providers, reports Business Day.
This followed the January appointment by Bonitas of Momentum to take over its administration service contract and the awarding of the contract for managed care services to Private Health Administrators (PHA) – the new contracts effectively terminating Medscheme’s more than four-decade long relationship with Bonitas.
The move not only dealt a financial blow to Medscheme, Bonitas’ administrator since 1982, but also to its parent company, Afrocentric.
Medscheme handles the administration of 680 000 beneficiaries of the Bonitas medical scheme but this contract will now end in May. Its urgent application against Bonitas was launched in December, alleging the tender process was compromised, and asking the court to interdict the awarding of the administrator and managed care provider contracts pending the outcome of the Council for Medical Schemes probe into alleged tender irregularities.
The case was scheduled for hearing on Tuesday before Judge Gregory Wright but was removed by agreement of the parties, “as the matter is not yet ripe for hearing”, Medscheme told Business Day.
The removal from the urgent roll is not the end of the litigation and the matter will be re-enrolled, with Bonitas principal officer Lee Callakoppen saying the parties are currently exchanging pleadings and dealing with interlocutory matters.
When the matter is ready for hearing, Medscheme intends to make an application for a hearing date.
Callakoppen, in his answering affidavit, argues the awarding of the contracts to new service providers on 28 January renders moot Medscheme’s application.
Despite the awarding of the tenders, Afrocentric will go ahead with the litigation.
“Medscheme’s allegation is that tenders 3 and 4 (awarded in January) have been engineered by Bonitas in such a way to ensure PHA would be awarded both contracts,” according to the Callakoppen affidavit.
“This would mean that Medscheme, on its own version, would be excluded from being considered and being appointed to render the services. That is factually incorrect.”
Medscheme’s application challenging the tenders, which went out for bidding in 2025, is pinned on the CMS decision to initiate a probe into two tenders awarded in 2022 and 2024 in which allegations of irregularities were made against Bonitas.
These were flagged in a marketing and sales distribution services tender awarded to Agile Business Solutions, led by Tobie du Preez, a former Afrocentric Group executive, in 2024. The contract was previously awarded to Afrocentric Distribution Services, part of Afrocentric.
The appointment of PHA in 2022 to administer Bonitas’ low-income option, Boncap, previously administered by Medscheme, forms part of the probe.
Callakopen contends the tenders from two to four years ago were unrelated to those recently awarded to Momentum and PHA.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Medscheme, Bonitas tender battle escalates
Bonitas cuts ties with Medscheme
CMS coy on why it prematurely terminated probe into Bonitas