Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has received a damning report confirming what many black healthcare professionals have long alleged: racial discrimination by leading medical schemes in South Africa.
The findings come from the Section 59 Investigation Panel, led by respected legal mind Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi, and were formally presented at the Council for Medical Schemes. The report concludes that schemes like Discovery Health and GEMS subjected black healthcare providers to disproportionate fraud investigations, rooted in systemic bias.
The investigation, launched after a 2019 complaint by medical associations representing black professionals, found that black practitioners were far more likely to be flagged, audited, and penalised without clear justification—often at great personal and professional cost.
“This is not just administrative overreach,” Ngcukaitobi noted in the report. “It is discrimination that violates constitutional principles and corrodes trust in the health system.”
The panel’s findings have sent shockwaves through the medical community, with calls for urgent reform growing louder. Black practitioners have long complained about disproportionate scrutiny, payment delays, and reputational harm, despite often lacking any evidence of wrongdoing.
The report recommends a sweeping overhaul of internal risk assessment practices within medical schemes, mandatory anti-bias training, and the establishment of an independent body to handle future complaints of discrimination.
Dr Motsoaledi has pledged to respond decisively, saying the findings demand “urgent and corrective action.”
