Illustrative Image: Magnifying glass. (Photo: Freepik) | Money. (Photo: Istock) | Torn Paper. (Image: Freepik) | Bonitas logo. (Image: Sourced / Bonitas Website) | (By Daniella Lee Ming Yesca) 
Medscheme Holdings has launched an urgent high court application to stop Bonitas Medical Scheme from proceeding with its tender for administration and managed care services, escalating a long-running commercial and governance dispute into a full-blown legal confrontation.
The application, filed on Monday, 15 December 2025 in the Gauteng local division of the High Court in Johannesburg, seeks an interim interdict suspending Bonitas’ current tender process pending the outcome of a forensic investigation by the Council for Medical Schemes. The matter is set down for hearing on 3 March 2026.
At stake is the administration of South Africa’s second-largest open medical scheme, with roughly one million beneficiaries, and annual contributions of about R20-billion.
Challenge to two tenders
Medscheme’s application targets two requests for proposals issued by Bonitas in July 2025, covering administration services and managed care.
In court documents, Medscheme argues that the integrity and legitimacy of the tender process have been compromised, asserting that it is the “antithesis of a fair, equitable, transparent and bona fide process”.
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Medscheme, Bonitas’ incumbent service provider for administration and managed care since 1982, fears that proceeding with an award would cause irreparable harm to the scheme, its members and other bidders.
The company maintains that once contracts are awarded and implementation begins, any later finding of irregularity could leave the scheme facing operational disruption and legal uncertainty.
Links to forensic investigation
The legal challenge comes at a time when the company is already under the microscope.
In November 2025, the Council for Medical Schemes confirmed it had escalated an inquiry into Bonitas to a full forensic investigation under Section 44 of the Medical Schemes Act.
Medscheme’s application draws on allegations from a column by BusinessDay journalist Michael Avery, which purportedly exposed a concerted effort by internal executives and external associates to capture the scheme. It was this same reporting that first put the matter on Council for Medical Schemes’ radar.
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“The Registrar has resolved to initiate a forensic investigation to examine the full scope of the claims and to formulate appropriate recommendations,” the regulator said in a statement on 3 November 2025.
Medscheme’s application leans on those developments, arguing that the high court should not allow the tender to proceed while the regulator is still examining the scheme’s affairs.
Allegations of a compromised process
The allegedly corrupt tender processes at Bonitas involve the steering of marketing and distribution contracts to associated entities by manipulating bidding rules. Medscheme wants to halt current tenders due to concerns that the entire process is “fatally and inherently flawed”.
The capture allegedly began with a board-approved strategy called “Project StepAhead”.
This initial restructuring plan was purportedly either copied or branded from proprietary information belonging to the incumbent service provider, AfroCentric Distribution Services (ADS).
The coordination of this strategy involved Bonitas principal officer Lee Callakoppen, consultant Tobie du Preez (former ADS CEO and CEO of Agile Alternative Business Solutions), former AfroCentric executive Willem Britz, and Bonitas scheme attorney Aneesa Mahomed.
This group of insiders drafted the actual request for proposals for distribution services, leading to a document reportedly “written by the would-be winner”, Agile Alternative Business Solutions. This manipulation resulted in Agile, a startup entity, unlawfully winning the distribution contract.
Current compromised tender
The urgent court application also relies on evidence suggesting the current tender process for administration and managed care services (the contracts Medscheme currently holds) is also compromised.
A central piece of evidence highlighted in the court documents is a bank confirmation letter dated 31 July 2025, confirming that WHB Holdings (a Britz-related entity) committed R150-million to Private Health Administrators should it win the remaining managed care and administration services contracts.
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Private Health Administrators, which already manages Bonitas’ low cost BonCap option, is listed as the third respondent in Medscheme’s interdict, and is an active contender in the current requests for proposals process. Private Health Administrators officials were also allegedly involved in drafting the requests for proposals for the previous distribution contract alongside Du Preez.
The Council for Medical Schemes deemed these allegations serious enough to launch its forensic investigation. Medscheme argues that these circumstances undermine confidence in the independence and fairness of the tender.
Bonitas pushes back
Bonitas has rejected Medscheme’s calls to suspend the tender process. In correspondence from its attorneys, the scheme argues that Medscheme, as an incumbent service provider and competing bidder, has no right to dictate its procurement decisions or demand access to internal information.
Bonitas asserted that Medscheme’s action was aimed at “derail[ing] the legitimate ongoing request for proposals processes to enable it to remain indefinitely in its aforesaid positions”. Bonitas further explicitly denied any allegations of irregularity.
It has also questioned the motives behind Medscheme’s allegations, suggesting that the media articles published by Avery (who hosts a podcast sponsored by Sanlam’s Glacier) were calculated attempts to damage Bonitas’ reputation and influence the tender outcome, noting that Medscheme is ultimately part of the AfroCentric Group, in which Sanlam has a majority shareholding.
Risks of disruption
Medscheme’s urgency is driven by timing. According to its court papers, contract awards are expected in mid-December 2025, with implementation scheduled for 1 June 2026.
As the second-largest medical scheme in South Africa, covering approximately one million beneficiaries, an administrative change for Bonitas is described in court documents as a “Herculean task” typically requiring six to 12 months for completion.
Medscheme contends that proceeding with the award under the shadow of the Council for Medical Schemes probe creates a risk of temporary instability within the scheme, threatening disruptions to member benefits, access to care, chronic medication supply, and overall scheme reputation should the probe reveal serious wrongdoing warranting curatorship or the invalidation of the contracts.
The high court will now be asked to decide whether the tender should be frozen until the Council for Medical Schemes completes its work, an interim ruling that could determine Bonitas’ future and confidence in governance across the medical schemes industry. DM