The High Court in Johannesburg has placed Health Squared under provisional curatorship following an application brought by the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS).
The provisional curatorship is effective from 8 September.
The court-appointed curator, Joe Seoloane, assumes the powers normally exercised by the board of trustees or the principal officer.
Among other things, the High Court order authorises the curator to pay members’ claims received before 27 September, when the trustees’ application to liquidate the scheme will be heard.
Read: Health Squared’s liquidation application to be heard later this month
The order directs the curator to consider the best interests of the scheme’s members and to facilitate and negotiate their transfer to other medical schemes before Health Squared is liquidated, “on such favourable terms as may be appropriate in the circumstances”.
It also authorises Seoloane to investigate allegations of financial and governance irregularities or mismanagement.
Health Squared’s trustees have resisted curatorship, saying it would not save the scheme but would add at least R280 000 a month to its expenses.
Seoloane was the curator of KeyHealth from September 2020 until the scheme’s curatorship was lifted in April this year.
The return date for the order is 20 September.
The CMS said members who have queries or complaints should contact the curator at j.seoloane@gmail.com or 011 796 6425.
