The need for health-care facilities in SA is chronic in rural areas and townships. During the apartheid era the dearth of quality care in black areas was even more pronounced.
It was against this painfully unhealthy state of affairs that a medical discussion group was formed in Soweto more than three decades ago. The group, says Dr Sam Tshabangu - one of the initiative's founders and chairman of Sechaba Medical Solutions - evolved to include the township's entrepreneurial minds and other community members. It then went on to fund university students and pursue business opportunities, a result of which was the creation of Kwacha.
The seed was planted to start a medical aid and a hospital, but it wasn't that easy. There were a number of hurdles. For instance, back then black people were barred from establishing companies and it was almost impossible for them to own land in urban areas, says Tshabangu.
But, somehow, the determined Kwacha group - with the help of Bo Loots, a white medical doctor - found a way around the system.
It was only in 1978 that the black group's tenacity paid off with the formation of Sizwe Medical Fund (SMF), which was administered by a joint venture between Medscheme (49%) and Sizwe Medical Services (51%). For the first 10 years Medscheme assisted the scheme with operations, systems and marketing, among other functions.
Dr Sam Tshabangu
SMF began its life as a medical fund for black people, mainly workers within the automotive and mining industries. For those first 10 years the scheme was administered by the joint venture and then by Sizwe Medical Services (which rebranded to Sechaba Medical Solutions in 2007). In 2004, Kwacha bought out Medscheme's 49% shareholding to make Sechaba the first 100% black-owned administrator in SA. Tshabangu takes pride in the fact that Sechaba remains black-owned, debt-free and continues to attract and retain a high calibre of people. That's a special achievement given its more traditional image.
Seven years after the establishment of SMF, Kwacha opened Lesedi, Soweto's first private hospital. "We invested R10 000 each and formed a partnership with Afrox, which took 10% of the hospital business," Tshabangu says.
Sowetan stalwarts instrumental in the formation of Kwacha (and, by extension Sechaba, Sizwe and Lesedi) included the late businessman-cum-political activist Dr Nthato Motlana; long-time Lesedi chairman Dr Jubilee Kgomo; and the London-trained Dr Abner Tlakula, chairman of Kwacha for many years. Others were the intrepid entrepreneur Richard Maponya and other influential doctors and businessmen including Dr Mokhesi, the late Dr Pitje and current directors Drs Peter Matseke and Jackie Mphafudi and Mrs Anna Bengani, wife of the late founding member Dr D Bengani.
Despite its humble, or even difficult, beginnings Sechaba has stuck around since 1978. It now provides health-care solutions to a cross-section of South Africans. However, its strengths remain in the mid- and low-income markets where its clients Gen-Health and Sizwe operate. The medical aid administrator is today ranked among the best in terms of IT and service excellence.
WHAT IT MEANS
 The fund is black-owned and debt-free
Ranks among the best for IT and service excellence
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"In the late 1990s, we established Cheiron (90% Kwacha, 10% Sanlam) to manage the IT and managed-care component of the business and in 2000 we bought Epic to be able to do our own administration," Tshabangu says. Sechaba chief information officer Eric Rantsho describes Epic, the IT system, as having become the envy of many in the medical aid industry. He expects it to put Sechaba in good stead as it expands into the rest of the African market.
"In the past two years, we've re-branded and repositioned the company. We've bought out Sanlam (from the managed-care business) and brought managed-care in-house as a business unit within Sechaba, which has enabled us to align and integrate service delivery to clients seamlessly," says Tshabangu.
He says that the three-decade track record in the medical funding arena coupled with its IT offering and service strengths gives Sechaba a competitive edge in the war for opportunities in the health-care environment. The firm also has what Tshabangu describes as a highly skilled management.
"We have rationalised the company. This enables us to market aggressively and attract other schemes," he says. "This is a numbers game... in the first year of rationalisation, our client SMF grew by 10 000, then we won the Gen-Health contract. Growth is in our hands."
