PSMAS Mega Salaries scandal

The Premier Service Medical Aid Society scandal, May 2013 involved former chief executive officer Dr Cuthbert Dube who was alleged to have earned half a million dollars every month.

Dr. Dube, who was forced to retire because of the scandal, was reported to have received allowances equivalent to his monthly basic salary of US$230 000 plus a bonus of over US$1 million. This brought his annual earnings to just over US$6,4 million. The annual wage bill of the 15 PSMAS executives for 2013 was US$18,6 million with Dube taking more than a third of this total. ^[1]

The Scandal

With a membership of 794 000, and assuming PSMAS collected US$7.50 as contributions from each member, the society collected US$72 million in 2013 with a third of that going on salaries for the top 15 people.

The salaries and allowances were approved by the PSMAS board of directors chaired by Mrs Meisie Namasasu, a director for implementation and control of expenditure unit in the Ministry of Finance.

The top 15 Executives

Consequencies of the scandal

The amount of money these top bosses were paying themselves was allegedly enough to save and alleviate the suffering of more than 61 111 people suffering from HIV and AIDS who could have ARVs bought for them every month with these huge salaries. These obscene salaries were also being paid out of medical aid funds which was contributed by mostly civil servants who could never dream of ever earning just a single month’s salary (i.e. US$500 000) that Cuthbert Dube earned in their entire lives especially after taking into cognizance the fact that average civil servant earns US$350 per month. All this happens at a time when the government was failing to pay its civil servants their salaries on time.[2]