SA’s biggest medical scheme for public servants has defended its decision to award Afrocentric subsidiary Activo Health a multimillion-rand contract to provide its members with multivitamins, saying it was responding to their demands for immune boosters to fend off Covid-19.

The justification by the Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS) follows an announcement earlier on Tuesday by the industry regulator, the Council for Medical Schemes, that it had started a Section 43 enquiry into the matter...