People’s reactions are interesting when I introduce myself as a South African in Switzerland. Those who have travelled to South Africa will comment on the beautiful scenery or the friendly people. Others whose impressions depend on the news carefully search for words. South Africa has been in the Swiss news during the past few months for various reasons.

Kruger coins

One of the lighter topics that made the news was about South African lost treasures. In a Swiss safe, they recently discovered a bag with gold Kruger coins placed there in World War II for safekeeping. After many decades, the coins are now available at the SA Mint. Charl is a coin collector and has started to collect Swiss coins to commemorate every year we are here in Switzerland.

South African billionaire Johann Rupert

South African billionaire Johann Rupert made headlines when he flew to Switzerland for a Covid-19 vaccine. Johann Rupert is a resident of Geneva, where his Swiss company, Richemont, is located. However, he drove to another canton to get the vaccination at a vaccination centre run by Hirslanden. Hirslanden is part of the South African Mediclinic group, of which the Rupert family’s Remgro company is one of the largest shareholders.

In a country like Switzerland, with many rules and fairness, his actions have been openly criticised in the newspapers. Swiss residents criticised him for travelling to a canton other than where he lived. In addition, he was not yet 75 years old, in line with the first grouping of vaccinations. He justified his actions in the newspaper by saying, “I’ve been in Switzerland for 31 years, and I pay my taxes and health insurance here”.

Daniel Liedtke, the CEO of the Hirslanden group, very carefully chose his words in his response to the newspapers. The article reads: “On 11 January, the Hirslanden Group carried out pilot vaccinations in the Münsterlingen Hospital with twelve test persons. In retrospect, we made mistakes in the considerations of the project. We had underestimated the symbolic power of vaccinating a wealthy patient. Rupert was entitled to an immediate vaccination because of his severe heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity. The consideration is more serious as the billionaire is a co-owner of the group, and this inevitably gave the impression that we had treated him privileged, continues Liedtke”.

Hirslanden is part of the South African Mediclinic group

Switzerland has good state-funded healthcare with high-quality medical services and infrastructure. The situation presents significant challenges to a private hospital group, such as Hirslanden in Switzerland, having South African owners. People question Hirslanden’s efforts to cooperate with the state to serve the needs of the whole community during the pandemic. We read the following in the newspapers:

“What drives the highly profitable and efficient hospital group to work together with inefficient and insufficiently financed public hospitals? Is there a pure pursuit of profit behind it? Do the unpopular South Africans want to make themselves indispensable or do they want to create goodwill and take the wind out of the critics’ sails? Probably all together.

Hirslanden plays a critical role in supporting Covid-19 mass testing, which is now free for everyone in Switzerland, regardless of symptoms. According to the government, this is a significant step in managing the pandemic. Feel free to read more about this on the Hirslanden blog, where there is a photo of Charl. Several vaccination centres have also been allocated to Hirslanden to manage on behalf of the cantons.

Regards

Emsia