SABCOHA held its AGM on Thursday, 29 October 2009 and a number of changes were made to the board of governors. The former chairperson, Jackie Tau, stepped down, and Dr Natalie Mayet, of BMW SA, was elected the new chair.

The new board of governors comprises:

• Chairperson: Dr Natalie Mayet (BMW SA);
• Jackie Tau (Aspen Pharmacare);
• Dr Brian Brink (Anglo American);
• Dr Dave Clark (Aurum Institute);
• Dr Riedawaan Pillay (BHP Billiton Manganese);
• Vikashnee Harbhajan (BUSA);
• Dr Eric Hefer (Calibre Clinical Consultants);
• Prof Johan Augustyn (Independent Academic);
• Nosipiwo Ngxabazi (Metropolitan Life Ltd);
• Jenni Gillies (SABMiller PLC);
• Sipho Ngidi (Standard Bank Group);
• Dr Tumi Jantjie (Total SA);
• David Scott (Unilever); and
• Dr Alex Govender (Volkswagen SA).

Opening the AGM, Tau noted that over the last year there had been a change of focus within SABCOHA from a national to a provincial approach, as seen by the formation of the Northern Cape Provincial Board and the progress made towards achieving the same goal in the Western Cape. "But we should not lose our focus on SABCOHA's main goal, which is empowering business. And a lot of work still needs to be done around prevention and treatment," he said.

Brad Mears, the CEO of SABCOHA, thanked Tau for his leadership and guidance over the last two years. "Thank you for your energy and extensive amount of time spent supporting SABCOHA."

Mears gave a presentation on the activities of the last financial year as well as mapped out the way forward for SABCOHA. He noted there had been a substantial increase in the number of members, including 10 corporates, and that SABCOHA had now introduced a new structure comprising donors, sponsors and members. Members can elect to join the platinum, gold, silver or bronze categories. The minimum fee is now R1 000 per annum (see presentation). 

A new toolkit is also being developed which will be released shortly and SABCOHA is working with Heard to review the HIV/Aids Code of  Practice.

The board additionally agreed to a change in the articles of association to ensure that there was provincial representation on the national board. The chairperson had the pleasure of introducing Dr Judy Dlamini, the chair of Aspen Pharmacare. With an understanding of issues relating to HIV/AIDS, she has, together with Bheki Sibiya, been appointed the private sector representative at SANAC level on behalf of BUSA and SABCOHA.

In closing, Mears thanked the staff membeers for their "incredible commitment" as well as the audit committee, members contributions and donors.

Click here to view the minutes of the AGM:  MoM (2009) 92.00 Kb

Click here to view a presentation given by Brad Mears:  SABCOHA Way Forward (2009) 192.50 Kb

Click here to view the 2008/09 Annual Report:  Annual Report 2008/09 1.04 Mb

Click here to view photographs of the meeting: Image gallery