The South African Special Risks Insurance Association (Sasria) has received just over 14 000 claims relating to the July unrest in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, amounting to R32 billion.
In an update yesterday, the organisation said R12.6bn had been paid out by Monday, November 15. Its target is to settle 80% of the claims of below R60 million by March next year.
Sasria said it was grateful to National Treasury for the additional R11bn allocation, as this would “significantly contribute towards honouring clients’ claims and recapitalising the organisation”.
Sasria also extended its appreciation to the insurance industry for its “overwhelming support”.
In terms of all claims received, the most in number and rand value came in the following order: fire commercial, heavy commercial vehicles, light commercial vehicles, and business interruption.
The vast majority of claims (12 000 out of the 14 000) were below R1 million. These claims had a total value of R2.259bn.
Cedric Masondo, Sasria’s managing director, said: “On these claims, our agent companies have been engaged and mandated to facilitate the claims. The agent companies have been given a float of over R2.6bn to settle claims within their mandate and to date have paid over R1.8bn and are on track to settle the remaining claims by the end of December.”
Masondo said Sasria had picked up incidents of fraud and the inflation of claims. “Therefore, we have made our loss adjusters the first gatekeepers, ensuring that claims reach Sasria and an internal team makes further rigorous assessments, in line with our standard quality control processes. There are also complementary controls led by reputable independent forensic auditors and an independent building moderation team,” he said.
PERSONAL FINANCE