VIOLENT protests sweeping SA come at a huge cost in damage to property. It is a cost weighing heavily on Sasria, SA’s only insurer covering special risks of this nature.“Claims in our latest financial year [to March 2016] will exceed those in the previous year,” says Sasria MD Cedric Masondo. In the previous year there was also an alarming jump in claims.Driven by losses stemming from what Sasria termed “union-led action”, gross insurance claims in the year to March 2015 came in at R436m, up R175m (67%) on the previous year. “It is a worrying trend,” says Masondo.In the latest financial year the nature of claims changed radically. “In the previous 10 years about 70% of claims were related to labour unrest,” says Masondo. “Last year there were no huge, prolonged labour strikes. About 70% of claims were related to university and service delivery protests.”Claims for damages following protests at universities came in at R120m in the latest financial year, says Masondo. There are still ...
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