South Africa\u2019s state-owned risk insurer, which the government bailed out so it could meet claims stemming from riots four years ago, has built up a R20 billion buffer to safeguard its finances in the event of anticipated future unrest.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sasria SOC Ltd. had to pay out about R32 billion following the July 2021 turmoil in the KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces and turned to the state for R22 billion to meet its obligations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some 354 people died in the upheaval, which was triggered by former President Jacob Zuma\u2019s imprisonment on contempt charges and tapped into widespread discontent over unemployment and poverty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAll the ingredients for a protest are in place \u2014 someone just needs to light the match<\/strong>,\u201d Mpumi Tyikwe, the insurer\u2019s chief executive officer, said in an interview in Bloomberg\u2019s Johannesburg office last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe can handle a significant event now. I think anything up to R20 billion Sasria would be able to handle without tapping the taxpayer.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The company covers damages arising from public disorder, labor unrest and terrorism \u2014 risks commercial companies are largely unwilling to protect against. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It was set up in 1979 in the wake of the 1976 Soweto uprising, which began as a peaceful protest by students unhappy about being taught in Afrikaans and turned deadly after the police fired on them. The unrest dragged on for months and was seen as a turning point in the anti-apartheid struggle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Numerous retail outlets and warehouses were looted during the 2021 riots. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Demand for Sasria\u2019s services rose as a result and it has increased its premium revenue by 88%, according to Tyikwe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While the upheaval made it harder to get insurance in KwaZulu-Natal, the epicenter of the violence, he said his organization doesn\u2019t differentiate between provinces when it comes to pricing. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last year\u2019s peaceful national elections enabled Sasria to sign up 15 new reinsurers for the current financial year and it is preparing to double the amount of insurance a single client can buy to R1 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re in a fairly good space now,\u201d Tyikwe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The company is considering expanding the scope of its cover as government agencies struggle to get insurance for risks such as fire, although that would require the state to contribute additional capital. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere are state-owned entities experiencing challenges in placing conventional insurance,\u201d Tyikwe said. \u201cWe have been requested to step in.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The World Bank has meanwhile recommended that Sasria provide cover for climate change-related events, with disasters an increasingly common occurrence in South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLet\u2019s say two years from now, we should be operating in that particular space,\u201d Tyikwe said. \u201cIt\u2019ll require a change in legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" South Africa\u2019s state-owned risk insurer has built up a R20 billion buffer to safeguard its finances in the event of anticipated future unrest and riots.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":809510,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,1],"tags":[14171,21167],"class_list":["post-833562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-trending","tag-sasria","tag-unrest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833562"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":833566,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833562\/revisions\/833566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/809510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}