Sasria has issued a 10-day deadline for the submission of claims related to the civil unrest in July 2021, as it seeks to conclude payments in the wake of the unprecedented riots and looting that will cost it an estimated R27bn.
The 10-days terms, effective from June 13, includes all outstanding claims for the July riots and those that don’t have the necessary information from claimants, the state insurer said.
The violence in July, mostly in KwaZulu-Natal, was sparked by the arrest and imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma for contempt of court. The ensuing rampage led to the deaths of more than 300 people, while roughly 200 shopping malls and 1,787 stores were damaged or set ablaze, disrupting food supplies countrywide. KwaZulu-Natal was plunged into a humanitarian crises and food and relief aid had to be airlifted into the province.
Sasria said in a statement on Tuesday that while progress had been made in processing claims from insured losses, many were still outstanding.
“Despite significant progress made, there are still claims that have been without progress due to lack of information from clients,” Sasria said. “The current situation necessitates that we enforce a 10-days terms step in our claims process for outstanding claims.
“Sasria will no longer put effort on these claims and consider them as not taken up and close the files. Where signed agreements of losses have still not been returned to process payments we will close our files without an option to reopen. The 10-days terms is effective, as of June 13 2022. Exception will be for matters under dispute,” the statement reads.
Sasria also advised that in the interest of transparency, it has a responsibility to provide information requested by bodies of authority and has therefore been providing information to Sars on settlement amounts and service provider invoices.
The state insurer recently said that had security authorities responded within the first days of the unrest and assuming no additional consequential damage the loss could have amounted to about R12bn rather than the current R27bn estimate.
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