The sheer reassurance of being a forty-five-year-old who has lived in the comfort of relative financial stability for over four decades suddenly disrupts that comfort with what could define the rest of your life or produce different results. Anyone at that age would want the latter result: to recover from the financial mayhem and chart a new path that reflects having learned from this experience and self-introspecting that it will never happen again.
The riots in July 2021 continue to be one of the most unfortunate, debilitating, violent, destructive, and economically damaging events in the history of our young constitutional democracy. Many lives, in homes and businesses, were left shattered; to this day, some are still working towards recovery.
The devastation of those eight days in July 2021 saw the South African economy lose money it couldn’t afford—close to R50 billion. Consequentially, Sasria SOC Limited (Sasria) was hit by a bill of R32 billion in claims. With the help of a committed government shareholder, this was addressed, as 99% of these claims were paid out.
While the looting affected only two provinces in SA, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, the latter was the hardest hit. The insured losses to the KZN economy were estimated at a staggering R20 billion, with a lot of businesses and traders affected the most. Fortunately, most of the businesses that claimed and were successfully paid out are back in business, rebuilding and doing what they do best, with the best possible hindsight of being more prepared and living with the hope that July 2021 won’t happen again.
Jobs were lost, and those who used to feed several families lost their income. In some instances, recovery has been challenging and has yet to be attained. To this day, some businesses at the Sam Ntuli Mall in Katlehong, Ekurhuleni, decided not to return. Communities became poorer without some of these businesses, trust was lost, and regular services became scarce and inaccessible. Sasria, as always, was going to be there for the owners of the mall if coverage was considered, which is something we will always encourage small and big business owners to do.
Families were left mourning as 350 lives were lost, a development we should ensure never happens again. These riots put a dent in our reputation as a nation known for putting dialogue above any disagreement, not the loss of lives and destruction of infrastructure.
We are aware of the challenges our country is facing. These challenges tell us we have been resilient enough as a nation, simply meaning we can adeptly address our low GDP growth, unemployment, inequality, and poverty and arrest the decline of our crumbling infrastructure.
At 42 years, Sasria’s existence was threatened; currently, at 45, Sasria is continuing to prove that it’s here to stay. We look forward to another 45 years as we seek to play an involved role in strengthening our economy, working closely with all stakeholders as we strive to see the success of the seventh constitutional democracy administration.
Article by Nkateko Mayimele, Executive Manager: Claims at Sasria
Sasria is an authorised FSP registered under license number 39117
