After months of legal battles and enduring the shaming of their brands on social media in the hopes that it will all be worth it in the end, South African short-term insurers have now accepted they have to pay some lockdown claims.
Almost all insurers - save for Outsurance and smaller players like Bryte and Incompass Insurance Consultants - spent most of 2020 arguing the lockdown was not covered by their business interruption policies.
The latest announcement by Santam that it too is now starting to assess the claims it initially rejected sets a new tone: that the industry has finally accepted that its defence was erroneous.
