Business
Tunnel Vision. Who Pays When The Road Is Closed?
This article was written by Tim Chadwick and published by News24 on 27 October 2025 Earlier this month a bus caught fire inside Africa’s longest road tunnel, the Huguenot Tunnel. The flames were sorted out “chop chop”. The traffic, not so much. Like a braai without firelighters, everything smoked for about two weeks. For…
Read MoreMarine Cargo Insurance: Truths and Myths
Marine cargo insurance is not a formality. It is a technical contract that decides whether you recover millions after a loss, or nothing at all. Yet many businesses in SA who depend on international asset transit misunderstand what is covered, when cover stops and why claims fail. Here are some of the blind spots …
Read MoreTop 5 Risks Every South African Franchise Must Tackle
Strong brands do not usually fail on headline risks. They often fail on the risk basics. The five risks below highlight how a franchise system protects its cash flow and its reputation when pressure comes. For each risk you will see the business impact, what insurance can and cannot do and the operating discipline that…
Read MoreWhen Cranes Attack
Soon To Be Sorry Meet the fictional “soon to be sorry” Hennie van der Merwe, who is experiencing what the Germans call “Verschlimmbessern”, making something worse by trying to improve it. He has just signed away five years of his financial soul for a metallic blue BMW M3, complete with leather seats that whisper…
Read MoreInsurance Gaps: When Ports Stop Moving
The sight of 79 vessels anchored outside Durban harbour in late November 2023 looked like a massive maritime traffic jam, akin to the N1 highway suddenly become a parking lot for ocean giants. Over 61,000 containers sat waiting in the Atlantic swells while equipment failures, maintenance backlogs and weather conspired to create one of South…
Read MoreInsurance Gaps Can Be Your Biggest Threat
In the early hours of 9 June 2025, a cold front collided with warm coastal air over the Eastern Cape and turned a routine winter storm into a disaster. Snow fell in the highlands while torrential sheets of rain hammered Mthatha and surrounding districts, swelling rivers faster than storm water drains could empty them. Within…
Read MoreR2m Lost to Phishing Email—Insured or Uninsured?
One click triggered a national system shutdown, exposing a major revenue loss and raising urgent questions about cyber cover and risk structure. Real Event In January 2025, the South African Weather Service suffered a serious breach after staff responded to a phishing email. The message triggered a wider cyberattack that encrypted SAWS systems…
Read MoreHow To Avoid A R423m Unpaid Claim
Lewis Group’s R423 million Business Interruption claim has hit a costly procedural wall. The High Court ruled on the 20 May 2025 that the dispute must be resolved through arbitration, not litigation, as set out in the policy wording. This effectively put the court case on hold. While the insurers had already admitted liability…
Read MoreWhen the Guest Steals the Keys And Everything Else
In South Africa’s growing short term rental market, many property owners are discovering that letting out their property comes with hard lessons. The Davidson case, recently reported on in News24, is one of those lessons—costly, painful and entirely avoidable with the right insurance and risk structure. The Davidson Disaster: A Flat Stripped, A Dream…
Read MoreSupply Chain Vulnerabilities: What South African Businesses Need to Know for 2025
South African companies face an increasingly challenging business environment when it comes to supply chains. Critical infrastructure is frequently cited as South Africa’s top business risk and for good reason. The threats are both unique to our local context and part of global trends. Load shedding interrupts production and compromises temperature sensitive goods. Port congestion…
Read More
