The number – and size – of insurance claims filed with state-owned political risk insurer Sasria (the South African Special Risks Insurance Association) show just how much violent protests are costing South Africa.
In 2007, after nearly four years of economic growth of over 5%, Sasria received 540 claims worth R14 million for damage as a result of violent protests. Most of those claims were related to labour action.
By 2018 the number of claims had spiked more than 10 times, to 5,543 claims. But the increase in the value of the claims was a hundredfold, to R1.4 billion. Most of those claims were related to service-delivery protests, pointing to a failure of local government.
Protests and road closures have become a daily occurrence across South Africa as marginalised communities take to the street in the belief that they only get noticed when causing damage to public and private property.
There is also a worrying rise in sabotage, with a large number of
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