Category: Insurance News / Short Term Insurance / SAIA / July 2006

Crime down but household burglary up

The latest published crime statistics showed a decrease in key areas that concern the short-term insurance industry. 

The South African Insurance Association (SAIA), through its corporate affairs manager, Vivienne Pearson, commended Business Against Crime on a job well done.

“We have experienced an overall decline in car-jackings over the past four years (down 21,5% between 2001 and 2005), and a huge reduction in truck hijacking incidents (from 3 333 in 2001/2002 to 930 in (2004/2005),” she said.

“This was also accompanied by a decrease of 13% over the same period for theft of motor vehicles. Similarly, incidents of theft from motor vehicles decreased by 25% over this fouryear period.”  “One area of concern for insurers is a slight increase in the house robbery figures.  This is, however, not huge with 9 391 incidents reported for the 2004/2005 period, compared with 9 063 for 2002/2003,” she added.

On the other hand, declining figures for burglaries at residential premises (8,75% over the four-year period from 2001/2002 to 2004/2005), burglaries at business premises (35,6%), and business robberies (5 498 incidents in 2002/2003 to 3 320 incidents in 2004/2005) bode well for the future.

Arson figures have stayed relatively stable over this period, which is also good news for short-term insurers. During the past four years SAIA has donated in excess of R5 million to Business Against Crime.

Source:  Santam e-focus February 2006

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