Cape Town – The South African Insurance Association (SAIA), together with several insurance companies across the Western Cape, have said they are experiencing a high level of claims following the level 4 to 8 storms in recent weeks.
They said according to the latest FinMark Trust's Finscope Survey, fewer than 10% of households in South Africa have homeowners' or household contents insurance.
A total of 150 000 people and 47 000 households were impacted by the recent storms.
Earlier, the City's disaster risk management spokesperson, Charlotte Powell, said since July 3, a total of 47 663 structures and 158 097 people had been affected.
This week, Santam Insurance communications confirmed to Weekend Argus that it was dealing with multiple claims from the province due to weather damage, but that it was too soon to divulge the financial impact.
In April, Santam responded to 160 claims in one day due to storm damage. This week, SAIA said the extent of claims were still being processed and assessed and that it could not determine the financial outcome as yet.
In November last year, SAIA confirmed that insurance claims for storm, lightning, hail and wind damage due to extreme weather events came to about R35 million for a total of 9 392 separate claims.
Johanni Jennings, from Auto & General Insurance, said they were inundated with claims and it was too soon to give an outcome.
“The storms in the Western Cape have caused substantial damage to homes, specifically roofs, and road infrastructure.
“Our focus is on restoration, and on assisting customers who have been affected by the severe weather.
“The claim count is increasing daily so it's too soon to comment on the total extent.”
This week, the Cape Argus reported that the Western Cape government was still assessing the damage caused by the storms in the province and estimated it to be in excess of R1 billion.
Anton Bredell, MEC for Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, said the weather damage was estimated to be around R1bn, excluding agricultural damage.
Louis Pienaar, executive director: engineering services at Drakenstein Municipality, said they were waiting waiting on disaster authorities.
“For background, as soon as the national Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs declares a disaster in terms of the National Disaster Management Act, a prescribed process is initiated which is managed by the National Disaster Management Centre and the Provincial Disaster Management Centre, with the support of engineers.”
Last month, provincial government confirmed that the provincial disaster response grant received a R149 345m injection and the municipal disaster response grant received R378 342 for possible significant weather events this year.
Two significant weather events occurred in June and September last year in the province causing significant damage to infrastructure, the agricultural sector, educational facilities and loss of lives and saw a total amount of R130 457 570 allocated.
Eskom restored power to 5 000 households in Khayelitsha which had been plunged into darkness by the storms in recent days and weeks.
More than 25 000 people were left without electricity last week in areas across the Western Cape, which included, Botrivier, Khayelitsha, Betty's Bay, Somerset West surrounding farms, Rawsonville surrounding farms, De Doorns, parts of Macassar to Delft.
Cemeteries in parts of the City were not excluded from the storm impact.
Mayco member for community services and health, Patricia Van der Ross, said that severe weather conditions resulted in flooding in parts of City cemeteries, namely Maitland, Plumstead, Muizenberg, Khayelitsha, Ottery and Gugulethu, among others.