The SA Insurance Association’s data indicates that there are 5,7 million uninsured motorists in South Africa which essentially means that we are sharing the road with 6 out of 10 vehicles not being insured. The fact that a vehicle is not insured means, in most cases, that the person driving the vehicle cannot afford insurance premiums and what that really boils down to is they will not be able to afford to fix their car, let alone anyone else’s car they crash into, in the event of an accident.

Contrary to people’s thoughts, insurance companies are in fact not making huge profits – in fact, Santam has gone from a R498 million profit in 2004 to R164 million profit in 2007 and by 2009, they ran the year to a R29 million loss. That’s a steady decline into loss making. The less people are insured, the more the insurance companies will have to pay out to those who are insured and inevitably, despite competition, we are likely to see short-term insurance rates heading upwards quite steeply because no company will continue to run at a loss for very long.