On Thursday afternoon social media across South Africa was kicked into overdrive as an email riddled with racist language which appeared to implicate insurance company, MiWay, surfaced on Twitter.
The email which was apparently written by a MiWay claims assessor read; “This is a reminder of yesterday’s manager’s meeting. The final decisions was to reject 90% of claims made by black people as from 1 August 2017. They are an easy target, it’s also a great opportunity to save money and also punish these black baboons.”
The insurance company immediately responded to the claims in an attempt to get out in front of the scandal and minimise the fallout. According to MiWay the email is fake and was created by a disgruntled customer.
MiWay’s response to the email:
Please note our official statement about the fake social media post investigation: https://t.co/CMtNG7NhrD
— MiWay Insurance (@miwayinsurance) July 20, 2017
MiWay CEO René Otto said “this is vicious and we (are) quite angry about what’s happened here. We’ve already done a lot of work in the last two or three hours to trace back where it originates from, and it seems at this stage that it’s a disgruntled client whose claim was rejected. The client then approached the ombudsman to complain about the decision and the ombudsman ruled in our favour and agreed with our decision. And the next thing that happened was this email that surfaced.
“We will get to the bottom of it. We will get independent forensic experts to verify what we’ve uncovered and we will take the necessary steps, both criminal and civil,” Otto said.
With this debacle occurring just months after Outsurance was slated for a “racist” fathers day video, thousands took to Twitter to debate the validity of the email and express their anger at the insurance company and the industry as a whole.
Here are some of the responses:
#MiWay it's fake guys. Let's rather talk about their anti transformation management structure and if they reject black people claims. pic.twitter.com/f5W9LQEHcJ
— Tsapi Wa Mofokeng ? (@ItumelengTsapi) July 21, 2017
The funny thing is the person that started #Miway was one of the founders of outsurance. I can't even.. Too much in common!
— Nikiwe_Shaunique (@Shaunique_Assy) July 21, 2017
If Aarthi Roopnarain is #MiWay employee well every black person must cancel https://t.co/6M5HgcVZXO
— I am Yetu (@RuralKuhle) July 21, 2017
#MiWay I agree this is a fake mail. However South Africans must ensure they deal with insurance companies that are not bias at claim stage.
— Pragasen Chetty (@pragachetty) July 21, 2017
https://twitter.com/zinhle_williams/status/888306216409214976
https://twitter.com/Majase_/status/888307704841850881
https://twitter.com/forexfoodie/status/888307354739118080
Look at the number of people defending #MiWay ,again! This should be a wake up call as how we are defrauded by all these companies daily. pic.twitter.com/3QsubcNT2n
— uMandisi (@MantaYako) July 21, 2017
If this #MiWay email is indeed a hoax, the perpetrator better hope they are not caught. They will face the full might of the law
— Ryan Cummings (@Pol_Sec_Analyst) July 20, 2017
#MiWay the person who was concocting this email didn't even get a chance to finish the disclaimer section…??? pic.twitter.com/AlFFfoebup
— King Crisp (@LarryGCrisp) July 20, 2017
