South Africa: Leading African Insurance

This chapter traces the history of the South African insurance industry. The first South African insurance company to be founded in Cape Colony was the Zuid-Afrikaansche Brand en Levensversekering Maatschappij in December 1835. A decade later this was followed by the formation of the South African Mutual Life Assurance Society in 1945, which modelled itself on the Scottish Equitable Mutual Life Assurance Society, which was later called Old Mutual. The general growth in the sector continued until by 1861, more than twenty insurance companies operated in the Cape. After the mineral discoveries in the late 1860s, many UK companies extended their business to Johannesburg, while Australian, American, and New Zealand insurance concerns also sought benefit from the rapidly growing urban population and the high risks associated with the mining industry. By the turn of the century, more than fifty foreign insurance companies were doing business in the Cape alone.