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Fake news once again hit on Thursday, this time targeting MiWay with a racist email being circulated around the company. We had a look.
On Thursday, July 21 a fake email was 'leaked' accusing local insurance company MiWay of being racist.
The issue has gained national attention with the public accusing the company's staff member for sending the racist email.
The email read as follows:
"This is a reminder of yesterday's managers 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 company has denied the claims and MiWay's CEO, Rene Otto has confirmed that it was a "disgruntled client" who was responsible for creating that mail.
"We have pinpointed the person but we have to do proper research and have enough evidence to make it public and do anything about it," explains MiWay's Marketing Head, Luan Koorts.
What About The Employee?
Otto has reassured the public that there has been a thorough investigation conducted and the employee whose name was on the email, is completely innocent. According to Koorts, this particular employee was dealing with this client whose claim was denied. The client altered the email and used the employee's signature to make it look like she had sent it."IT looked into her account at exactly what the mail stated. The true email that she sent on that date and time was something very innocent like- Please fill in your details and send back to me. The email was therefore manipulated to look like she had sent the racist email," adds Koorts.The email mentions that the employee attended a particular management meeting. MiWay has confirmed that she is not part of management and has never attended a management meeting. Since the incident, the employee has been receiving death threats and malicious backlash. MiWay has provided her with security and she has been told to take leave and rest.
What Does MiWay Plan To Do?
The Ombudsman for Short-Term Insurance (OSTI) released its 2016 annual report and MiWay’s overturn rate was the lowest of the large insurers. Over 70% of the companies clients are black South Africans so the email would be detrimental to the company's large clientele base. The insurance company has employed a private investigator to get to the bottom of the issue."He will have to be prosecuted because he has caused reputational damage," confirms Koorts. Find the right car insurance company to meet your needs. Compare today!
Anti-Racism Campaign Want Answers
On Friday, the Black Land First(BLF) campaign protested outside MiWay's Centurion office in Johannesburg. BLF demanded answers from the company. Otto conducted a question and answer session with the organisation at the MiWay offices."We are very transparent about everything. I think that the wind was taken out of their sails because we weren’t aggressive or defensive about it," explains Koorts.MiWay has worked to reach to all of their customers around the country. They have sent out messages to their clients reassuring them that the issue will be resolved. Koorts mentioned that there are various staff members replying to all the social media queries being received by the company.
Not The First Racial Incident
MiWay is not the first insurance company to be dealt the racism card. In June this year, local insurance giant, Outsurance was criticized for their Father's Day ad. The ad was aimed at depicting the strength that fathers possess. The public however, quickly picked up that all the fathers represented were only white. The company blamed the ad on a junior employee and the video was quickly removed from the site. *MiWay promises to reveal the name of the suspect once the investigation is complete.See what our other satisfied customers have to say about how much they are saving every month!