SA’s Life Insurance Price Fixing Probe: Still No Answers

Three years after dawn raids rocked the sector, South Africa’s biggest insurance collusion probe has gone silent

In August 2022, the offices of several major life insurers were raided at sunrise. The Competition Commission launched an aggressive crackdown, suspecting insurers of colluding to fix prices on products ranging from funeral cover to retirement annuities.

The raids made headlines. Documents were seized. Emails and pricing data were collected. The Commission believed companies were working together to manipulate premium rates and trading conditions across multiple financial products.

Yet in 2025, the investigation has all but disappeared from public view.

From high drama to dead quiet

The investigation began quietly in early 2021. By 2022, the Commission had gathered enough evidence to justify search-and-seizure operations. Suspicions centred on insurers exchanging sensitive pricing data, possibly through password-protected platforms, shared disks, and even an alleged “rate book” dating back to 1989.

If proven, this collusion could mean South Africans were overcharged for decades on essential products like life insurance, chronic illness cover, and investment-linked annuities.

But since those explosive raids, updates have been scarce.

What we know in 2025

When pressed for updates this year, the Competition Commission confirmed the investigation remains ongoing but provided no further details.

Spokesperson Siyabulela Makunga told BusinessTech that no new information can be shared at this stage. Most insurers linked to the probe, including Discovery Life, have either declined to comment or referred queries back to the Commission.

Discovery Life, one of the key players under scrutiny, maintains it is cooperating fully but denies any collusion with competitors.

A 2023 Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) request by News24 revealed the Commission was reviewing data spanning over 30 years. Allegations include physical pricing records and digital sharing of product rates via secure platforms.

Why this matters

For ordinary South Africans, this is more than a corporate scandal. Life insurance, funeral plans, and disability cover are lifelines. If prices were artificially inflated due to collusion, millions of households could have been unfairly burdened, eroding trust in the financial sector.

Legal experts argue the Commission would not have obtained search warrants without strong evidence. The prolonged silence could indicate a meticulous evidence review rather than a stalled case.

Still, the lack of transparency leaves the public questioning: Will there ever be accountability, or was this just another headline that fizzled out?

Public reaction and transparency

On social media, consumer advocates have grown increasingly frustrated. Calls for transparency have intensified, with some questioning whether powerful insurers are evading public scrutiny.

The Commission insists the investigation continue. But for South Africans grappling with rising costs, silence is not an acceptable answer.

The question remains: How much longer must we wait?

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Source: Business Tech

Featured Image: Dawn