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Johannesburg – MiWay Insurance will make public all evidence about a racist email that was allegedly sent by an employee of the company once an investigation has been concluded, CEO Reno Otto said on Friday.
"Once we have the independent auditors verify that it is fake, we will make it public and anyone who wants to challenge that can contact me or come to my office. We have absolutely nothing to hide," Otto said.
The company made headlines on Thursday when a screengrab of an email, allegedly sent from a MiWay employee, found its way onto social media. It was dated March 27, 2017, and sent at 15:26.
It reads: "Good day Nobu. This is a reminder of yesterdays (sic) managers meeting. The final decision was to reject 90% of claims made by black people as from 1 August 2017. They are an easy target, its (sic) also a great opportunity to save money and also punish these black baboons."
Nobu is an employee in the company’s disputes department who had sent an email to a customer whose claim was rejected.
READ: MiWay denies sending email calling black people 'baboons'
Genuine or fake
Otto said no criminal charge had been laid yet.
He said the individual who sent it could not be named yet, but "everyone will know, all in good time".
Forensic investigators were trying to determine whether the email was genuine or fake. Once the investigation had been completed, a report would be made available to the public.
"We are confident that the email is fake. If someone does not believe it after the investigation, they can send someone else. We do not want to leave any room for someone to say that we are squashing this."
Otto said it appeared that a disgruntled customer sent the email.
The individual lodged a claim in March, which was rejected. The person approached the disputes department, which confirmed the company’s finding.
The client then approached the short-term insurance Ombudsman, who ruled in MiWay’s favour. Otto said he assumed the client was not happy with the ruling. "Clearly he did not have any good intentions."
"I personally think they are deeply hurt. I really want to understand this person and see things through their eyes."
At the moment, there was no evidence showing that the email came from MiWay Insurance’s server. He said the uproar about the email racism had led some people to call to cancel their policies.
"But after convincing them, they didn’t. So it has not been a complete disaster from a business point of view," he said.
