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The path laid out by this competition is undeniably challenging, and although the contestants still in contention for the title have successfully persevered, now is not the moment for them to ease up.
Over the last four weeks, we’ve witnessed escalating tensions, intense eliminations, and moments of jubilant celebration.
And now… we move on to the next task.
Surge in kidnapping cases
The staggering surge in kidnapping cases is becoming a cause for great concern and experts are warning that people should consider turning to specialist consultants trained in handling hostage situations when an abduction occurs.
Catia Folgore, Product Head: Crisis Management at specialist risk insurer iTOO, once warned that kidnapping is becoming big business in South Africa, with well-organised syndicates often planning their attacks for weeks and meticulously studying their victims before striking.
“In most cases, we are dealing with professional crime syndicates that carefully plan and execute abductions for ransom. They often study their victims ahead of time and know how much a family can pay,” she said.
Kidnappings for ransom and extortion typically involve wealthy businesspeople whose families have access to large amounts of cash.
Consultants to the crisis
In episode five of The Insurance Apprentice, sponsored by iTOO Special Risks, an employee of Taken.com (a fictitious company), an SME, was seconded to a foreign country to explore expansion opportunities and grow the business. Unfortunately for this young employee, he was kidnapped and a ransom demand of R10 million was made to the employer.
Having a staff member kidnapped is a disruptive and challenging crisis to navigate. Not only does the company need to deal with the kidnapping itself, but they are also required to support the employee’s family, colleagues, and other stakeholders as well.
The contestants are tasked to report back to the different stakeholders (family, finance, PR and security representatives), on how they would respond to the kidnappers, ensure the employee’s safe return and monitor future threats. The contestants, in this case, are the incident response consultants to the crisis (kidnap).
Did they provide valuable solutions to the judges, who in this case were acting as the representatives – Head Judge, Simon Colman, Co-Judge Nox Dlamini, and sponsor Judge Marissa van der Westhuizen, General Liabilities Claims Manager at iTOO Special Risks?
Watch it here
We would like to thank iTOO Special Risks for sponsoring episode five of The Insurance Apprentice 2024.
• To watch the episode on YouTube, click HERE
• To watch it on the website click HERE
• To watch it on Facebook, click HERE