New rape insurance gets better reception

JOHANNESBURG -- Less than a month after the country's first rape insurance policy was launched amid controversy, a second rape insurance policy was launched here this week -- and a further three such policies are expected to hit the insurance market in the next few months.

The latest policy, LifeSense's new Rape Care policy, will cost R11 a month and will benefit policy-holders by R14000 in benefits designed for rape survivors.

The latest policy has been more positively viewed by anti-rape organisations than the first policy launched last month by CGU Insurance.

That policy was initially slammed for not being consultative enough. Since its launch, however, CGU has been involved in consultation with a number of organisations. CGU's policy costs R25 a month and provides benefits of R10000.

LifeSense's policy was from the start far more consultative in its formulation, say anti-rape organisations, and includes a number of important and interesting aspects, such as the R1000 security benefit which can be used to upgrade security at a survivor's home -- for example, to change locks or have burglar bars installed, or for self-defence courses.

LifeSense, a medical benefits organisation, said the policy has been underwritten by Lloyds of London. It provides a top-up policy should the rape survivor become HIV-positive as a result of rape.

The rape insurance policy, says managing director Angus Rowe, will provide tools for rape survivors and their families to assist them in rebuilding their lives.

This will include counselling and medical treatment, an anti-retroviral starter pack, the home delivery of the full 28-day anti-retroviral treatment, and HIV testing for one year.

Policy-holders will also have access to a 24-hour trauma line run by MRI.

Rape survivor Charlene Smith, who was closely consulted in the formulation of the policy, said what stood out for her was the fact that the policy stated that rape does not have to be penetrative.

"To put you at risk of becoming HIV-positive, the perpetrator can ejaculate in your mouth or over a sore on your body. It does not have to be penetrative.

"Another aspect that stands out is the R1000 security benefit. Fear is a very real aspect after you have been raped. Other aspects are that HIV tests are carried out for up to a year."

Of the R11 per policy per month, 57c will go into a fund to be ploughed back into the community to help fight rape. CGU is donating R1 of every R25 policy to a similar fund of its own. -- DDC