We need people like Ganas

DENISE Ganas is an ordinary citizen who recently brought a giant to its knees.

When Momentum declined to pay out on her late husband’s death benefits due to medical history non-disclosure, she escalated her objurgation to social media.

Her late husband died in a botched hijacking.

After almost 20 months of fighting the industry captain, Momentum reneged on its initial decision and agreed to pay out, setting a precedent in the annals of the South African life assurance industry.

She was finally heard.

Here we had a gutsy woman who risked everything for a hunch that seemed so right and accurate that to have given in or done otherwise was to have betrayed who she was and everything she believed in.

Her landmark decision now means Momentum will change their trading conditions to pay out to a maximum of R3 million in violent crime deaths, irrespective of the insured’s medical history.

Better still, they have promised to go back and identify previous claimants who were declined such benefits and to arrange payment to them.

The fact that Ganas took her appeal to the ombudsman and was fobbed off, may be suggestive that corroboration still permeates the upper echelons of the industry.

Maybe they thought she would never take it further! There is a lot of manipulation in the financial services industry.

Maybe this world needs more people like Ganas.

While no amount of money will bring back her husband, it will provide financial support for her children to achieve their dreams, which their father valiantly laboured for.