Nyaradzo Group CEO Philip Mataranyika said that the funeral insurer will not take legal action against individuals who used social media platforms to spread false information about the company’s operations.
A few months ago, Nyaradzo was a victim of a social media campaign where it was accused of profiteering at the expense of clients.
The activist behind the campaign Alistar Nyamarari Chibanda has since retracted his allegations and apologised to Nyaradzo, claiming he was fed false information.
Speaking in a recent interview with The Standard, Mataranyika said the episode enabled the company to identify some information gaps that it was now addressing. He said:
When the recent debates on social media and elsewhere started, we took time to listen to what was being said, noting what we felt were genuine concerns while sifting through what we felt were sentiments entirely aimed at hurting the brand.
Nyaradzo has always been the one friend you can count on during life’s most trying times.
As a brand, we are committed to our clients with whom we have walked through difficult times.
As such, we were humbled to see many people from different walks of life, our clients included, defend the brand and show how much they know about our products and services.
We also identified some information gaps, which we are now working on plugging.
There were many learning points regarding the needs of the Nyaradzo client of today.
We also took advantage of the increased publicity to reach out to existing and potential clients to whom we reaffirmed our commitment to being at their service at all times.
… this particular incident seems to have been orchestrated by those with little knowledge about the workings of insurance.
Instead of bashing them in return, we will go out to educate them, so they are better informed.
Mataranyika said people who retracted their allegations and apologised may have themselves been victims of false information, hence no legal action will be taken against them. Said Mataranyika:
We knew even as this started and spread that once they had access to correct information and if they are decent beings, the natural response would be to apologise and retract, which is what they did.
We are not pursuing any legal action against them; on the contrary, we have warmly welcomed a significant number of them into the Sahwira family.
Nyaradzo’s doors remain open to everyone who wants an all-weather friend, regardless of background.