Nyaradzo Group Boss, Philip Mataranyika, In Bad PR

The raging topic that dominated the social media platform Twitter for the whole weekend exposed Nyaradzo Group founder and Chief Executive Officer Philip Mataranyika.

In a rare fashion, it was the CEO of a top company trying out PR duties instead of letting the PR team do the work. As expected, Mataranyika made the situation worse with his tone when he responded to the debate around the company’s funeral benefits.

Posting on his Facebook page, Mataranyika sought to explain that the company was not giving its clients a raw deal. He wrote:

“Just to give perspective to the discussion that has been raging on social media for the past few hours. I would like to let the public know that we have policies that mature and those that do not because for two reasons, pricing and flexibility. Over the years, we have had policies that mature and could cover only principal members.”

Although he made reference to their trademark 6-Pack policy, it was the figures he used that torched a storm:

“The first of those policies was the 6-Pack whose highest premium for all six is US$57. Because clients saw value in a policy transaction that covered six members of the family including parents from both sides, they opted out of the traditional policies that mature and migrated to the 6-Pack plan.

The numbers exposed a CEO who was now out of touch with the operations of his company. Mataranyika supposed that funeral costs ran into 10,000USD an assumption that many disputed.

“With our six-pack plan, which covers six people of any age the highest premium is US$57 per month. Let’s work it out together so you see what this means. $57×12=$684. Multiply that by say 20 years which is $13680. Now among those that can be covered under the six-pack plan are parents of both spouses, four of them who may all be above the age of 70 and may die within the twenty-year period. Assuming the cost of funeral services for each is about US$10000. Multiply that by 4 which gives you US$40000 and you still have the husband and wife to go. Assuming they both die within the twenty-year period, the cost of service provision goes up to US$60000.”

The CEO seems oblivious to the fact that clients now have to pay extra money to get the bus even though their initial packages said the bus was part of the cover.

Many believe Nyaradzo will revise their policy conditions although the CEO remains adamant that they are offering their best under prevailing economic conditions.