Alliance Insurance Company (Private) Limited has been branded a “shambles and a disgrace” after it failed to settle a multi-million-dollar claim despite collecting premiums on the policy for years, a crisis that has now escalated to the point where the High Court has issued a writ authorising the seizure of the insurer’s movable property.
The writ of execution, issued on April 10, 2026, follows the insurer’s default on a court-registered settlement agreement under which it had undertaken to pay Paramount Exports US$4 million plus interest and legal costs within 10 working days.
The saga traces back to a devastating fire on December 4, 2023, which razed Paramount’s three-storey, 8,000-square-metre warehouse at 14 Plymouth Road in Southerton, Harare, destroying all stock, equipment and inventory housed within. The garment manufacturer — a significant exporter supplying clothing to regional and international markets — had maintained an all-risk insurance policy with Alliance, under which its stock was insured for US$14,6 million and broader cover extended to US$50 million.
The premiums, Paramount insists, were paid faithfully and in full, year after year, on the strength of that cover.
“Alliance accepted liability in January 2024 and even elected to reconstruct the building,” Paramount Director Jeremy Youmans told this publication. “What we have received instead is two and a half years of delays, broken settlements and legal evasion. Premiums were written, underwriters accepted them, and money was paid. There is no money in the coffers to pay the claim.”
Youmans did not mince words about the state of the insurer and the industry it operates in: “The insurance sector is clearly in deep, deep trouble and have failed to provide for liabilities they are required to provide for. Our stock was insured for $14,600,000 and premiums were paid on that amount. How can the whole insurance industry now not be able to pay a proven claim of about $11,700,000? They can’t even afford to pay $4,000,000. It is a shambles. It is a disgrace.”
What should have been a straightforward insurance claim has instead become one of the most protracted disputes in the history of the sector. Having accepted liability in early 2024 and formally elected to rebuild the destroyed premises under the terms of a US$24 million policy, Alliance invited reconstruction tenders, approved a US$4,6 million bid and scheduled works for September 1, 2024. The rebuilding never began.
By November 2024, the insurer had withdrawn its election and offered Paramount US$3,8 million in cash — a sum the company dismissed as a fraction of the US$15 million surveyor-estimated rebuild cost, and one Justice Maxwell Takuva later branded “wholly inadequate.” In February 2026, the High Court ordered Alliance to reconstruct the factory within six months and in compliance with City of Harare requirements, ruling that under Roman-Dutch law an insurer who unequivocally elects to reinstate cannot unilaterally change its mind. To date, not one brick has been laid.
On the stock and equipment losses, Paramount lodged a US$11,77 million claim in April 2024. Alliance countered with a US$3 million offer, and the dispute went to arbitration. After a six-day tribunal in which Paramount submitted more than 1,800 documents, arbitrator Innocent Chagonda awarded the company US$11,682,151 — adjusted for shrinkage and obsolescence — plus five percent annual interest dating back to the day of the fire. The arbitrator found Paramount’s valuation “more real and plausible,” describing the insurer’s own figures as “unclear and contradictory.”
Alliance challenged the award on the final day of the 90-day appeal window, arguing before the High Court that paying it would be “contrary to the Public Policy of Zimbabwe” because of the “devastating effect” it would have on the insurance industry. The insurer’s own court papers revealed that the award was more than seven times its statutory reserve requirement of US$1,5 million.
In March 2026, during a High Court hearing on a partial award, Alliance approached Paramount with a settlement: US$4 million — barely a third of the arbitrated amount — plus interest and legal costs, payable within 10 working days. Paramount accepted, and the agreement was registered with the High Court.
The insurer failed to meet the deadline. Hence the writ of execution, which now allows the sheriff to attach Alliance’s movable property to enforce payment.
“The monies that were supposed to be accumulated to cover claims appear to have been squandered,” Youmans alleged. “We do not have cover in Zimbabwe. We face risks at our own cost. Premiums were money wasted.”
Compounding the controversy, the Paramount policy had been reinsured onto eight companies — local players Emeritus Re, First Mutual Re, FBC Re, ZB Re, Tropical Re and Grand Re, alongside regional reinsurers ZEP Re and WAICA Re. Reports indicate that at least one major reinsurer was asked to mobilise funds, yet Paramount says no payment has been received from any of them.
The Paramount director also levelled the charge at the Insurance and Pensions Commission (IPEC), arguing the regulator has failed to act despite being notified of the insurer’s conduct.
“Our brokers were told by IPEC that Alliance had been summoned and told to honour the Final Arbitral Award and not appeal it. Obviously, they ignored that,” Youmans said. “They do not respect the courts. They do not respect lawyers. They do not respect arbitrators. They do not respect policyholders.”
The fallout has hit hard at home. Paramount’s workforce has contracted from a projected 3,000 employees to 2,000, its business interruption benefits continue to accrue on a company that was never rebuilt, and expansion plans lie frozen.
For Youmans, the dispute strikes at the heart of the country’s investment proposition: “How can we entice investors to come when we can’t even ensure that they can protect their assets?”
By mid-May 2026, Alliance was reportedly back before the courts seeking a review of the order compelling payment of the nearly US$11,7 million award — the latest chapter in a legal saga that has already consumed more than two years.
Alliance Insurance officials could not be reached for comment at the time of going to print.
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