Johannesburg — SA's biggest black-controlled insurance broker, Indwe Risk Services, planned to spend R100m in acquisitions this year to bolster its fee income by 100% during the next two years, marketing director Bonga Zungu said yesterday.

Indwe, the third-largest insurance broker in SA after Alexander Forbes and Glenrand MIB, was in discussions with a number of companies that it planned to buy, Zungu said, without disclosing the organisations' identities.

This was part of the company's strategy to lift Indwe's fee income from R280m to nearly R600m during the next two years, he said.

Black-owned Pamodzi Investments and Thebe Investments Corporation own 54% of Indwe -- with 600 employees and 30 offices dotted across SA.

Zungu said Indwe was also planning to grow its businesses organically and had acquired top-flight skills from the industry as part of this strategy.

The company had hired brokers from Alexander Forbes, including James Lay, who was regarded as a legend of the industry, and renowned for having handled the insurance of SA's first democratic elections in 1994.

The company had also hired Robin Hancock -- previously the head of business development at Alexander Forbes -- as Indwe's executive head for its corporate arm.

To enhance its team, it also took on Iain Massey, Tshepo Riba, Levy Dube, Latifa Ebrahim and Stephen Chauke, all formerly with SA's largest broker.

Zungu said the new team had taken the broking world by storm, acquiring large accounts from the government, including 60% of all municipal business in KwaZulu-Natal.

This brought to more than 80 the number of municipalities which Indwe handled across the country.

The company had secured Congress of South African Trade Unions , National Union of Metal Workers of SA, Public Servants' Association, Eskom and Transnet business during the past few months.

It had a number of other major accounts in the pipeline, which would catapult it into becoming a big player in the industry, previously a preserve of white-owned and foreign companies.

Indwe chairman Ndaba Ntsele described the appointments as a triumph for the company.

"These appointments reinforce the company's commitment to grow the corporate book in leaps and bounds. In my opinion this is really a great coup and a big step forward for Indwe," Ntsele said.