This thesis covers the history of short term reinsurance in South Africa from 1950 to 1985 and shows how it developed from a very limited market in which insurers generally relied on British and European professional reinsurers to a viable local market albeit with strong foreign support. The study demonstrates that the local reinsurance market grew in parallel with the development of the South African economy and the consequent need for extensive cover arising from the country's industrial expansion. It considers the different problems of the two waves of locally established reinsurers and the different circumstances prevailing in the two distinct eras of South African short term reinsurance. The conclusion reached is that, notwithstanding the varied results of individual reinsurers and the collapse of two local reinsurance companies, the market performed well and succeeded in meeting the needs of the South African short term insurance market