On Thursday night, Competition Commission officials were still copying documents and hard drives at the offices of at least one life assurer - after their day started with unprecedented dawn raids at eight prominent companies.
"It's going to be a long night. The Red Bull is standing on the desk," one of the investigators told Fin24, outside the headquarters of one of South Africa’s largest life offices.
Early on Thursday morning, Sanlam, Old Mutual, Discovery, Momentum, PPS, Hollard, Bidvest Life and Blackrock were raided. They stand accused of engaging in "collusive practices" to fix prices and trading conditions affecting fees for retirement annuities (RAs) and a host of other risk insurance products. Liberty was the only big insurer not affected.