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RAF beneficiaries in long wait for justice
Written by Zelda Venter | 12 May 2023 SIX months after a Pretoria law firm launched a Constitutional Court challenge on behalf of six road accident victims in an effort to secure trial dates for their matters, they are still waiting to hear whether their case will be entertained or not. Gert Nel, of the law firm, Gert Nel Incorporated, said in filing the application on an urgent basis, the applicants were yet to hear from Chief Justice Raymond Zondo on the matter. Nel said in many cases claimants had been waiting years and in some cases, claimants had died before their claims could be finalised. He referred to an article in a business publication earlier this month in which Pick n Pay chairperson Gareth Ackerman said that the government was raking in millions of rand as a “windfall tax” because of load shedding. Ackerman noted that 37% of the
RAF appeals ruling that its non-payment of medical aid-covered claims is unlawful
Written by Roy Cokayne | Published 13 Mar 2023 The financially distressed Road Accident Fund (RAF) is appealing a judgment that declared unlawful its directive that no payments be made to claimants if their medical aid scheme has already paid for their medical expenses arising from a road accident. Discovery Health CEO Dr Ryan Noach told Moneyweb the RAF applied to the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) on 20 February for leave to appeal the judgment. Discovery has filed its answering affidavit and expects a ruling from the SCA within four to six weeks,” he said. In addition, on 3 March Discovery Health applied to the Pretoria High Court in terms of Section 18(3) of the RAF Act to compel the enforcement of the unlawfulness of the RAF’s directive, Noach added. Responding to a request for comment, RAF senior manager media & PR Linda Rulashe said: “The RAF has no comment on this
RAF mum on whether it’s halted contentious tariffs for accident claimants
Written by Bongani Hans | Published Mar 12 2023 THE Road Accident Fund (RAF) has been accused of trying to defy a court order that interdicted it and the department of transport from implementing medical tariffs that might leave road accident victims under-compensated for injuries. Pretoria High Court Judge Ronel Tolmay late last year interdicted the RAF from implementing the tariffs that were promulgated on August 19 by then minister of transport Fikile Mbalula. The matter against RAF and Mbalula had been brought to court by the National Council of and for Persons with Disabilities (NCPD) and the Law Society of South Africa (LSSA), who opposed the new tariffs. The new RAF policy, which is meant to prescribe a set of standardised medical tariffs that victims of car accidents submit to the fund, is allegedly prejudicial to the victims whose injuries left most of them disabled or without breadwinners. It is
Road Accident Fund backlog matter still unresolved
Written by Zelda Venter | Published Feb 28, 2023 Pretoria – Obtaining court dates for trials involving Road Accident Fund (RAF) matters still remains an uphill battle. In this regard, Pretoria law firm Gert Nel Incorporated is still awaiting word from the Constitutional Court (Concourt) on whether it will entertain this constitutional challenge. It filed an application with the Concourt in December, in a bid to access the highest court in the country directly. The legal challenge involved the legality of court directives legal practitioners have to navigate to attain court dates for their clients in claims against the RAF. According to the head of the law firm, Gert Nel, the hurdles caused delays and in some cases, claimants had to wait years before their cases were dealt with by the court. He said in some cases lodged with the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, the backlog was so big that
Teenager Mmakgoshi Edith Molala involved in accident waits 12 years for justice
By Zelda Venter Pretoria – Nearly 13 years ago, a teenager was about to start her matric year when she was a passenger in a car which was involved in an accident. Mmakgoshi Edith Molala, who was 17 in January 2008 when the accident occured, waited more than 12 years for justice. She at first lodged her claim directly to the Road Accident Fund (RAF). Nothing came of it and the fund later told her the claims had prescribed. Seven years later an attorney took on her plight, resulting in a judge recently ordering that she should receive more than R8-million from the RAF. Molala sustained a severe head injury with facial scarring that resulted in mood disturbances, memory and concentration difficulty, personality and behavioural changes as a result of her injuries. She was at the time hospitalised for more than a month. Shortly after the accident her mother made
Personal Injury Specialist Attorney Wins Industry Award
DURBAN, 20 June 2019 – Media Release by LexisNexis Pretoria based attorney, Gert Nel of independent law firm, Gert Nel Inc, recently scooped the 2018 LexisNexis Prize for Legal Practitioners for the best article by a practising attorney published in De Rebus, the official journal of the attorneys profession. His winning article, Decoding s 2(1)(a) and (b) of the Contingency Fees Act, was published in the June 2018 edition of De Rebus. It focused on several issues, including the origin of contingency fees, foreign law, incentives for legal practitioners, the reasonability of fees and how the fees should be calculated. Nel said he wrote the article to serve as a reference and a practical guideline to be used by any practitioner engaging clients on a contingency fees basis. “The correct interpretation of Section 2(1)(a) and (b) of the Contingency Fees Act 66 of 1997 (CFA) has always been a contentious
Court orders R2m payout to former actor Theunis Nel
15 March 2019 – BY ZELDA VENTER ON IOL.CO.ZA Pretoria – Soapie actor and presenter of various Afrikaans television magazine shows, Theunis Nel, is due to receive R2million in general damages from the Road Accident Fund (RAF) following a motorcycle accident after which his arm had to be amputated. Nel has featured in popular soapies such as Egoli and Sonkring. He also presented several programmes, including Pasella. He was also the producer and director of Woema – a programme featuring the sport of motoring and motorcycling. Nel is a respected member of the motorcycle community. He was involved in an motorcycle accident in 2014 on the N1 highway, near the Garsfontein off-ramp in Pretoria. Netcare 911, which attended to the accident at the time, described his condition as critical. Nel, who temporarily regained consciousness at the scene, recalled that one of the paramedics said he would probably not survive. He
Little girl awarded big court payout
PRETORIA NEWS 13 MARCH 2018 ZELDA VENTER LITTLE Omphile Ngwenya will never be able to walk, talk or eat by herself – all due to the negligence of some doctors and nurses at the Pholosong Hospital in Brakpan. The now 5-year-old was born in 2012 with brain damage after the medical staff at both this hospital and the KwaThema Clinic failed to act fast enough when it was realised the foetus was in distress. It appeared that Omphile was too large for her mother Lindiwe Ngwenya’s pelvis. She urgently needed to have a Caesarian Section, but due to staff and doctors dragging their heels, this was done too late. By the time she was eventually born in the early hours of March 24, 2012, Omphile suffered severe lack of oxygen, leaving her with permanent brain damage. She now suffers from severe cerebral palsy. Her mother instituted a damages claim against
Hond byt kind, so vrou moet betaal
[av_heading tag=’h1′ padding=’10’ heading=’Hond byt kind, so vrou moet betaal’ color=” style=’blockquote modern-quote’ custom_font=” size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ custom_class=” admin_preview_bg=” av-desktop-hide=” av-medium-hide=” av-small-hide=” av-mini-hide=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” margin=”] Beeld 28 Sep 2016 Jeanne Marié Versluis [/av_heading] [av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” av_uid=’av-82fli’ admin_preview_bg=”] Die “word-gou-gesond”-kaartjie en sjokolade wat ’n honde-eienaar gestuur het aan ’n agtjarige seun wat gebyt is, kon nie die gewone vrygewigheid van ’n barmhartige Samaritaan gewees het nie. Monica Phuti Selane van Boksburg het ook uitgevra oor die seun se toestand en beplan om hom in die hospitaal te besoek. Tog het sy die eis teengestaan wat die seun se ma teen haar ingedien het weens die skade wat hy in ’n honde-aanval opgedoen het. Selane het self getuig sy het met die seun se gesin probeer praat om hulle met sy mediese koste en sorg te help. Haar optrede was eerder dié