Johannesburg – The Road Accident Fund is dead. Long live the Road Accident Benefit Scheme. If the ANC and Transport Department have their way – which is likely – the RABS bill will be replacing the RAF by the 2019 general elections, if not sooner. On Tuesday, there’s likely to be heated debate in Parliament, because the major opposition parties – including the DA, IFP, ACDP and EFF – are united against the RABS, but the ANC appears hell-bent on pushing it through. It’s not good news for motorists, or crash victims. In May, Professor Hennie Klopper, who leads the Association of the Protection of Road Accident Victims, told the parliamentary committee on transport that South Africa’s road death statistics make us seem like a war zone. He said that in March 1241 people died in the Syrian war. In South Africa, 1200 died on the roads. “We have too

Content provided by Africanews  The Portfolio Committee on Transport has today adopted the final report on the benefit scheme, paving the way for an introduction of the Road Accident Benefit Scheme (RABS). The Chairperson of the Committee, Ms Dikeledi Magadzi, said the committee was satisfied with the amount of hard work that members of the committee had put into the pending benefit scheme. “We are satisfied that the new scheme is desirable to all South Africans. Through this bill, road accident victims will be able to receive more benefits than previously was the case in the old regime of the Road Accident Fund (RAF)” said Ms Magdzi. Furthermore, Ms Magadzi said: “The committee legislate in order to benefit poor South Africans, and the quality of input that the committee received from South Africans will ensure that this law achieves that.” Since May of 2018 the committee had been seized with the

August 1st, 2018 – De Rebus in 2018 (Aug) DR 26. By Gert Nel The Road Accident Fund (RAF) proudly runs a campaign called ‘RAF on the Road’, which forms part of the RAF’s marketing campaign and is aimed at encouraging the public to claim directly from the RAF. The programme has won a number of accolades, including the Department of Public Service and Administration’s Batho Pele Excellence Award. In a media statement issued by the RAF on 22 April 2015, the RAF stated: ‘The RAF has never precluded claimants or motor vehicle accident victims from approaching the courts or seeking legal representation as is their constitutional right to do so. However, we encourage claimants to come directly to the RAF through our regional or hospital-based offices as it is the most quickest and cost effective way to register and settle claims.’ Basis for the RAF ‘direct claim’ strategy A ‘direct claim’ refers to a

Pretoria News · 18 Jun 2018 · Gert Nel THE Parliamentary Committee on Transport (PCOT) recently passed a motion in support of the Road Accident Benefit Scheme (RABS) Bill after three weeks of public submissions by various stakeholders. The object of the RABS Bill is to provide an effective benefit scheme in respect of bodily injury or death caused by or arising from road accidents, which benefit scheme is reasonable, equitable, affordable and sustainable, exclude from civil liability certain persons responsible for bodily injuries or death caused by or arising from road accidents (common law right abandoned) and the establishment of the Administrator. The DoT responded that none of the comments made by various presenters, which included, among others, the Western Cape Department of Traffic and Public Works, APRAV (Association for the Protection of Road Accident Victims) the Medico Legal Society of South Africa, LSNP, LSSA and the Actuarial Society