RAF In the News
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Keeping you updated on critical developments within the Road Accident Fund.
Run on numbers: The Road Accident Fund anomaly
Written by Corrie Kruger | Published on 21 May 2023 The one criterion of the RAF is that its funding premiums are included in the Fuel levy. This at least takes the country’s total kilometres travelled by motor vehicle into consideration. Photo: Pexels On 19 April 2023, Public Accounts (SCOPA), Chairperson: Mkhuleko Hlengwa from the IFP chaired a meeting with the Deputy Ministry of Transport relating to the Road Accident Fund (RAF) 2020/21 Annual Report and related matters. The RAF is an entity of the Department of Transport’s with a very critical socio-economic mandate of paying compensation to road accident victims for loss or damage wrongfully caused by the driving of motor vehicles, in line with the RAF Act. 1. The country’s high accident rate is a grave concern, and remains the Fund’s biggest cost driver. In South Africa, more than 39 people die daily on the roads due to
How government is scoring big from load shedding
Written by businesstech | 4 May 2023 Pick n Pay chairman Gareth Ackerman says that the government is raking in millions of rands as a “windfall tax” because of load shedding. Speaking at the retailer’s annual results, Ackerman noted that 37% of the group’s diesel costs go straight into the government’s coffers through the Road Accident Fund (RAF) levy – something he said was shocking and unconscionable. “In recent months, we have spent around R60 million per month on diesel,” he said. “It is an extraordinary challenge to manage a business on this basis. Without this unnecessary cost, our result would have beaten our own forecasts and those of many external commentators.” For the year ended February 2023, Pick n Pay reported that it spent R522 million on diesel just to keep operating amid record levels of load shedding. On this basis, over R193 million (37%) would have been paid to the
RAF board ‘not fit for purpose’, must be dismissed, Scopa chair says
Written by Mandise Ndlovu | Published 20 April 2023 Parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) chairperson believes that dismissing the Road Accident Fund (RAF) board will solve an ongoing dispute with the auditor general and have the fund revert to the accounting standards it used before. When the RAF appeared before the parliamentary committee on Wednesday, Scopa chairperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa slammed its board as “unadvisable” and “not fit for its purpose”. Hlengwa said: “We sit here every time, and we are subjected to this painful exercise of arrogance when the things are very simple, when everybody is telling you ‘this is wrong, go and change it’.” In April 2021, the RAF resolved to switch the accounting standard applicable to the compilation of its annual financial statements since 2014 from the IFRS4 standard to the IPSAS 42 standard, which resulted in a difference of some R300 billion in its contingent liability position while its insolvency position
Standing Committee on Public Accounts, 19 April 2023
Standing Committee on Public Accounts, (National Assembly), [Hearing: RAF on the annual report and financial statements for the financial year 2020/21 and deviating from the known standards of accounting], Committee Room M514, Fifth Floor, Marks Building, 09:30–13:30
RAF board remains defiant: we are right, it tells Parliament
Written by Carol Paton | Published on 19 April 2023 Photo: Andrew Mkhondo Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) wants the board of the Road Accident Fund (RAF) dissolved due to its ongoing defiance of the Auditor-General to revert to the accounting standards it used before 2021. The RAF board and its top executives appeared before Scopa on Wednesday, which was united across party lines that it was time for the board to go. The meeting was also attended by the Deputy Minister of Transport, Lisa Mangcu, who said he would convey the committee’s sentiments to Minister Sindi Chikunga, who appoints the board. But Mangcu stopped short of pronouncing who was right and who was wrong in the dispute. The issue first arose in 2021 when the RAF changed its accounting standards from International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 4 to Generally Accepted Accounting Standards (GAAP) 3, which is the
Are the Road Accident Fund and other legal institutions imploding?
Written by Johann van der Westhuizen | Published 9 March 2023 ‘The law is for protection of the people”. So, in a song with the same name, sang country singer and poet Kris Kristofferson, decades ago, sarcastically. In the protest song Hurricane Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan felt “ashamed to live in a land where justice is a game”. Amid the deeply depressing crime-induced lack of electricity and water, while this article is being written, the crucial importance of the rule of law as a founding value of our constitutional democracy comes to mind. The recent assurance by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo that the courts will not be intimidated by anyone is most welcome. The judiciary not only has to be as honest and independent as humanly possible, but also efficiently managed. The cliché that justice delayed is justice denied contains wisdom, as clichés often do. Abstract democratic values mean
Proper protection for RAF and medical negligence awards
Written by Amanda Visser | Published 8 Mar 2023 South Africa has seen a significant increase in the number and payouts of claims against the Road Accident Fund (RAF) as well as in medical negligence cases. A major concern is the protection of the awards made to people who were severely injured or who have reduced legal capacity. Our legal framework offers protection through court order trusts, the appointment of a curator bonis (legal representative appointed to manage the affairs of someone who is incapacitated), or of an administrator, says Penelope du Plessis, vice chair of the Fiduciary Institute of Southern Africa (Fisa). In the case of court order trusts the trustees take control of the award and have the discretion on how to manage the funds, whereas the Master of the High Court must approve all decisions relating to the award when a curator bonis or administrator manages the
Road Accident Fund CEO Collins Letsoalo, board must pay millions for botched cases
Written by James Mahlokwane | Published on February 8 2023 Pretoria – In another blow for the CEO of the Road Accident Fund (RAF) and its board of directors, the Mpumalanga High Court sitting in Mbombela yesterday turned down an application against an earlier order that they had to pay from their own pockets the costs associated with two cases. Mpumalanga High Court Judge President Francis Legodi, who issued a lengthy, carefully-reasoned judgment last month, made several scathing remarks regarding CEO Collins Letsoalo and the board’s running of the RAF, especially after they had fired their panel of attorneys. This resulted in the personal costs order against them, which could run into millions. Judge Legodi yesterday refused leave to appeal as he concluded that there was no prospect that another court would come to a different finding than that of the full Bench he had headed. The judge did, however,
RAF to challenge court ruling that board, CEO Collins Letsoalo must pay cases from own pockets
Written by Zelda Venter | Published 30 January 2023 Pretoria – Hot on the heels of last week’s damning judgment by three judges against the Road Accident Fund (RAF) – that its board and chief executive, Collins Letsoalo had to pay from their own pockets the costs associated with two RAF cases – they indicated that they wanted to appeal against the judgment before the Supreme Court of Appeal. The fund and its heads stated 14 points in which they claimed that Mpumalanga High Court Judge President Judge Francis Legodi, who wrote the judgment, erred in his findings. The court last week issued a 97-page scathing judgment against Letsoalo and his board, which resulted in the personal costs order against them. It is not clear at this stage what the costs are, but some say it can be millions. Judge Legodi said the system the fund implemented after the disposal