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Keeping you updated on critical developments within the Road Accident Fund.
Lawyer calls for intervention at the RAF
Written by Zelda Venter | Published on 2 February 2025 | IOL The time has come for South Africa’s leadership to take action and restore order and accountability to the Road Accident Fund. Without immediate intervention, the RAF will become yet another failed state-owned entity. This is according to attorney Gert Nel who specialises in RAF matters. Nel expressed his concern about how the fund is being operated. “Fuel levy payers’ money is wasted, real lives and livelihoods are at risk, with road crash victims bearing the brunt of systemic inefficiency and bureaucratic indifference.” He said the RAF is an institution charged with compensating road crash victims, yet it is deliberately distorting its purpose by bypassing legal obligations and operating in blatant defiance of court rulings. He accused the fund’s leadership of evading accountability while systematically denying justice to thousands of vulnerable victims. Nel said the cornerstone of the RAF’s
Expert accuses RAF of misrepresenting itself and its purpose
Written by Ina Opperman | Published on 24 January 2025 | The Citizen An expert attorney says the RAF is not doing its job and changed its purpose, despite parliament and the courts challenging the change. An expert says the Road Accident Fund (RAF) is misrepresenting itself and its purpose to avoid accountability while denying justice to vulnerable victims. However, the RAF says the expert is a former employee who set up his business based on the fund’s “inefficiencies.” Gert Nel from Gert Nel Inc., a law firm specialising in personal injury cases, including claims against the RAF, calls on people to imagine an institution charged with compensating road crash victims that deliberately distorts its purpose by bypassing legal obligations and operating in blatant defiance of court rulings. “This is the reality of the Road Accident Fund (RAF) whose leadership has unlawfully redefined its purpose – a calculated misrepresentation designed
RAF in ICU on court crash
Written by Tim Cohen | Published on 17 January 2025 | CurrencyNews How chaos at the Road Accident Fund is jamming up South Africa’s courts – and worsening a self-induced financial crisis. South Africa’s crisis-ridden Road Accident Fund (RAF) has thousands upon thousands of court execution orders against it, crippling the legal process and denying road accident victims compensation, interviews with sheriffs of the court have revealed. The sheriff of the court for Joburg and Pretoria East, Marks Mangaba, said in an interview that in his regions alone, there are 4,200 outstanding warrants of execution. South Africa’s sheriffs, who are responsible for executing court orders, say the RAF is by far their largest problem institution, and that the backlog of execution orders has been rising fast over the past few years. So bad is it that the volume of execution orders, which are effectively the last resort of legal claimants,
Victims fall victim again
Written by Hennie Klopper | Published on 15 January 2025 | News24 Every time you fill up your car, part of your payment is a lifeline for road crash victims – or at least, it should be. South Africans contribute approximately 40% of the total current fuel levy to the Road Accident Fund (RAF), a fund meant to provide medical and financial compensation to victims of road crashes. Yet, despite this substantial public contribution, the RAF is mired in a financial and operational crisis, leaving victims waiting up to eight years for compensation. The reality of these delays is a bureaucratic inconvenience and a direct assault on vulnerable people. Victims suffer untreated injuries, worsening medical conditions, and mounting financial burdens. Meanwhile, the public’s trust in the RAF erodes as leadership deflects responsibility and offers no tangible solutions. This is no longer just a policy failure; it is a moral and
Law firm slammed for allegedly pocketing R2.2 billion from RAF
Written by Kirsten Minnaar | Published on 10 January 2025 | DailyInvestor The CEO of the Road Accident Fund (RAF), Collins Letsoalo, has alleged that the law firm Gert Nel Attorneys has benefited irregularly from medico-legal claims. “Over the past period of five years, Gert Nel Attorneys has been paid over R2.2 billion from the RAF,” Letsoalo said. “For R2 billion, we know that is close to R500 million that he has made. You are not shocked why this man fights so much. He wants to continue.” When asked to break down this R2.2 billion figure, Gert Nel, CEO of Gert Nel Attorneys, told Daily Investor, “We intend to ask the RAF the same question – we do not have the specifics of this figure and hence cannot confirm or deny the correctness thereof.” A recent report by IOL states that the RAF has blocked the disbursement of R65 million
Discovery mulls SCA appeal after RAF medical costs ruling
Published on 8 January 2025 The Gauteng High Court dismissal with costs last month of Discovery Health’s application for an order declaring the Road Accident Fund (RAF) to be in breach of a previous High Court order was saluted by RAF CEO Collins Letsoalo, who described it as “a watershed” moment. However, said a legal expert, it did not absolve the agency of its obligation to reimburse road accident victims for their past medical expenses. The case dates back to 2022, when the RAF instructed its staff to reject claims from car crash victims if they had already been paid by medical schemes. Letsoalo said Discovery Health “must know we are coming for our money they have claimed illegally from the RAF”. He referred to paragraphs in the judgment saying the RAF was not an insurer, and said he had claimed for some time “that the RAF is a social
RAF ‘still liable’ for past medical expense payments despite Discovery judgment
Written by Roy Cokayne | Published on 23 December 2024 | Moneyweb The fund ‘achieved nothing in terms of escaping its financial liability’ – Prof Hennie Klopper. The dismissal of Discovery Health’s High Court application against the Road Accident Fund (RAF) related to the payment of past medical expenses paid by medical schemes does not diminish the rights of road accident victims to claim medical costs from the RAF. So says Emeritus Professor in the Department of Private Law at the University of Pretoria Hennie Klopper, who earlier this month was singled out together with Gert Nel of Gert Nel Inc attorneys by RAF CEO Collins Letsoalo for severe criticism at a RAF media briefing. Letsoalo, among other things, said Prof Klopper was part of a campaign to “capture” the RAF. Klopper said the RAF’s so-called high court victory came at a great expense to taxpayers and victims, who are
After the Bell: Open letter to Minister of Transport Barbara Creecy
Written by Tim Cohen | Published on 10 December 2024 | Daily Maverick Dear Minister Creecy, I’m a journalist currently working for two publications, Daily Maverick and Currency. I’ve devoted decades of my life to this job I love. But a recent interaction with Collins Letsoalo, the head of the Road Accident Fund (RAF), an organisation that falls under your auspices, has left me angry, bewildered and concerned for the organisation’s future. That is serious because the RAF ostensibly compensates people who have lost loved ones or people who have to live out their lives injured or maimed. The circumstances are as such: I occasionally chat with Songezo Zibi, who was my predecessor as editor of Business Day and whom I’ve known for some years now. Following his election to Parliament, Zibi assumed the chair of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), a crucial institute of Parliament. During one
Open letter to the South African public
Gert Nel Incorporated, and particularly our managing partner Mr Gert Nel, in his personal capacity, has fallen victim to a smear campaign orchestrated by the Road Accident Fund led by their CEO Collins Letsoalo. The attack is rooted in the fact that the executive and Board of the RAF had been called on their unlawful reform and mismanagement of the RAF. See in this regard various publications in which our Mr. Nel has highlighted the utter disregard of the rule of law and the Court, resulting in serious prejudice to all road crash victims. Despite calling a media briefing to address the issues raised, Mr. Letsoalo, seemingly unable to prove the contrary, opted to orchestrate a false and defamatory innuendo of corruption as aired and published on various media platforms. RAF spokesperson Mr. Macintosh Pholela also joined in spreading more falsities and unsubstantiated rhetoric to silence the voice of truth.