RAF In the News

Issued by Dr Chris Hunsinger MP | Published on 03 September 2024 The DA wrote to the Minister of Transport, Barbara Creecy, to urgently draw her attention to the fact that the Road Accident Fund (RAF) seems to have halted payments for nearly four months. This state of affairs seems to point to the fund’s imminent implosion without prompt intervention from either the Transport Minister or the Portfolio Committee on Transport. Over the years, we have seen a worrying disconnect between the Department of Transport and one of its key entities, the Road Accident Fund (RAF). The RAF CEO and the Board have been operating unchecked and without proper oversight for too long. Having six Transport Ministers in only seven years has produced a perfect environment in which the RAF, for example, can pick which sections of the RAF Act to apply and which not to apply, based on what

Written by Roy Cokayne | Published on 25 July 2024 The civil justice system in Gauteng is in crisis, with a shortage of judges to hear and adjudicate civil trials and the high volume of cases being lodged leading to delays of up to five years before a matter is heard. Nicolette de Witt, chair of the High Court Committee of the Pretoria Attorneys Association (PAA), said civil trials in the High Court in Pretoria are currently being allocated for January 2029 and the waiting time between the date of allocation of civil hearing dates and the hearing date itself “has reached an astonishing period of four and a half years”. “These lead times are the longest they have been in the history of this division of the High Court,” she said. “Under the [prevailing] circumstances … in Pretoria, the civil justice system is failing South African citizens and depriving

Written by Roy Cokayne | Published on 18 July 2024 Adopting a different accounting standard saw the fund’s liabilities for outstanding claims plummet from R331bn to R34bn – and led to the AG issuing a disclaimer to its financial results. The Road Accident Fund (RAF) has been advised by new Deputy Minister of Transport Mkhuleko Hlengwa to use legislative reforms rather than “arbitrary changes in accounting standards” to achieve the necessary changes required by the fund. This was a reference to the governance issues facing the RAF related to its 2020/2021 annual financial results. The Auditor-General (AG) issued a disclaimer to these financial results because the RAF had adopted a different accounting standard, resulting in the fund’s liabilities for outstanding claims plummeting to R34 billion in 2022/23 from R331 billion in 2019/20. An application to the High Court in Pretoria to review and set aside the AG’s disclaimer and to

Written by Roy Cokayne | Published on 15 Jul 2024 Follows appeal by fund-appointed medical experts to Creecy for help getting hundreds of millions owed for their medico-legal reports. Governance at the Road Accident Fund (RAF) is something that has to be sorted out “as a matter of priority”, says newly-appointed Minister of Transport Barbara Creecy. “That is a matter that once I have settled, I will be giving my attention to,” she said on the sidelines of the Southern African Transport Conference in Pretoria last week. Creecy was responding to a question from Moneyweb about whether she would prioritise a letter written on behalf of a group of more than 70 medical experts to former minister of transport Sindisiwe Chikunga in June 2023, and a follow-up letter to Creecy last week for assistance in obtaining payment of hundreds of millions of rand allegedly owed to them by the RAF.

“The RAF was not going to change its mind, it had adopted a stance and was impervious to persuasion that it was wrong.”.. To read the article on TimesLive, click the button below: Read more

Written by Sipho Mabena | Published on News24 – 21 April 2024 To read the article on News24, click the button below: Read more

Issued by Chris Hunsinger, DA Shadow Minister of Transport | Published on 12 April 2024 DA MP says management at Hospicare is scraping at the bottom of the barrel to fund patients’ basic needs. Victims of traffic accidents are facing additional distress because the Road Accident Fund (RAF) has failed to make payments to their healthcare provider, Hospicare. Already management is scraping at the bottom of the barrel to fund patients’ basic needs. Adding to the crisis, the DA can confirm that, Hospicare, which is currently unable to settle bills amounting to R21 million, has received an eviction notice from lawyers representing the building’s owner, President Ramaphosa. The crisis reflects the severe financial difficulties that led to the closure of Sunshine Hospital in Gauteng in April 2023, which also resulted from the RAF’s failure to disperse due payments. These healthcare facilities are vital. They enable the RAF to fulfil its

The high court in Pretoria has for the second time scrapped the Road Accident Fund’s (RAF’s) attempts to impose onerous new requirements on traffic accident victims seeking compensation from the fund. In a judgment handed down on Wednesday, a full bench ruled that a board notice and linked RAF1 form published in May 2022 setting out new requirements for lodging claims were unlawful and set them aside. The court ordered the transport minister to devise a new version within six months, and said claimants who had failed to meet these mandatory requirements could resubmit their claims using the simpler RAF1 form that was brought into effect in 2008. The ruling has wide-reaching implications, as tens of thousands of unsuccessful claimants may now have a second chance at securing compensation for their injuries…