The dire state of the technically insolvent Road Accident Fund (RAF) has been highlighted by written replies by transport minister Sindisiwe Chikunga to questions in parliament.
The RAF, which is funded by a levy on fuel sales and financially compensates road accident victims for medical costs of injuries, is notoriously inefficient. Claimants wait for a long time to have their claims processed and medical practitioners wait for a long time to be paid for claims.
Replying to questions by DA MP Alf Lees, Chikunga said 58,830 writs were issued against the RAF from January 1 2017 to June 30 2023. Overall, across all regions, 1,182 assets were removed by the sheriff during this time. The value of the assets at the time of removal amounted to R417,261.
Most of the writs handed down were in 2017 (16,519), followed by 13,278 in 2018, 11,834 in 2019 and 4,216 in 2023.
A writ of execution is a court order that allows the sheriff to attach assets.
In terms of default judgments, the minister revealed that 1,725 default judgments were issued against the RAF from 2021 to 2023, with 483 judgments amounting to R1.4bn being handed down in 2021, 1,116 amounting to R3bn in 2022 and 126 amounting to R438m in 2023.
Chikunga said the reasons for the default judgments are “mainly that the RAF elected not to defend legal action for claims that have become valid in terms of section 24(5) of the [Road Accident Fund] Act. These are claims that become valid because they were not objected to within the stipulated 60 days.
“The RAF does not want to incur further legal costs in defending valid claims. As a result, the judgments are granted in default without incurring costs of defending attorney and counsel.”
Security provided
In reply to another question by Lees, the minister dealt with the security provided to key RAF personnel, totalling R7m from 2019 to 2022/23 with security valued at R1.3m being spent on CEO Collins Letsoalo in 2021/22 and an additional R3.9m in 2022/23. In 2021/22, the security included a driver, an armed protector, a vehicle and a guard.
For 2023, the security provided included two drivers, two protectors, two vehicles, two guards and two rifles.
The cost of security for the RAF chair and deputy chair for six months in 2022/23 amounted to R1.5m.
Lees said in an interview on Friday that the RAF is “a mess” and that Letsoalo is mainly responsible for this.
“The extent of the mismanagement and rot at the Road Accident Fund is much worse than thought, and clearly requires very robust intervention by the minister of transport. Dealing with Collins Letsoalo as the RAF CEO must surely be a top priority for the minister.
“The RAF staff operates in a state of fear, and the court orders have resulted in most staff at the Menlyn offices using cardboard boxes as desks and chairs with most furniture attached by the sheriffs.
“Claims are simply lost in hundreds of cardboard boxes, and claimants wait for extremely long periods for compensation. A mere 80 odd medical experts have been appointed under suspicious circumstances to handle thousands of claims from the entire country.
“Duplicate payments, some of millions of rand each, appear to be paid by the RAF because of an antiquated system based largely on paper hard copies.
“The specialised services of Sunshine Hospital that is owed nearly R1bn have been discontinued so that road accident victims are deprived of first-rate medical treatment,” said Lees.
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