The Road Accident Fund’s termination of its direct claims strategy in 2020 was implemented without a formal directive or board resolution, the standing committee on public accounts has heard. The move has left thousands of accident victims without accessible recourse and exposed the fund to escalating legal costs and systemic litigation failures. According to the fund’s 2018/19 annual report, direct claims increased to 40,986, up from 22,524 in 2014.
Testimony from Christinah Mthethwa, former originations manager and acting senior manager: litigation, confirmed that the strategy — adopted in 2014 to reduce legal costs and improve access for unrepresented claimants — was dismantled via a virtual meeting in January 2020. No written instruction was issued, and all branding, systems and policies associated with direct claims were removed. “All direct claims policies, standard operating procedures and guidelines were removed from the RAF intranet,” Mthethwa said.
The fund’s 2020/21 annual report later acknowledged a “change in strategic direction to stop actively originating direct claims”. The decision coincided with the dissolution of the fund’s panel of external attorneys and the adoption of a new legal administration model under the office of the state attorney. This transition was formalised through a memorandum of agreement signed in June 2020, following ministerial correspondence between then transport minister Fikile Mbalula and justice minister Ronald Lamola. The stated objective was to reduce legal expenditure, which had reached R3.6bn in the 2019/20 financial year.
Under the new model, RAF-employed attorneys were seconded to the office of the state attorney. As of November 1 2025, 109 state attorneys will be in place against an approved structure of 353. The litigation management system currently tracks 252,908 active defended matters out of a total of 305,684. However, the system lacks real-time reporting and contributes to poor case co-ordination. Multiple matters are routinely scheduled for the same attorney, resulting in non-appearances and default judgments.
Senior manager for litigation and mediation Brett Phillips confirmed that the fund had introduced key performance indicators to reduce default judgments, and was engaging with the judiciary to secure earlier court dates. Mediation protocols had been introduced but uptake by plaintiff attorneys remained low. “We are running more trials than ever before, but the capacity gap remains significant,” he said.
In Ketsekele v RAF (2015), the High Court criticised both plaintiff and RAF legal representatives for colluding in inflated legal costs. The judgment estimated that between R110m and R150m in legal fees could be saved in a single court term in one division of the High Court. The fund has since invoiced former panel attorneys for R10.6m in wasted costs, but this figure is modest relative to the broader fiscal exposure.
Scopa chair Songezo Zibi reiterated that the committee’s mandate was not to dictate strategic choices, but to ensure that such decisions are fiscally sound and administratively defensible. “We are here to make sure that the strategic and other decisions taken have a positive financial implication rather than a negative one,” he said.
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