Simon Nare
Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) heard on Thursday that the Road Accident Fund Act, together with the fund’s new Integrated Claims Management System, was effectively enabling the rich to get richer while denying poor crash victims direct access to compensation.
It also heard that claim backlogs currently stood at R250 000, and could not be logged into the new system. Clearing the backlog would take three to five years.
SCOPA was told it could cost a minimum of R100 000 just to register a compliant claim, due to the number of expert reports required.
Committee chairperson Songezo Zibi described this as “absolutely ridiculous”, saying most poor people simply could not afford that amount.
RAF senior officials were before SCOPA as part of their ongoing probe into the entity, to explain the new claims system, which requires multiple reports from medical, income, and other specialists, who charge high fees to compile such.
MPs heard that the system had created space for lawyers to exploit the regulations, identify loopholes and “milk” the fund, while genuine claimants struggled to gain access.
RAF acting chief corporate support officer Mpho Manyasha appealed to MPs to amend the Act to make it easier for accident victims to claim directly from the fund, saying this would improve access and reduce costs for the entity.
Manyasha, who previously headed the office of former chief executive Collins Letsoalo, is currently on precautionary leave pending an investigation into questionable accounting practices and the fund’s estimated R500 billion in liabilities.
“The RAF Act is cruel, especially to the poor, because the RAF Act actually doesn’t give the poor the opportunity and ease of access that it should give them,” said Manyasha, adding that the new benefit scheme Bill should be drafted to change that, and that parliament’s assistance was required for legislative reform.
She told the committee that some lawyers deliberately prolonged litigation until after the 120-day period, and only then began invoicing the fund for legal fees.
“We need to be able to simplify this thing to make it as simple as possible so that any person, sitting wherever they are sitting, will be able to do this,” she said.
She said the fund had launched a “do-it-yourself” campaign to go out to the public and teach people, through education and videos, how easily claims could be lodged. But she added that for this to be fully effective, the law would first have to be changed.
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) MP Mazwikayise Brian Blose told the committee that his party received numerous complaints from ordinary citizens who were allegedly duped by lawyers after lodging claims on their behalf.
He shared the case of a Limpopo crash victim whose lawyers lodged a claim when she was 14 and told her and her mother the payout would be placed in a trust account, accessible only when she turned 21.
Blose said the woman is now 22 and struggling to trace the lawyers, adding that in many similar cases handled by the party, the lawyers had likely changed the name of their law firm and registered new entities.
“It’s an Act that is not pro-poor. It needs to be beneficial to those who are poor. That is the problem with the Road Accident Fund in its current form. It is designed to benefit those who have got means,” he said.
He said the rich were fighting reform efforts because the new system would take food off their tables.
“[W]hen we are fighting to transform or to reform the RAF, we are not fighting for the poor whose majority is our people — the black people…,” he said.
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