By Solly Phetoe
It is time that the Road Accident Fund (RAF) is lifted from the clutches of vultures and overhauled to serve workers and the poor.
The RAF, like many other embattled state institutions, has occupied headlines for all the wrong reasons. Many of these were due to an outdated model, mismanagement of the RAF and internal corruption.
Others were due to road accident claims lawyers seeing a weak institution and the desperation of claimants, and exploiting these for their own self-enrichment.
For many years, management at the RAF, was at best negligent, and frequently appeared in fact to be complicit in its decay. More recently we have seen a positive shift with the RAF admitting the extent of the crises and raising the alarm bells on what needs to be done, and in particular shining the spotlight on how lawyers have turned road accident claims into their personal slush funds.
Key to fixing a problem, is admitting its existence and causes, and then allowing these to guide the solutions.
Among our many crises as a nation, is our high number of road accidents. On average we lose over 12 000 loved ones annually to road accidents with over 100 000 injured. These losses are a devastating blow to their families. It means many lose bread winners and their work places valuable employees.
The fiscus bleeds with needless health expenses and loss of tax earnings. There are variety of reasons for these accidents ranging from our unhealthy relationship with alcohol, reckless driving, unroadworthy vehicles, poor roads and a general attitude of indifference to road safety by drivers, passengers and pedestrians.
South Africa can be proud that government put in place an insurance policy, the RAF that is funded by the fuel levy, to help ensure that all persons or their families who experience losses due to road accidents, be it medical or income.
Like so many other public entities, the RAF has not escaped the decade of state capture and corruption. We have seen inside looting and external parties, lawyers, milking the system.
The RAF is also struggling to cope with its existing model. Unlike the Unemployment Insurance Fund and the Compensation of Occupational Injuries and Diseases Fund, whose Acts require them to direct their limited resources to the poor who cannot afford insurance, the RAF does not do that.
The consequence has been cases where the wealthy with access to top lawyers squeeze the RAF for millions. Many may remember the case of a Swiss tourist being awarded R50 million despite as a foreigner not having contributed to the fuel levy that funds the RAF.
The inefficiencies of the RAF has led to the proliferation of lawyers submitting claims on behalf of many claimants. There have been countless instances of lawyers taking the majority of awards for themselves and leaving their clients to wallow in poverty.
Today the RAF has greater liabilities than Eskom, with these estimated to have passed R400 billion and far above its resources, let alone what the public can afford to pay through the fuel levy.
Lawyers have repeatedly attached the RAF’s assets to secure awards, leaving staff to work on milk crates as their chairs have been repossessed.
During the 5th Parliament, government led by the African National Congress, tabled progressive legislation, the RAF and the Road Accident Benefit Scheme Bills at Nedlac and Parliament.
The Bills provide a sober and sustainable path to overhaul the RAF and lift it out of its death spiral.
They follow the financial structure of the UIF and Compensation Fund where resources are directed to the poor who cannot afford private insurance cover. They prohibit lawyers from submitting claims to ensure that all funds go to the claimants.
Whilst Cosatu and social partners at Nedlac supported these Bills at Nedlac, road accident claim lawyers who have enjoyed exorbitant profits and wealth through the RAF, fought a concerted and ultimately successful fight back against these badly needed legislative overhauls.
The Bills shamefully were blocked in the 5th Parliament and withdrawn in 2018 and quietly buried for years. No one could provide a coherent explanation why these urgent Bills were stopped.
The situation at the RAF has deteriorated and a solution is needed more than ever. We have been heartened that new Minister for Transport, Barbara Creecy, and the RAF have signaled it is time to revive these Bills and stop the looting.
This is a call that Cosatu has been making repeatedly over the past six years. Government needs to be decisive and re-table these Bills at Parliament in the first half of 2025 with a firm target of adoption by 2026. Parliament too must guard against individuals with deep pockets being allowed to capture Members at the expense of the public.
Government under the leadership of President Cyril Ramaphosa has made steady progress in cleansing the state of the cancer of corruption, but more must be done. It is time these efforts are brought to the RAF and that those who lose loved ones, experience severe injuries and disabilities and loss of income, receive the compensation due to them and not some lecherous lawyers.
Whilst the Bills will set the RAF on the path to sustainability and serving the working class, they will not on their own resolve everything.
Competent management must be appointed, corrupt criminal elements need to be removed, and the capacity of the institution be invested in if the RAF is to ensure claimants receive the relief they are entitled to. It is unacceptable for claims to take years to process.
Similarly, more must be done to invest in safe public transport to reduce the number of cars on our roads. Our Arrive Alive campaigns must be intensified and a zero-tolerance attitude taken to drunk drivers and pedestrians.
The tools to improve the lives of ordinary South Africans are in our hands, it is up to us to show the leadership required to deliver.
Solly Phetoe is the general secretary of Cosatu.
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