higher gear
Mungo Soggot
A TRIP to Australia has triggered a fresh tussle between lawyers and the state over planned reforms to South Africa’s state-run car accident insurance fund.
The Multilateral Motor-vehicle Fund (MMF) has sent four officials to Australia to examine an insurance scheme, despite a government pledge to freeze reform of South Africa’s system ahead of widespread consultation with interest groups.
The trip by officials has angered lawyers who are opposed to the government’s planned reforms.
It comes three months after Minister of Transport Mac Maharaj agreed to withdraw a draft White Paper that proposed a wholesale revamp of South Africa’s car accident insurance system along the lines of the system operating in the Australian state of Victoria.
The White Paper suggested a “no-fault” scheme – victims would be paid out regardless of who was responsible for the car accident. But the damage awards in the new system would be severely capped to make it affordable for the state.
Maharaj touted the scheme, which would dispense with the need to prove negligence and therefore hit the livelihood of many lawyers, as more efficient and more victim- friendly.
A host of interest groups representing both lawyers and accident victims lambasted the proposal, which was torpedoed during a hearing at the parliamentary committee on transport affairs.
Patricia de Lille, the Pan Africanist Congress MP who heads the committee, heralded the death of the draft White Paper as a triumph for democracy and Maharaj indicated that the government would go back to the drawing board.
Many lawyers, however, fear that elements within the government and the MMF remain keen to push through a similar revamp despite promises of mass consultation at a forthcoming symposium – a fear they say is supported by the trip.
In a letter to the MMF, Ronald Bobroff, a member of the Association of Law Societies committee on accident cases, said the association understood the White Paper was a dead issue and would “at most serve as a framework for discussion at the forthcoming conference”.
He added: “We have difficulty in reconciling the alleged purpose of the visit to Australia with the invitation to the symposium, which suggests the attendees of the symposium would not be confronted with a fait accompli.”
Khetso Gordhan, the director general of the transport department, played down the trip, saying the officials were merely studying the Australian scheme’s administration.
But he said that the White Paper was far from dead and the government remained committed to reform that would give victims adequate and affordable benefits. He said the existing set-up could mean the MMF’s cheques “will start to bounce in two years”.
He lashed out at the legal fraternity for “running a campaign to protect its own interests” and for failing to add to the debate.
It remains unclear who authorised the trip. Peter Botjbijl, chairman of the MMF Board, said he would not comment on “an internal matter”. He refused to confirm that the board had not sanctioned the trip.
Willem Swanepoel, the head of the MMF, could not be reached for comment at the time of going to press.