Adrienne Carlisle and Nawaal Deane
Hoosein Mohamed, a senior partner in a prominent Cape Town law firm, was arrested by the Scorpions on Wednesday for milking the Road Accident Fund (RAF) of large portions of the pay-outs meant for indigent victims.
His law firm, H Mohamed and Associates, first hit headlines in 1999 when the Mail & Guardian and noseWEEK exposed it for operating a fraudulent scheme to siphon millions of rands from accident victims.
Mohamed’s case was one of the first that highlighted corrupt practices by lawyers representing accident victims claiming from the RAF, often at the expense of their clients.
At the time of going to the press, Mohamed’s bail application was being heard in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court.
Meanwhile, rugby boss Silas Nkanunu, who is also co-chairperson of the Law Societies of South Africa, has been cleared of any wrongdoing following at least 15 allegations of RAF fraud levelled against him.
The special investigating unit had been handed evidence in 1999 alleging that Nkanunu’s Port Elizabeth law firm, Nkanunu S & Co, was defrauding road accident victims out of compensation paid by the fund. The unit was considering at least 15 cases, allegedly involving millions of rands, but was prevented from probing them after the Constitutional Court last year set aside the presidential proclamation empowering the unit to investigate and recover money stolen from road accident victims.
The Cape Law Society, which investigated the allegations against Nkanunu, found he was not guilty of unprofessional conduct. Nkanunu was required to submit a report on each of the matters in which it was alleged that his firm had defrauded those it represented in RAF compensation claims.
“The society did receive the reports requested from Mr Nkanunu who, in the light thereof, was found to be not guilty of any unprofessional conduct,” said Cape Law Society director Susan Aird.
The society falls under the Law Societies of South Africa, which Nkanunu now co-chairs with Jan Maree.
Aird refused to allow media access to any of the documentation pertaining to the matter. “These matters are privileged and we are not in a position to publish,” she said.
Nkanunu, who denied the allegations at the time, said it was not necessary for him to comment now that his name had been cleared.
Numerous vital investigations against attorneys alleged to have defrauded motor accident victims out of compensation have been frozen for more than seven months because the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development has failed to instruct the special investigating unit to hand these matters to any other agency.
Despite Constitutional Court President Judge Arthur Chaskalson’s appeal that such matters be urgently attended to, the case files have been left to gather dust.
President Thabo Mbeki referred the matter to the special investigating unit two years ago. However, after the unit moved on several prominent lawyers, the South African Association of Personal Injury Lawyers brought an application to the Constitutional Court to have the referral declared invalid and also brought into question the constitutionality of having a judge as head of the unit.
Judge Chaskalson expressed serious concern about the handling of RAF claims by lawyers. He said it was vital, both for the sake of the legal profession and for the victims of road accidents, that such allegations be investigated by another agency.
Special investigating unit representative Naomi Shivali Goodley confirmed that the unit still had all its RAF investigation files. She said all files seized or surrendered by attorneys to the unit had been returned to the attorneys concerned. “But all the [unit’s] investigation files are still in our possession as, to date, we have not received any instructions from the Department of Justice to hand them over to any other agency for further investigation.”
Justice department representative Paul Setsetse conceded that it was not clear “at this stage” how or by whom the matters would be investigated.
“There are plans being made for those cases to be investigated. It will take time but at the end of the day it will be done. Allegations have been made and we realise that investigations must follow.”