/ 14 August 2008

SACP voices concern over Road Accident Fund ruling

The South African Communist Party added its voice on Thursday to concerns over the Cape High Court decision to grant a temporary order against the Road Accident Fund’s (RAF) policy of paying claimants directly.

”This needs to be seen as part of a wider resistance to pro-poor transformation from sectors of the judiciary and other legal professional strata.

”We fully support the concerns raised in this regard by the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union, the South African National Civic Organisation and the South African Commuters’ Organisation,” said SACP spokesperson Malesela Maleka.

”Claims paid by the RAF come from funds to which we all contribute via the fuel levy. This is public money and it is absolutely essential that we ensure that the R6-billion a year collected in this way reaches those for whom it is intended. In 2000, the Satchwell Commission into the RAF estimated that more than 50% of the fund’s resources were being consumed by professional fees, most of it going to lawyers.

”There is no reason to believe that things have improved. Indeed, currently, the fund estimates that some R4-billion of its annual R6-billion from the public purse goes to professional fees. Something is clearly very seriously wrong.”

Judge Jeanette Traverso ruled a week ago that the RAF should put its new accident victim payment system on hold.

Delivering judgement on the matter between the RAF and a group of lawyers affiliated to the Law Society of South Africa, Traverso said the fund should not go ahead with the new system. The system, which would have seen compensation monies paid directly into the bank account of victims as opposed to that of their lawyer, should be put on hold pending the completion of a court review process.

She ordered the RAF to pay the legal costs of the applicants.

The court application followed the RAF’s August 1 announcement that the fund would no longer be paying victim compensation monies to their lawyers’ bank accounts. — Sapa