7 months ago
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The Road Accident Fund (RAF) has paid out R45,1bn in claims in the 2023/24 financial year with the majority of the payouts going to victims who could not return to work after car accidents.
This was contained in RAF's annual performance report in the financial year 2023/24.
The social benefit fund finalised 63,015 claims from the 79,377 that were registered last year. At least R12,7bn was paid for general damages, R2,6bn for loss of support and R1,7bn for medical compensation. At least R47m was paid to cover the funeral costs of road accident victims.
Collins Letsoalo, RAF CEO, said while other claims categories were valid, however, general damages classification remains broad.
“What are general damages? I also don't know and I think it's being abused by lawyers. I describe it some sort of a “sorry money” that we pay to lawyers,” said Letsoalo during a press briefing on Monday morning.
Letsoalo said his organisation was also plagued by high legal costs and claims backlogs whose target they have not met for the past two years. The backlog increased by 1,2% from 2022.
Their legal cost, which has been increasing by 20% year-on-year, stood at R9,4bn in 2019 and this has been significantly reduced to R3,8bn in 2024.
The fund owed R16.2bn to accident victims in the 2019/20 financial year and this number now stands at R8.3bn.
“Our claims report indicates that almost 80% of claims submitted for lodgement do not have sufficient information and documentation to enable the RAF to investigate the claims. In this situation we are unable to make an offer without having enough information about the claim,” said Letsoalo.
He said R1,5bn is owed to foreign nationals.
“There is no doubt that the RAF is not out of the woods yet. The fund still faces significant challenges. What is indisputable is that the 2020–25 strategy presents the best opportunity to finally set the RAF on a sustainable financial and operational path. The focus should therefore be on optimising what works and managing the inherent risks that come with implementing a turnaround strategy,” said Letsoalo.
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