SCA dismisses RAF appeal against judgment on 181 court orders

The private hospital, which only treated victims of motor vehicle accidents, was forced to close after the RAF repeatedly failed to pay up. Image: Sunshine Hospital/Facebook The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has dismissed with costs an application by the Road Accident Fund (RAF) to appeal a judgment that slammed the fund for refusing to abide by 181 court orders in favour of Sunshine Hospital. The RAF made several attempts to obtain leave to appeal the November 2023 judgment by the High Court in Pretoria and, aggrieved by the dismissal of its application to the SCA for leave to appeal, thereafter applied to the president of the SCA for reconsideration of the dismissal of that application.

The SCA president on 6 August 2025 directed that the SCA dismissal of the application for leave to appeal be referred to the SCA for reconsideration and, if necessary, variation. In a judgment handed down last week, acting SCA Judge Boissie Mbha – with SCA Judge Xola Petse and acting SCA Judge Daniel Dlodlo concurring – rejected the RAF’s contention there were new facts or evidence that later came to light in the form of an alleged irregular relationship between the medical practitioners and Sunshine arising from alleged unlawful and impermissible combined claims. Mbha said it was “opportunistic” for the RAF to rely on this issue in the application for reconsideration filed with the president of the SCA.

He said all the contentions by the RAF were previously raised and thoroughly dealt with before the high court and during the applications for leave to appeal. The RAF’s application for leave to appeal in the High Court in Pretoria was dismissed on a punitive scale on 30 January 2024 – and an application for leave to appeal, brought on petition to the SCA, was also dismissed with costs on 2 May 2024 on the ground that there was no reasonable prospect of success on appeal and there was no compelling reason why an appeal should be heard. The RAF thereafter applied to the SCA president for reconsideration of the SCA dismissal of that application.

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Mbha said the high court found there was not the slightest indication that any of the claims were irregular, only the RAF’s vague and unsubstantiated belief – which was contradicted by its own Forensic Investigation Department (FID) investigation – that Sunshine has acted unlawfully. “The high court’s finding in this respect cannot be faulted,” he said, adding that the RAF’s reliance on and mention of investigation reports of multi-disciplinary bodies did not in any way advance its case.

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