Bumpy road for RAF as court orders rejected claims be resubmitted

The cash-strapped Road Accident Fund (RAF) is facing a daunting task of re-rolling hundreds of claims it rejected from four years ago based on information claimants provided on the RAF1 form, which has now been declared unlawful. This will be in addition to the 430,000 claims backlog the RAF is grappling with. Claimants who previously used the RAF1 form and were rejected for noncompliance had been given until September 30 to resubmit their claims.

The resubmissions stand to give the RAF a financial headache that could run into billions, as it is estimated that 600,000 claims were rejected as a result of the RAF claim form, which it unlawfully introduced in 2022. The Supreme Court of Appeal last week declared the form unlawful and ordered the RAF to revert to the older form it introduced in 2008. The ruling means previously rejected claims that met the minimum statutory requirements under the RAF Act will also be accepted for re-onboarding.

Prescription is waived for all claims previously rejected due to the relevant board notice. Chairperson of parliament’s standing committee on public accounts, Songezo Zibi, said the ruling means claims that are in the system would be reopened, and those that were turned away must now be assessed. READ|Pay back R11m legal costs, Scopa tells RAF ex-board members Zibi said the RAF already had a backlog of more than 430,000 claims, adding that the claims, whatever the number, would join the queue.

[paywall]

He said the RAF might not have enough cash to process the resuscitated claims. “The Road Accident Fund would be able to say how long it would take [to process the rejected claims]. It is unlikely to be enough money to process all of those claims because the RAF already does not get enough. It is going to need preparation, and the RAF may need additional funds that may need to run into tens of billions of rand.” Adding to this financial pressure are the losses that the RAF will experience in the near future after the recently reduced fuel levy.

[/paywall]