The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) welcomes the announcement made by the Minister for Transport, Ms. Barbara Creecy, at Parliament to revive and retable the Road Accident Fund (RAF) and Road Accident Benefits Scheme (RABS) Bills. The Federation supports this progressive commitment by the Minister and looks forward to the Bills’ tabling at Parliament.
The disaster site known as the RAF has been allowed to fester for far too long with current liabilities exceeding R400 billion. Road accident claimants, the overwhelming majority of whom are working class, struggle to submit claims and receive compensation due to them. The RAF has occupied headlines countless times with property attached due to unpaid claims, at times leaving RAF employees resorting to sitting on milk crates.
The RAF is crippled by three fundamental crises. First is legislative where all claimants are treated equally, this has led to instances of a Swiss tourist claiming R50 million whilst hundreds of thousands of poor South Africans wait in vain to receive their monies. Second is administrative, with archaic RAF systems and infrastructure being saddled with critical vacancies leaving claimants battling to submit claims and waiting for years to receive relief. Lastly, the RAF has been subject to state capture and corruption of a special type with lawyers and senior management being implicated in very worrying allegations of grotesque profiteering and pilferage.
The RAF and RABS Bills provide a sustainable path for the RAF with monies to be earmarked for working class road users to ensure its limited funds reach all claimants and in particular low-income workers and victims. The Bills institute a no-fault rule which will remove excessive administrative burdens on claimants and the RAF, as well as avoid penalising victims and their families.
COSATU engaged extensively on the Bills at Nedlac a decade ago. We have supported their progressive provisions. We were deeply dismayed that these long overdue Bills were rejected by the Portfolio Committee: Transport in the 5th Parliament for deeply suspicious reasons and after massive lobbying by accident claims lawyers who have a vested financial interest in stopping these sober reforms.
Whilst the Bills provide common sense solutions, they will remain little more than nice English words on paper, unless the rot in the RAF is dealt with, corruption is exorcised, competent management appointed, vacancies filled and infrastructure modernised. COSATU will continue to push for these critical Bills to be tabled at Cabinet and Parliament as a matter of the highest urgency. We are heartened to have Minister Creecy and government led by the African National Congress as an ally in this journey to salvaging the RAF.Issued by COSATU
Matthew Parks(COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator)
Mobile: 082 785 0687
Email: matthew@cosatu.org.za