The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) welcomes the Minister for Transport, Ms. Barbara Creecy’s dismissal of the Road Accident Fund (RAF)’s woefully inadequate and lackluster Board with immediate effect and her commitment for urgent interventions to stabilise, cleanse and fix the RAF as well as to table the RAF and Road Accident Benefits Scheme (RABS) Bills at Parliament. The Federation supports these progressive commitments by the Minister and looks forward to the Bills’ adoption by Parliament.
The chaos and corruption at the RAF have been allowed to thrive for far too long with 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 endless headlines with property attached due to unpaid claims, even forcing RAF employees to bring their own chairs to work.
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 for their monies. Second is administrative, with archaic RAF systems and infrastructure 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 implicated in serious 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 and unfair 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 sober provisions. We were deeply dismayed that these long overdue progressive Bills were rejected by the 5th Parliament’s Portfolio Committee: Transport for deeply suspicious reasons after massive lobbying by accident claims lawyers who have a vested financial interest in stopping these anti-corruption reforms.
Whilst the Bills provide common sense solutions, they will remain little more than nice words on paper, unless the rot in the RAF is dealt with, corruption is surgically removed, 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 by Minister Creecy and government led by the African National Congress’s interventions in this long festering crisis for the working class.
Issued by COSATU
Matthew Parks (COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator)
Mobile: 082 785 0687
Email: matthew@cosatu.org.za