The Minister of Transport, Ms Dipuo Peters, congratulates the Road Accident Fund for promptly resuming payments to claimants, service providers, stakeholders as well as caregivers who were affected by the delays in payment following the attachment of the Road Accident Fund’s (RAF) bank account by the Sheriff of the Court.

During the course of last week, the RAF bank account was attached by a few legal firms who sought to extract immediate payment at the expense of many claimants and other service providers.

The attachments have been lifted and payments have resumed. About R520 million to more than 7,000 recipients is being immediately processed in order to cover the deferments which are currently experienced.

The RAF will catch up on the payments that were delayed as soon as is possible and will increase their transacting limits to maximize the value of payments to be made in the next few days.

“While the number of firms and the costs involved varied during the course of the attachments, we now have a consolidated view of what transpired and further note the activities that exacerbated the complete cessation of payments by the RAF”, Minister Peters said.

What remain as a concern for government is that the disruption on payments was intended to ensure that few legal firms’ claims are prioritised in a manner that prejudiced thousands of other claimants.

Government remain steadfast in the introduction of the RABS, a no-fault scheme, which will create a new era of socio-economic balance and also remove the unintended negative consequences and financial burden of the claimants.

Minister Peters would like to thank those legal firms who have worked with the RAF within the strategy to ensure that the limited funding that is available is distributed equitably and fairly for the benefit of all crash victims.

Minister Peters further said that the continued support of the payment schedules and cash management strategy is a necessity if payments are to continue and for the RAF’s value chain and the interests of the claimants it serves to remain intact.

Issued by Department of Transport