Thousands of RAF cases put on hold

HUNDREDS of Road Accident Fund (RAF) cases enrolled in courts from this week onwards will not be able to proceed.

Yesterday, the high court in Pretoria declared that the RAF was not an essential service and was thus not allowed to operate under the regulations for Level 4 of the lockdown.

The Association for the Protection of Road Accident Victims had called on the government to declare it an essential service during this time.

Several lawyers who deal with RAF matters expressed dismay at the ruling, saying they had been waiting for trial dates for months and in some cases, more than a year.

A lawyer said he had at least three clients who were paraplegics, and others who had suffered severe brain damage in car accidents. “These cases… now they have to be postponed to who knows when. They were injured more than five years ago. What am I now going to tell them?” said the lawyer.

Tens of thousands of victims of car accidents are, meanwhile, awaiting payment from the RAF following court orders or settlements. Many of these people had been left out of pocket and were depending on receiving their RAF payouts, the lawyer said.

The association earlier sent a letter to Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula, in which they called for some activities of the RAF to be declared as an essential service.

The association said while it supported the lockdown in light of Covid19, scores of accident victims were anxiously awaiting payment of their claims, and for many they were seen as a lifeline during the Covid-19 crisis.

RAF chief operations officer Lindelwa Xingwana-Jabavu said as it did not fall in the category of services permitted to resume operations, its officials were not allowed to travel to their offices to attend to trial matters.

She said she intended to issue permits to a limited number of employees to enable them to fetch case files from the offices of attorneys, to try to settle cases where possible.

The RAF was, however, exploring the possibility of conducting mediation via virtual platforms.