Fearing that it is being bled dry, the Road Accident Fund (RAF) is engaged in a fight against claims – especially those from foreigners – which seem not only excessive, but also suspicious, reports City Press.
RAF CEO Collins Letsoalo revealed that one such claim had come from an American woman who wants $8.1m for psychological trauma she suffered when her husband died in a road crash in SA. Letsoalo confirmed that the agency was disputing this with everything in its power.
Equally remarkable, he says, was a claim from three Belgians who were exchange students at the University of the Witwatersrand when a bus they were travelling in was involved in a crash and they sustained injuries. They are now each claiming $8.5m from the fund.
Letsoalo said the Belgians’ claim was still at the processing stage and that the RAF would have to fly the three claimants into SA. It would also have to send officials to Belgium to validate information, which he said was a cumbersome and costly exercise.
The highest payout made by the RAF had been to Swiss billionaire Joachim Werner Schloss, who was paid $27.6m in 2008. Schloss lost an arm and a leg when a motorist, driving on the wrong side of the road, crashed into his hired motorbike between Cape Town and Stellenbosch in 2002. He had originally claimed $243m.
Said Letsoalo : ‘I’m sure those who drafted the Road Accident Fund Act didn’t foresee that the scheme would, to a larger extent, benefit foreigners. I don’t know of any injured South African who’s ever been paid more than R15m.’
According to City Press Letsoalo said he was concerned because the RAF Act stated that all persons who had entered the borders of SA could claim from the fund, but did not specify the status of their presence in the country.
He said section 44 of the Immigration Act placed an obligation on state organs to ascertain the status or citizenship of the persons receiving its services and to report to Home Affairs individuals whose status could not be ascertained.
He said this loophole meant that even illegal foreigners could claim from the RAF. The fund, he pointed out, had been criticised in the past for demanding proof of the immigration status of claimants, although this had prevented illegal immigrants from receiving payouts.
