Road Accident Fund violates 1,300 court orders — kisses its fridges goodbye

The Sheriff of the Court visited the Road Accident Fund’s (RAF) Menlyn offices on Friday, 15 March 2024, to cart off a bunch of fridges after the RAF failed to comply with over 1,300 court orders.

According to a Netwerk24 report, a law firm submitted the court orders to the Sheriff to seize approximately R113 million of the RAF’s assets.

Allegedly, the fund refused to pay out claims for victims of road accidents, healthcare services, and treatment for patients at state hospitals.

The RAF’s debt includes R63 million owed to Benoni’s Sunshine Hospital and R20 million for personal claims. The remainder is owed to various other service providers.

The Sunshine Hospital in Actonville has 200 beds and four theatres designated for road accident patients. It has been struggling to get payment from the RAF for two decades.

Sunshine closed its doors a year ago when the RAF failed to settle its outstanding debt of R394 million.

It reopened in August 2023 following a Pretoria High Court order instructing the RAF to pay R301 million. However, it stopped paying after six months.

The RAF is primarily funded through a levy added to each litre of fuel sold in South Africa, which hasn’t been increased since the 2021/22 financial year.

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) believes this could soon change.

It told MyBroadband that it believes the government held off on the announcement during the 2024 Budget Speech because it is an election year.

“Outa honestly believes that it will not continue,” it said.

“Outa is of the opinion that this is an election year, and as such the budget was an election budget but due to the fiscal constraints SA’s budget is facing, it will probably increase in the [medium-term budget].”

It said the government can’t continue to ignore the budget deficit, and the RAF levy is “easily collectable”.

“There is no political will to fix the actual problems. Collecting more revenue becomes a priority to the detriment of SA,” Outa added.

According to the National Treasury, the decision not to increase the RAF and general fuel levies equates to approximately R4 billion in tax relief over the financial year.

“As in the 2022 and 2023 Budgets, the government again proposes no changes to the general fuel levy or the Road Accident Fund levy, resulting in tax relief of around R4 billion,” the National Treasury said in its 2024 Budget Review document.

“We are mindful of the already high cost of living and the impact fuel prices have on food and transport costs,” Godongwana added.

This is the fourth consecutive year the RAF tax has remained at R2.18 per litre. However, it has almost tripled since the 2008/09 financial year and has been the fastest-growing fuel add-on since 2014/15.