RAF boss says undocumented immigrants shouldn’t benefit from fund

Road Accident Fund (RAF) boss, Collins Letsoalo, says laws should be amended so that only those who are in the country legally benefit from the fund.

Despite the moral implications of his proposal, the RAF CEO says illegal foreign nationals and wealthy foreign visitors should not be profiting from the cash-strapped entity.

In its current form, the road accident fund pays out to any accident victim on the country’s roads, regardless of their immigration status.

Letsoalo says the most expensive claim that the RAF has ever paid was to a Swiss national in 2010 for R500 million.

And while a top exec from the US might receive hundreds of millions for a road accident claim— a domestic worker from Johannesburg with similar injuries will receive much less, because the fund pays out based on lost earnings and not on injuries.

It’s a flaw in policy Letsoalo says only benefits the rich and heightens inequality.

Community leaders on the other hand say the hidden legal costs associated with claiming from the fund must be more transparent to claimants.

This amid concerns that lawyers representing RAF victims are only after money and care little about the suffering of the victims they represent.

While hundreds of millions of rands are paid out to road accident victims each year, 25% or more of this money is taken by lawyers in legal fees.

It’s an exploitative practice that Heidelberg community activist, Stephen Mapepeza, says must be done away with.

He’s also called on community member to stop seeing the Road Accident Fund as a “get rich quick scheme”, saying some impoverished people are intentionally getting into accidents.

The community activist says while many social ills can be addressed by the fund, there should be greater efforts to inform community members about what documents are needed to claim and exactly how much money their lawyers will take, should they need to claim through the road accident fund. Written by Naomi Kobbie