The Road Accident Fund is under pressure to settle more claims, while dealing with a growing backlog, legal costs and an influx of applications after a court ruling on its RAF 1 form.
The RAF says it paid R8.9bn to settle 80,665 claims during the first quarter of the 2026/27 financial year, significantly higher than R5.8bn paid during the same period the previous year, representing a 54% increase.
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Mokete Daniel Penane, the board secretary of the fund, said the RAF was “paying quite well” compared with the previous year.
“For the quarter to date, we’re sitting at R8.9bn versus performance of the prior year being R5.8bn,” Penane said.
The largest portion of the payout sum, about R4.8bn, had gone towards loss-of-income claims, while about R2.2bn had been paid in plaintiff legal costs and R1.1bn in general damages.
Penane explained that claims had to go through several stages before they could be paid.
“The journey starts with us ‘onboarding’ a claimant. That is where we do the pre-assessment ... [and] where we do the document lodgement date,” he said.
One of the biggest current challenges, added Penane, was the influx of RAF 1 forms after a court judgment that found the fund’s strict documentation requirements were unlawful.
The RAF had already received 62,000 RAF 1 claims, with officials estimating that this could rise to 159,000 by September.
Penane said the fund had introduced overtime and reorganised staff to deal with the additional workload. “We’ve really had to prioritise what is putting a strain on the system.”
The RAF’s legal bill of R2.2bn has prompted MPs to question whether claimants represented by certain firms were more likely to have their claims finalised.
Deputy transport minister Mkhuleko Hlengwa said the RAF needed to establish whether claimants actually received money after attorneys were paid. “We must follow through with the claimant, having paid an attorney, that they have received a payout. Sometimes the claimants are not aware that we have made an offer.”
Acting RAF CEO Radikwena Phora, however, said claimants, rather than the RAF, selected their attorneys. “It’s not a supplier, you know, SCM type of an arrangement. Claimants decide which lawyers they want to use to have their matters represented.”
Phora acknowledged that the ‘request-not-yet-paid’ (RNYP) register exceeded R20bn — indicating the claims or amounts the fund had been asked to pay but had not yet settled.
“As much as we would want to pay all of that which is on the RNYP at the goal, in a single month we get as little as a billion,” he said.
Phora, however, pointed to an improvement in the RAF’s audit position following changes to its accounting policy. “We have moved the organisation from an adverse opinion to an unqualified opinion, which is a big step from where it came from.”
Phora said the fund had created a dedicated backlog-eradication project to separate historic claims from new applications.
Hlengwa said the RAF was “an institution in transit from a very difficult past, including a series of wrong decisions and non-compliance”.
“We are doing our level best to regularise the environment, to stabilise it, so that it can operate normally and respond to its immediate challenges as and when they present themselves.”
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