Cape Town - Transport Minister Dipuo Peters used her budget vote in Parliament on Tuesday to slam those abusing the Road Accident Fund, saying a new proposed administrator would end such malpractices.
“The Road Accident Fund has been used as a cash cow by unscrupulous stakeholders, including lawyers and doctors, just to mention a few. Our government cannot allow the abuse and theft of funding from road users through the RAF fuel levy, meant to alleviate the financial burden that results from the carnage on our roads, to be siphoned off to benefit the middleman and a privileged few,” she said.
In February’s budget, Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene increased the RAF petrol levy by 50 cents a litre to cover unfunded liabilities as the fund is R93 billion in the red.
Peters said a bill to establish the Road Accident Benefit Scheme Administrator (Rabsa), the replacement for the RAF, has been published for public comment.
The draft law proposes a comprehensive social security net, which is not based on fault, and with defined benefits provided timeously according to reasonable tariffs. It would “provide proactive assistance to crash victims and family members”, the minister said, so accident survivors could access medical and vocational rehabilitation to improve their chances of re-entering the job market and the economy.
“Our courts are clogged with RAF matters, causing much consternation on our justice system; the unintended consequences of an unjust system, which for decades has seen many benefiting unfairly through abusing the system to receive millions of rands from the fund, while those deserving of compensation get limited compensation,” said Peters.
About 15 years ago, Cape Town attorney Hoosein Mohamed was struck of the roll for swindling poor road accident survivors out of millions of rand in one of the first cases of RAF theft. News reports in 2011 said six of the 13 Pretoria advocates found guilty of milking the RAF for R15m were struck of the roll.
However, Peters found herself at the receiving end of some criticism: “Minister, do something. Anything to reduce deaths on the roads, not establishing another entity,” said DA MP Manny de Freitas, in reference to the Rabsa, and international statistics which put South Africa 177th out of 182 countries for road fatalities.
And the EFF rejected the budget because of increased spending on consultants, said its MP Thilivhali Mulaudzi. “The BRT (Bus Rapid Transport) is not pro-poor transport.”
And tolling on Tuesday remained a thorn in her side as opposition parties criticised the South African National Roads Agency Limited – not only for its controversial Gauteng e-tolls, but also plans to toll around greater Cape Town and the Winelands.
At a pre-budget vote media briefing, Sanral boss Nazir Alli defended tolling and implementing the user-pay principle on the 3 120km the entity is tolling. However, he said that was just 15 percent of the total roads Sanral was responsible for, with another 21 403km untolled.
Alli pointed out that the City of Cape Town, which is embroiled in a legal battle over tolling in greater Cape Town and the Winelands District, is running the MyCiTi public transport buses at a R600m loss. “We appeal to Cape Town, maybe they can concentrate on a good public transport system and we will provide roads.”
Alli admitted Sanral was having difficulties raising money. However, he said this would change once there was certainty over the Gauteng e-tolls following an expected statement by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is leading government initiatives to resolved the contested issue.
Cape Argus