RAF says it's struggling to stay afloat, calls for proper allocation of state resources

JOHANNESBURG - The Road Accident Fund (RAF) says it is struggling to stay afloat, with the fuel levy remaining unchanged for three consecutive years.

RAF income is solely reliant on fuel proceeds in the country, which has remained around R2.18 since 2021.

During a press briefing at its head office in Centurion on Monday morning, RAF executive management outlined its 2023/24 performance results.

The RAF paid out a total of R45 billion to claimants during the 2023/24 period. 

RAF CEO Collins Letsoalo said that one of their most exorbitant costs remained legal fees. 

"The most contentious issue is the legal costs. We sit with legal costs of R3.9 billion."

He said that due to a common trend of legal firms trying to milk the RAF, they had taken an approach of trying to settle claims by agreement, saying they’d increased their out-of-court settlements by 20% in the past three years. 

"This is at 81.9%. When we started, this was around 61.2%."

Letsoalo said that they were not calling for an increase in the fuel levy but more so the proper allocation of state resources, saying the RAF should not be paying people in lump sums but rather an annuity.