There was much fanfare last July when Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula announced that the Road Accident Fund (RAF) had turned the corner and posted a R3.2bn surplus for the first time in years.

However, this appears not to have been a fair reflection of its financial health.

A Sunday Times report says a court fight between the RAF and Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke has highlighted that the fund has liabilities amounting to more than R300bn on its books. 

The RAF last year successfully approached the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) to suspend hundreds of warrants of execution and attachments brought against it by unpaid victims.

The scrap between the RAF and the AG follows a decision by the fund, on advice from audit firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers, to use an accounting model that has not been approved by the Accounting Standards Board.

As a result, the RAF’s R300bn liability is the second-highest financial exposure for the SA’s fiscus after that of power utility Eskom’s R480bn.

First Sunday Times report

An Atteridgeville teenager who sustained permanent brain injuries in a taxi accident that claimed her mother’s life 10 years ago, is embroiled in a dispute after the RAF directly paid her father, Villey Lepatsi, R5.7m for her injuries.

This despite its own policy that money meant for a child beneficiary should be managed by a curator.

And instead of receiving the continuous medical treatment to mitigate the effects of her injuries, the teen is now at the centre of a tug of war between her father and her dead mother’s siblings, who accuse each other of using her as a cash cow.

A second Sunday Times report says Lepatsi, who bought two cars and a house with some of the money, has obtained a protection order against his daughter’s uncle and aunt who are looking after her.

Lepatsi and the RAF will not say how much was paid, but RAF expenditure authorisation forms suggest Lepatsi received R1.5m in December 2016 and another R4.2m in March 2017.

Full Sunday Times report