The Road Accident Fund (RAF) is unhappy with the judgment issued last month in which the court put an end to a payout ban for members of medical aids.

The Star report notes the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) declared the directive by the RAF not to pay for past hospital and medical claims issued by members of medical aid schemes unlawful.

The RAF was as a result interdicted from implementing the directive.

However, the RAF said in a notice filed in court that it was in the public interest to appeal this judgment before the SCA.

Lawyers acting for the RAF said in the notice that Judge Mandla Mbongwe made several mistakes in law in the judgment.

Mbongwe was highly critical of the fact that the RAF had issued the directive against the legislation, and because it was done without consulting any of the stakeholders or the public.

The RAF said it was confident that if the SCA took a second look at the facts, it would rule in favour of the RAF. 

‘It is necessary and in the public interest that the issues which are the subject of the directive … be authoritatively and finally determined by an appeal court,’ it stated.

It contended that the SCA judges should determine whether all medical schemes had a claim against the RAF in circumstances where they had settled the claims of health service providers who rendered services to victims of road accidents.

Full report in The Star