Thirty-seven claimants were arrested for submitting fraudulent claims worth R48m to the Road Accident Fund (RAF) since 2021, it said yesterday.

In addition to the arrests, RAF said claims worth R65m were blocked in the past three financial years (2021/22 – 2023/24) as part of a crackdown on fraud and corruption. 

News24 reports that the East London Regional Court on Friday sentenced Solomon Ndika-Ndika to five years in prison for submitting a fraudulent claim to the RAF for a road accident that never happened.

Ndika-Ndika lodged a claim against RAF on 29 January 2016, stating that on 7 October 2014, he was involved in a car accident while travelling from Elliot towards Cala in the Eastern Cape.

According to the Hawks, Ndika-Ndika claimed that his car overturned when trying to avoid an oncoming vehicle.

During the claim processing, RAF picked up discrepancies between documents that were submitted by Ndika-Ndika and the police report.

The RAF repudiated the claim and referred the matter to the Hawks for a thorough probe.

‘A comprehensive investigation by the Hawks revealed that, through misrepresentation made by Ndika-Ndika, RAF nearly suffered a loss of more than R1.6m,’ said Hawks' spokesperson Warrant Officer Ndiphiwe Mhlakuvana.

RAF CEO Collins Letsoalo told News24 that false claims were draining the fund's limited resources: ‘The fund is constantly improving the strategy being implemented by the forensics team to vigorously deter and prevent corruption by internal and external parties.’

Letsoalo said 1 138 cases were referred to the SAPS from 2021/22 to 2023/24, and 44 arrests were handed down in this period.

Full News24 report