About 50 000 valid Road Accident Fund (RAF) claims that were rejected because of the fund’s unlawful RAF1 form for claims are in danger of prescribing.

That’s according to the Association for the Protection of Road Accident Victims (Aprav) which yesterday said the RAF Act is a statute, and not even the Constitutional Court can revive a claim that has lapsed.

Moneyweb reports that Aprav chair Pieter de Bruyn claims that an estimated 170 000 valid claims were rejected because of the failure of claimants to complete the RAF1 form, which has been declared illegal in several court judgments.

‘Think about the implications. There are 50 000 of these claims which must be close to the two- or three-year cutout and to lapse. They are gone forever. The state will just say to you that you have missed the deadline, and not even the appeal court or the Constitutional Court can change that,’ he said.

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Moneyweb notes that Aprav deputy chair Ngoako Mohlaloga said a hit-and-run accident claim prescribes in two years and normal claims prescribe in three years.

De Bruyn lauded Minister of Transport Barbara Creecy for taking action to remove ‘bad apples and non-law abiding board members and executives’ and replacing them with people who are starting to have claimants as the primary solution when nobody wanted to take action for 10 years.

However, De Bruyn said Creecy is condoning the rejection of the about 170 000 valid claims through her failure to ‘instruct the interim board’ to withdraw the unlawful board notice.

RAF interim board chair Kenneth Brown earlier this month confirmed the RAF has decided to revert back to its previous accounting standard, but is continuing to use the RAF1 form for claims because it has a case pending at the SCA about the use of the form.

Moneyweb notes that Brown denied the RAF has ‘hidden’ liabilities of R230bn from about 80 000 legitimate claims that have not been registered on the RAF’s system because of the use of a new claim form, but indicated the RAF’s liabilities because of the use of a different accounting standard is ‘anybody’s guess but somewhere between R300bn and R400bn’.

The Association for the Protection of road Accident Victims (Aprav) is demanding answers from Transport Minister Barbara Creecy on why the acting chief executive, ‘the person who is assisting to turn the entity around’, was suspended on Friday.

Netwerk24 reports that four members of top management were suspended on Friday, including acting chief executive Phathutshedzo Lukhwareni and financial head Bernice Potgieter.

Aprav chairperson Pieter de Bruyn addressed the National Press Club in Pretoria, saying the current Scopa inquiry is a GNU ‘success story’.

‘There was a change to sensible executive managers who are being led by the acting chief executive who was in reality the architect of the steps that have now been taken. It is therefore concerning for us that some of the executive managers have now been suspended. We don’t understand it at all.’

Creecy’s office reportedly did not respond to queries.

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