Pretoria - A Constitutional Court challenge against practice directives which place hurdles in the way of the public claiming against the Road Accident Fund (RAF), an application to have specified medical tariffs overturned, and the possibility of the fund’s executives, being personally slapped with legal costs in two cases are but a few of the vows facing the RAF this year.
Apart from the plethora of claims instituted by road accident victims, which daily filled the court rolls last year, the fund also faced various legal challenges regarding its operations. And this year will be no different.
The high court in Mpumalanga is expected to deliver its judgment within the first court term on whether the fund’s CEO Collins Letsoalo and some of the senior management should personally be held liable for the legal costs in two cases.The RAF was in the hot seat last year before three judges of that division, over its non-participation in cases and for settling claims at the last minute.
Mpumalanga Judge President Frans Legodi ordered the RAF to answer a host of questions by the court regarding the functioning of the fund when it came to claims before the court.
These included the procedures followed by the RAF, when it was called on by the courts to attend pretrial conferences or judicial case management conferences in cases due to be heard and why the fund wasted costs by first opposing cases and then settling matters on the steps of the court.
Judge Legodi, in his quest to obtain answers from the RAF and its employees for its absence in the two cases in question, wanted to know why he should not award costs in the cases against the entity’s officials personally.
Judgment was reserved on this issue last year, but it is expected to be delivered soon.
The Western Cape High Court last year gave the RAF a tongue lashing in a matter where the entity wanted to rescind an order that it had to pay R6.7 million to a claimant. In that case, the RAF did not appear in court to defend the matter.
The problems facing the fund and the claimants are now such a serious concern that one of the biggest law firms in the country will this year ask the Constitutional Court to step in.
The hurdles caused delays, and in some cases, claimants had to wait years before their cases were dealt with by the court.
In some cases lodged with the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, the backlog is so big that new matters can only receive a trial date in 2026. Meanwhile, destitute members of the public who have lodged claims are forced to wait for their cases to be addressed.
lf left unchecked, the high court will reach the point of total collapse, attorney Gert Nel said. He has filed papers with the Concourt for direct access to the apex court for it to declare that the civil trial date and default judgment application process adopted and implemented in the high court regarding RAF matters be overturned.
The practice directives, issued by the high court in Pretoria, set out steps which have to be followed before a case is deemed ready to be enrolled. While the objective may be to try and streamline the process in light of the thousands of RAF matters before this court, they were, in fact, making matters far worse, Nel said.
He is asking the Concourt to declare the practice directives constitutionally invalid and he called on the court to order that a new directive be drafted to regulate the case flow management.
Meanwhile, the high court in Pretoria will hear an application in May to overturn new medical tariffs promulgated by Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula and implemented by the RAF.
The court last year suspended the implementation of these tariffs, pending the outcome of this year’s review application.
The new tariffs were promulgated by Mbalula in August for medical professionals in the private sector to be paid reduced tariffs.
The court was told that, should the new medical tariffs not be scrapped, they would see thousands of vehicle accident victims having to turn to the already overburdened public health sector, which would most likely in most cases not be able to render the emergency or long-term care many of these victims would require.
The National Council for Persons with Disabilities and the Law Society of South Africa launched the application as they are of the view that the new tariff structure would have disastrous consequences for road accident victims in need of emergency or specialised care.
Pretoria News