Pretoria – The Road Accident Fund (RAF) has resumed payments to claimants, service providers, stakeholders as well as caregivers who were affected by the delays in payment following the attachment of the RAF’s bank account by the Sheriff of the Court.
“During the course of last week, the RAF bank account was attached by a few legal firms who sought to extract immediate payment at the expense of many claimants and other service providers. The attachments have been lifted and payments have resumed,” the Department of Transport said on Wednesday.
About R520 million to more than 7 000 recipients is being processed in order to cover the deferments which were currently experienced.
Transport Minister Dipuo Peters has congratulated the RAF for promptly resuming payments to those who were affected by the delays in payment.
The department said the RAF will catch up on the payments that were delayed as soon as is possible and will increase their transacting limits to maximize the value of payments to be made in the next few days.
“While the number of firms and the costs involved varied during the course of the attachments, we now have a consolidated view of what transpired and further note the activities that exacerbated the complete cessation of payments by the RAF,” Minister Peters said.
Minister Peters has thanked the legal firms who have worked with the RAF within the strategy to ensure that the limited funding that is available is distributed equitably and fairly for the benefit of all crash victims.
She said the continued support of the payment schedules and cash management strategy is a necessity if payments are to continue and for the RAF’s value chain and the interests of the claimants it serves to remain intact.
“What remains as a concern for government is that the disruption on payments was intended to ensure that few legal firms’ claims are prioritised in a manner that prejudiced thousands of other claimants,” the department said. – SAnews.gov.za
