No direct payments to accident victims (2009-06-12)

The Cape High Court has stopped the Road Accident Fund (RAF) from paying claims directly to accident victims, instead of making payments via their attorneys.

The court also set aside a RAF administrative decision, made in June 2007, to forthwith implement the new direct payment system, and declared the decision invalid and of no force or effect.

Thursday was the return date for an interim interdict granted to the Law Society of South Africa last August by the Western Cape's Acting Judge-President, Jeanette Traverso.

Thursday's proceedings, before Judge Denis van Reenen, were for the RAF to present reasons why Traverso's interim interdict should not be made final. Van Reenen made it clear, however, that he could not permanently interdict the RAF from making further decisions concerning the system, but that the interdict applied only to the decision made in June 2007.

Senior counsel for the RAF, Anwar Albertus, said the fund accepted the 2007 decision was flawed, and for this reason would not implement the it without further discussion and correcting the flaws.

However, senior counsel Jeremy Gauntlett, for the law society, countered that the RAF had in fact tried secretly to implement the system, despite the Traverso interdict, and for this reason the fund could no longer be trusted. He said the RAF had so far acted with such irregularity, and against the public good, that the final interdict was in fact essential.

Gauntlett said the system was irrational and unreasonable and in breach of constitutional rights. He said it was designed to ensure that road accident victims -- many the most vulnerable in society -- would not have effective legal representation in their battles to obtain RAF compensation.