As thousands of road accident victims are anxiously waiting to be compensated by the cash-strapped Road Accident Fund (RAF) following court orders in their favour, the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, is expected to soon deal with the fund’s inability to pay up.
Hundreds of claimants recently turned to the court where they had obtained an urgent order to attach eight of the RAF’s Absa bank accounts. The bank was ordered to use the proceeds from the accounts to pay the 346 injured victims.
The RAF in turn headed to court last month, in which it wanted this order lifted, as it said it simply couldn’t afford to pay these claimants, as its outstanding debt was more than R17billion. The fund said it couldn’t operate without its bank accounts as it is was struggling to stay afloat.
This application was not entertained by the urgent court, which meant that the bank accounts remained attached. But it came to light that the RAF then instructed the bank not to honour t
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