Road Accident Fund bosses to get 30% bonuses - MP

Documents in possession of the Democratic Alliance reveal that the Road Accident Fund (RAF) has proposed to its Board that a 30% bonus be given to its executives‚ MP Manny de Freitas said on Friday.

"Additionally‚ it is proposed that all staff at the RAF will receive bonuses far above inflation‚" he said in a statement.

"This despite the fact that the Fund is bankrupt and currently unable to pay road accident victims.

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"While thousands of road accident victims are being denied their claim monies‚ executives are about to receive astronomical bonuses.

"These documents clearly show that bonuses had not been originally budgeted for in light of the R180 billion in outstanding RAF claims which are currently on the books."

See an excerpt of the document here:

De Freitas said he would ask the Minister of Transport‚ Joe Maswanganyi‚ to investigate the proposed bonus payouts.

In March‚ Numsa asked the Public Protector to investigate how legal issues at the fund are affecting day-to-day operations.

In February‚ the RAF announced it was unable to make payouts to its claimants after the sheriff of the court attached its bank accounts.

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Business Day reported this followed a R11 million demand by law firms for unpaid claims. While payments have resumed‚ the fund said it still had a backlog of R8.2 billion for 5‚200 claims. This was despite an additional 50c levy granted by the Treasury in 2015‚ which led to a 46% jump in revenue to R33 billion for 2015-16.