RAF Defames Hospital

Proof Inconclusive: Liable for Damage to Sunshine Hospital

- Roy Cokayne

The Road Accident Fund (RAF) and its head of communications, McIntosh Polela, have been found by the High Court in Pretoria to have defamed Sunshine Hospital in Benoni. Acting Judge Johann Hershensohn declared the allegations and statements made about Sunshine Hospital on 15 March 2024 on the news channel eNCA defamatory and false.

This specifically relates to statements that the hospital is involved in a corrupt scheme of moving patients from other hospitals across the country to its facility and that it is involved in overservicing or overcharging.

Hershensohn ruled that the RAF and all other persons under its authority, employed by it, under its control, or acting on its instructions, together with Polela, are interdicted and restrained from making any such further statements.

The RAF and Polela were further declared to be jointly and severally liable for Sunshine Hospital's damages resulting from this defamatory conduct.