RAF appeal thrown out

COURT: DISMISSES APPLICATION AGAINST JUDGMENT ON 181 ORDERS

- Roy Cokayne

VICTIM. The private Sunshine Hospital, which only treated victims of motor vehicle accidents, was forced to close after the fund repeatedly failed to pay up. Picture: Sunshine Hospital Facebook page

(Sunshine Hospital Facebook page)

The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has dismissed with costs an application by the Road Accident Fund (RAF) to appeal a judgment that slammed the fund for refusing to abide by 181 court orders in favour of Sunshine Hospital.

The RAF made several attempts to obtain leave to appeal the November 2023 judgment by the High Court in Pretoria and, aggrieved by the dismissal of its application to the SCA for leave to appeal, thereafter applied to the president of the SCA for reconsideration of the dismissal of that application.

The SCA president on 6 August, 2025 directed that the SCA dismissal of the application for leave to appeal be referred to the SCA for reconsideration and, if necessary, variation.

In a judgment handed down last week, acting Judge Boissie Mbha - with Judge Xola Petse and acting Judge Daniel Dlodlo concurring - rejected the RAF's contention there were new facts or evidence that later came to light in the form of an alleged irregular relationship between the medical practitioners and Sunshine arising from alleged unlawful and impermissible combined claims.

Mbha said it was "opportunistic" for the RAF to rely on this issue in the application for reconsideration filed with the president of the SCA.

He said all the contentions by the RAF were previously raised and thoroughly dealt with before the high court and during the applications for leave to appeal.