How the RAF and RABS Bills aim to transform lives for millions

IN THE midst of the political noise, an important announcement made by Transport Minister, Barbara Creecy that government will retable the Road Accident Fund (RAF) and the Road Accident Benefits Scheme (RABS) Bills at Parliament, went largely unnoticed.

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Yet this progressive commitment will bring relief to millions of commuters and drivers, and road accident victims and their families.

The RAF is a public insurance fund for road accident victims and their families to claim relief when injured or deceased during a road accident. It is funded by the RAF fuel levy.

The RAF has been in a crisis for years and a site of state capture and rampant corruption. It has occupied media headlines for all the wrong reasons, with claimants attaching its property due to its failure to pay them relief due.

What is less known are the human tragedies the RAF has left in its wake. Thousands of working-class road accident victims struggle to submit their claims and receive relief due to them and their families. This administrative chaos has condemned these families to lives of absolute poverty and misery, whilst saddled with medical bills and often no longer able to work.

Cosatu is pleased that we have an ally in Minister Creecy and government led by the African National Congress. We have been championing the RAF and the RABS Bills over the past decade as we have seen the price thousands of working-class families have paid due to the RAF's anarchy and corruption. The RAF and RABS Bills provide a sober and sustainable solution to stabilise the RAF and place it on a sustainable path, and most critically to ensure its funds are targeted at those most in need, the poor and the working class.