RAF pledges fast fix

BACK ON THE ROAD: PROMISES AGGRESSIVE PAYOUT PLAN TO START SOON

- Roy Cokayne

Change is coming to the Road Accident Fund (RAF) and its new interim board has plans to fix the organisation. For one, it intends from next month to aggressively start paying the almost R19 billion in outstanding claims older than 180 days, according to RAF interim board chair Kenneth Brown.

Brown said the new interim board is already thinking beyond the fund's current challenges and considering how to modernise its entire claims systems.

His comments followed an urgent meeting last Friday with attorney associations and sheriffs, regarding the implications of the high court dismissing the RAF's urgent application for an extension of the 180-day payment moratorium.

This means the RAF will now have to pay claims within 14 calendar days instead of almost six months.

Brown said the RAF board had "a very good meeting", adding that the lawyers and their association were "really very accommodating in understanding how this challenge needs to be resolved".