Is the Road Accident Fund essential services?
The RAF offices have closed due to lockdown. They had, shortly after the announcement of the national lockdown, advised all stakeholders of the closure. However, there have been calls from the public recently that the RAF must open offices and continue to process claims further, more particularly processing payments for the claims which have been finalized.
It is widely known that most of the people who are, after they have been involved in a motor vehicle accident, depending on the RAF are the low-class people including those who are unemployed. The question is what is happening to those people during this difficult time? How are they surviving when the RAF is unable to process payments for the settled cases?
How are they surviving when the RAF is unable to process payments for the settled cases?
The Association of for the Protection of Road accident Fund Victims (APRAV) has also weighed in. The association has now written to the Minister of Transport and COGTA requesting that the RAF be declared as an “essential services” to enable it to still process the payments to the victims during lockdown.