Rabia Mayet | rabiamayet@rdioislam.co.za

04 November 2025

2-minute read

Once seen as a safety net for motor-vehicle crash victims, South Africa’s Road Accident Fund is now drowning in debt after serious mismanagement.

Expert in governance and economic development, Prof Pfano Mashau from the Durban University of Technology says that road users should appreciate that the RAF “is one of the most wonderful initiatives that we have in the country.” Under the RAF, victims of road accidents are compensated for the adverse effects they suffer such as injuries sustained during the collision as well as potential loss of income.

The RAF is “well-funded by the fuel levy,” Prof Mashau highlights. Unfortunately, once people within the RAF started to notice the amount of money going into the it, things started going awry, and these very people employed different initiatives to get money out of the beneficiaries. Money for administration costs covering payment to employees, lawyers and specialists, was mismanaged and stolen.

While the previous CEO did a good job of identifying those benefiting from the Fund as opposed to the intended beneficiaries, at one stage even employing internal actuary services to pinpoint where the money was going, rooting out corruption was almost impossible.  Prof Mashau says that it became “a web of too many people wanting to benefit from a fund until it gets to a point where there are too many to cover.” In an attempt to use RAF as a “source of profit” and get rich quickly, there are even lawyers who specialise only in RAF matters.

Mashau further states that the department was “reactionary” when it came to things going wrong and eventually ended up with this deficit that will take a long time to correct.

While reforming the RAF will be a significant challenge because of systemic failures with corruption “from the bottom to the top management,” Prof Mashau advocates for “cleaning up” by putting “the right people at the right positions.” He emphasizes that there is enough money within the RAF that can be distributed and paid to both employees and beneficiaries. It’s time for bold people who will stop the corruption and find new ways of doing things to step forward.

It’s time to embrace technology and automate the process to sidestep corruption. By removing the human element, Prof Mashau concludes, we might just find surplus money that can be reinvested back into the economy.

Listen to the full interview with Ml Sulaimaan Ravat and Prof Pfano Mashau here.