RAF not about to 'implode'

»» Improvements not sustainable without legislative changes, says Letsoalo.

- RoyCokayne

The financially distressed Road Accident Fund (RAF) reported a significantly reduced deficit of R1.8 billion for its 2023-24 financial compared to the R8.4 billion deficit in the previous year.

RAF CEO Collins Letsoalo on Monday painted a rosy picture of the RAF in terms of its key performance indicators, stressing that the fund is not about to "implode", and indicated that the audit opinion of the auditor-general (AG) was unchanged compared to the previous year.

But he warned that the improvement in the RAF's performance was not sustainable without legislative changes - and although insisting that lawyers and the legal fraternity are not the enemies of the RAF, he severely criticised the actions of some attorneys.

Letsoalo stressed that the 2023-24 financial year had not been an easy year for the RAF and the 2024-25 year would also not be an easy one for the fund.

"It's becoming more and more difficult to run the RAF simply because... you can't solve systemic issues through administrative and operational efficiencies.

"They will run out of steam at some point. That is what is going to happen now and we are going to start to regress.

"There is no question about it, you can only squeeze efficiencies to a certain number. From then on, there is nothing else you can do," he said.