Healthcare professionals serving the Road Accident Fund (RAF) are facing extreme financial strain. Medico-legal experts who assess accident injuries and loss of income are dealing with years-long payment delays. Evidence presented to Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) revealed a system in complete collapse.
These experts provide independent reports for RAF claims and court proceedings. Without them, the legal process stalls. Yet, the system fails to pay many professionals for their completed work, leaving claimants stranded. Parliamentary legal adviser Fatima Ebrahim noted serious failures in how authorities appoint, contract, and pay these experts.
Millions Owed In RAF Medico-Legal Payments
The financial scale of the crisis is immense. Cecilia Margaretha Minnie, owner of account processing firm MMB Made Easy, provided a shocking affidavit to Scopa. Minnie represents more than 100 clients in the healthcare field.
Key figures from the submission include:
- R41.29 million: Amount owed to just 35 of Minnie’s direct clients, excluding interest.
- R120.75 million: Total outstanding debt for a broader group of 47 medical experts.
- 2014: The year from which some of the oldest unpaid claims date back.
The RAF (either directly or through its former panel of attorneys) or claimants’ lawyers appointed these experts.
Non-payment remains a recurring issue across all categories, severely impacting outstanding RAF Medico-Legal Payments.
Procurement Failures Halt RAF Medico-Legal Payments
Scopa exposed deep administrative and procurement flaws within the RAF. Historically, the system lacked clear guidelines. Some experts billed attorneys, while others invoiced the fund directly.
In 2015, the RAF launched a new expert panel. However, it was critically small, featuring only 82 experts nationally. This included just two orthopaedic surgeons for the entire country. When this panel expired in 2018, the RAF failed to launch a proper replacement tender. Instead, it relied on flawed interim directives. Service level agreements contained blank sections, outdated dates, and incorrect tariff references.
The crisis deepened in June 2020 when the RAF terminated its panel of attorneys, plunging medical experts into limbo. Experts no longer knew where to submit reports or how to access case files. Furthermore, the RAF routinely lost invoices, and reports revealed that staff left documents lying on office floors. The RAF has even used prescription as a defence, claiming invoices older than three years are invalid. Scopa labelled this tactic disingenuous, effectively freezing valid RAF Medico-Legal Payments.
Parliamentary Committee Slams Fund Management
Members of Parliament did not hold back their criticism of the fund’s management. ActionSA MP Alan Beesley described the RAF as a “wrecking ball” for private medical practices. He warned that total unpaid debts could reach billions of Rands.
Meanwhile, ANC MP Gijimani Skosana stated that management ran the fund “like a spaza shop.” Fellow MP Helen Neale-May emphasised that the ongoing crisis severely damages the livelihoods of dedicated healthcare practitioners.
Committee Chairperson Songezo Zibi warned that these issues are ongoing, not just historical. The RAF has clearly failed to pay valid invoices within the mandatory 30-day public finance window. This ongoing dysfunction threatens the sustainability of the entire medico-legal sector.