24th August 2020 – Lawyers have welcomed the controversial RABS bill defeat in parliament last week by the Portfolio Committee on Transport (PCoT) and say now RAF must be fixed in order to serve road crash victims properly.
This is according to DSC Attorneys partner Kirstie Haslam, who says that this decision saves motorists from an inevitable massive increase in the fuel levy, which would have been required to finance what would have been a monstrous Scheme.
She continues: “At the same time, the recoverable “benefits” envisaged under the Scheme would have been minimal at best, in some instances non-existent – and subject to termination at any time without notice. Future road accident victims would inevitably have been left potentially destitute and with no recourse to restore their physical – and financial – health.”
With regard to the next steps following this cancellation, Haslam says that the PCoT has thankfully heeded the calls, which have long been made, to look at amending the RAF Act itself to address the current shortcomings.
“Industry stakeholders have already for some time been working on proposed solutions, having identified clear issues which need urgent attention,” she adds. “The intention is for these proposed solutions to be submitted to the Portfolio Committee for consideration within the coming months.”
As to the reason for the cancellation, Haslam says that the RABS Bill was presented to Parliament for passing three times at the end of 2018 and on each instance failed to pass as there was unprecedented universal opposition to it from all opposition parties, who spoke with one voice in their rejection of the Bill.
“The proposed unaffordable system would have seen no-fault compensation for road accident victims meaning that drunk and reckless drivers would have been rewarded for their conduct,” she explains.
“Also, victims would have been required to negotiate a cumbersome and complex administrative process on their own because RABS sought to exclude road accident victims’ rights and access to legal representation.”
She continues: “Ultimately, the Committee has recognised the inherent multiple problems with the Bill, including it’s the unfair and devastating potential impact on the poorest of the poor, coupled with the fact that it is utterly unaffordable to implement.”
From a legal perspective, Haslam says: “As lawyers, we are always concerned and vigilant about the possible erosion of citizen’s rights and the RABS Bill would certainly have entailed a massive erosion of the rights of a road accident victim to be made whole again, insofar as a monetary award of compensation can do so.”
Pieter de Bruyn Chairman of the Association for the Protection of Road Accident Victims (APRAV) says that after years, the RABS Bill is finally put to rest and crash victims and the South African public at large have been protected from what would have been an onslaught of their constitutional rights.
He continues: “The withdrawal of the RABS Bill is not the end but only the beginning. The hard work for all stakeholders to now align and co-operate with Government (Department of Transport and the RAF Leadership) to focus on re-creating the RAF to be road crash victim-focused, must be the no. 1 priority for all.
“The single biggest risk now is no longer the RABS Bill but all role players’ inability to find common ground and support meaningful change at the RAF. The single biggest risk for the RAF’s leadership is that they do not learn from this 07-year time-wasting: Ensure any changes are constitutional, well researched, carefully planned, with all stakeholders’ involvement and most of all, in the interest of road crash victims.”
He adds that the way forward is for the RAF and stakeholders to work closely together.
“In this regard, APRAV already commenced 2 months ago with 06 national task teams to assist to find solutions to the key problems that need solving in the RAF,” he explains. “We will share this work fully and openly with the Department of Transport, the RAF leadership and the Portfolio Committee on Transport, no later than November.”
He concludes that RABS may be dead but the RAF is still in a critical condition and in ICU and requires urgent, logical and practical solutions; and fast.