By BAKANG MOKOTO
10 February 2026 – The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) will this week consider the draft framework of its report, marking the final phase of its Oversight Enquiry into the financial matters of the Road Accident Fund (RAF). The consideration of the framework follows a ten-week enquiry during which the committee received extensive briefings from the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA), the Special Investigation Unit (SIU), the Accountant General, the Accounting Standards Board, witnesses with inside knowledge of the RAF’s operations, former RAF Board, Interim RAF Board and the Ministry of Transport.
The SCOPA chairperson, Songezo Zibi said briefings by the AGSA showed the RAF’s financial decline over several years. Zibi said audit outcomes deteriorated from a clean audit in the 2019/20 financial year to two disclaimers and three adverse audit opinions in the years that followed, covering the period from 2018/19 to 2024/25.
“SCOPA was also briefed by the SIU on investigations currently under way at the RAF, including preliminary findings. In addition, the committee received submissions from whistleblowers raising concerns about the handling of finances, claims management and governance practices at the Fund.
“Several issues emerged during the enquiry and will be addressed in the final report. These include RAF’s decision to cancel its Panel of Attorneys without a plan in place, a move that resulted in thousands of court cases going undefended.
“This partly led to default court judgments which now total R15.7 billion. The introduction of the new RAF 1 claim form which requires claimants to spend up to R100 000 to register a claim, costs which the RAF must later repay. The committee has raised concerns that this denies access to poor South Africans,” he said.
Zibi further said it emerged that despite the RAF’s management insistence that people can claim directly, the RAF management took active steps to reduce direct claims which have now fallen from over 35 000 a few years ago to just over 2000 in the last financial year.
He added that allegations of fraud involving legal firms and a claims processing strategy negatively affected members of the public who tried to submit claims directly to the RAF.
“RAF’s widening financial gap, with estimated liabilities of nearly R100 billion compared to an annual income of about R50 billion.
Former chairpersons of the RAF Board indicated that critical information was withheld during the decision-making process regarding the change in accounting policy.
“This resulted in litigation against the AGSA, with total litigation costs of over R20 million between the RAF and the AGSA.
The financial cost of suspending large numbers of employees on full pay for extended periods,” said Zibi.
He said once the framework of the report is approved, SCOPA plans to begin deliberations on the full draft report by the end of February 2026. Zibi said as part of the process, sections of the report that affect individuals or institutions outside of the RAF will be shared with them for comment before the report is finalised.
“The completed report will be tabled in the National Assembly where it will be debated and voted on,” he said.
The Guardian 