Parliament decides not to proceed with the RABS Bill following DA pressure
19 August 2020
The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the decision taken today by Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Transport not to proceed with the Road Accident Benefit Scheme (RABS) Bill. The Bill, which lapsed in the 5th Parliament, sought to replace the current Road Accident Fund (RAF) Act.
The DA did not support the resurrection of this Bill and made submissions today for Parliament to not proceed with the RABS Bill. Or submissions were overwhelmingly supported by the Committee. We thank our colleagues across the political divide who supported the DA in opposing and preventing the continuation of this disastrous bill.
The DA is of the view that the RABS Bill is anti-poor, unaffordable and poses major stumbling blocks for road accident victims. Many South Africans agreed with the DA’s sentiments as evidenced by the bill failing to garner adequate public participation support.
The Bill makes the following problematic proposals:
Anyone claiming from RABS would not require to prove if a vehicle crash was caused by any party involved in that crash;
Payments for loss of income will no longer be made in lump sums, but paid out monthly at a cap;
Claims must be paid through an administrator and not a private attorney;
Claimants will have to cover the costs of obtaining medical and police reports;
Payments will cease after 15 years, regardless of whether a victim was fully rehabilitated; and
Claims can only be submitted electronically.
In addition to this, current RAF claimants will have to be financed parallel to the RABS Bill which will have implications on the fuel levy. Neither the fiscus nor South African consumers would have been able to afford two road crash compensation streams.
While the RAF system is rife with problems, the RABS Bill is simply not an acceptable alternative.
The DA firmly believes that addressing the current shortcomings in the RAF system can be done by the introduction of amendments to the current RAF legislation, and not through the disastrous RABS Bill.
Issued by Chris Hunsinger, DA Shadow Minister of Transport, 19 August 2020
