DA launches helpline for victims of alleged RAF fraud

Numerous phone calls with allegations of corruption and fraud at the Road Accident Fund (RAF) Administration have followed since the DA’s announcement last week of evidence that appears to document large-scale fraud allegedly taking place at the RAF. The high volume of additional information that we have received since making public the first two examples last week has prompted the DA to establish a toll free help-line (087 233 9188) and an email address (problemswithraf@gmail.com) for the public to report cases of fraud and corruption. RAF employees, lawyers and victims who have information or have been mistreated by RAF can also report cases. In one of the latest cases reported to the DA, supporting documents allegedly indicate that a victim was employed at the time of their crash. According to a letter from their lawyer, the victim was seriously injured. He therefore had a bona fide claim with the RAF, as he is no longer employed or employable for his occupation following the crash. Despite this, his claim was denied. In another case, allegations are made that a crash victim was underpaid despite proving that she is entitled to greater compensation. The latest evidence seemingly provides additional proof that the RAF do appear to not have crash victim interests at heart. With this additional information, the DA will lay fraud charges at 1:30 pm today at the Brooklyn Police Station in Pretoria. The DA has also requested Transport Minister, Dipuo Peters, to suspend RAF CEO Dr. Eugene Watson and to launch an investigation – something which she to date has chosen to ignore. We hope that she will reconsider her stance after the latest allegations. A complete information pack containing copies of the documentation of the latest evidence will be delivered to the Chairman of the RAF Board as well as the Minister today.

Train collision brings issue of rail safety centre stage

I will today write letters to both the Minister of Transport, Dipuo Peters, and the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Transport, Dikeledi Magadzi, requesting that a Parliamentary Inquiry be launched into the cause of the train crash in Johannesburg this morning that killed a Metrorail employee and injured hundreds more. In addition to the safety officer who was killed, up to 240 people were injured when a stationary Metro Plus train carrying 700 people was rear-ended at about 07:00 by a Business Express train with about 200 people on board. The Democratic Alliance would like to extend our deepest sympathies to all those injured, as well as to the family, friends and colleagues of the deceased Metrorail employee. The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) will need to be brought before the portfolio committee to give answers as to how a moving train could crash into a stationary one. When a large number of commuters make use of rail, we need to ensure that their safety is of paramount concern. Early reports suggested that at least two of the cars from the Metro Plus train were derailed. One landed on the platform, its entire front crushed, while the other went into a building, crushing some of the passengers. Faulty signalling has been suggested as a possible cause. Prasa cannot evade accountability in this matter and must be forthcoming with all the facts in an open and transparent fashion. The DA will continue to push for affordable, efficient and, most importantly, safe public transport infrastructure in the interest of the millions of South Africans who make use of our national rail network monthly.

Transport Minister objects to DA’s request for RAF investigation

At this week’s Transport Portfolio Meeting the Minister of Transport, Dipuo Peters, chastised the Democratic Alliance (DA) for laying criminal charges against Road Accident Fund (RAF) CEO, Dr Eugene Watson. This week the DA laid criminal charges and also wrote to the Minister requesting for her to launch an investigation into the RAF and its CEO. These charges and the letter were as a result of evidence in the possession of the DA that appears to document large-scale fraud allegedly taking place at the RAF. The evidence, in the form of letters from complaint attorneys to claimants, illustrate how the RAF essentially appears to sue itself in order to maintain a certain cash flow. This delays claims made by road crash victims. Based on the documents leaked to us, as well as investigations that we undertook, appears to be fraud and injustice at the highest level. Although the Minister admitted in the Portfolio Committee Meeting that she had not yet seen the DA’s letter, she reprimanded the DA members of the Committee for laying the charges and for even writing to her. This is of great concern as she is clearly protecting Eugene Watson without even considering the evidence that we have provided her as she claims that the DA is “governing through the courts and the police”. Unbelievably, the Minister stated that any fraud allegation “should be handled in the Portfolio Committee and not in courts with charges and waste the time of police” and that they (the police) “are going to take ten years to investigate this case”. Considering that these statements were made without being prompted by the DA, we will be again writing to the Minister asking her to confirm that, based on what she said, if she will not be following our recommendations to launch an investigation, particularly as she appears to have made up her mind without considering the evidence. If this is indeed the case, we are even more concerned that she has made such a decision in such an uninformed manner and will request her to explain her reasons for this.

Government is responsible for the xenophobia violence-and they can turn it around!

Not since the height of the dark days of the State of Emergency have we need the pervasive violence that we have had in the last two weeks. I never dreamt that we would revert back to those dark days. However, all this is completely understandable and logical thanks to the Zuma administration. The truth is that when other countries, such as Mozambique, Mauritius and Angola are showing good economic growth, South Africa continues on a downward trajectory. This is thanks to the Zuma government and its policies which ensures that corruption goes up whilst unemployment goes down. As in other countries quality education is delivered and emphasised, our education system continues to disadvantage our youth with bad quality education. So the ordinary unemployed South African “on the ground”, sees minimal opportunities and prospects for employment and becomes increasingly frustrated. At the same time, the ordinary South African citizen sees those in the ANC, and those connected to it, getting richer and richer through questionable means; Nkandla immediately comes to mind! Foreigners come into our country, and appear to thrive economically because of their knowledge, education and skills advantage. The poor unemployed South African sees this and, from his or her perspective, cannot understand how this is possible when he or she cannot develop in his or her own country. Add the violence encouraged and sponsored by the ANC government against Members of Parliament and unaccountable comments from royalty and members of the Zuma clan and we have the scene set for violence against innocent people. So over a week after this violence erupted government makes official public statements in this regard. The President used his answer to questions Parliamentary session as an opportunity to address this issue. In itself this was a good thing, however what came out of this emerged a lost opportunity for the President. His address on this issue came across as insincere and emotionless, President Zuma’s body language reflected this too. The President mentioned nothing about statements made by the King in Kwazulu-Natal and, even closer to home, Xenophobia comments made by Edward Zuma, son of the President. The root of this violence can be laid directly on the lap of government. The Zuma government is doing little to deal with our growing unemployment rate, at the same time our economy continues to spend more time in intensive care without immediate prospects of improving. Our suffocating labour laws contribute to the retardation of our economic growth, as Cosatu dictates government’s policy. Government needs to start dealing with this core issues, stop looking at introducing apparent “quick-fix” solutions which will have little impact. Before millions are allocated to “recruiting inspectors to detect companies and businesses employing undocumented migrants” malfunctioning systems in Home Affairs first need to be fixed! Government needs to prioritise the growth of our economy and job creation, actually do this and communicate this with South Africa. The reality is that South Africa can be a country of open opportunity for all where we can all enjoy the sunshine together, whether one is South African-born or not.

Open Letter to the Minister of Transport, Minister Dipuo Peters

Dear Minister Peters, South Africa is rated the worst, out of 36 other countries, when it comes to the number of road fatalities. South Africa's road fatalities per 100 000 inhabitants was at 27.6 deaths in 2011 according to The International Transport Forum's (ITF) Road Safety Annual Report and international report for 2013. This is a mortality rate of 28 per 100 000 citizens dying as a result of road fatalities. Last year South Africa was ranked 177th out of 182 countries studied for road fatalities. These fatalities result in a huge socio-economic cost, estimated at R306 billion per annum. This year’s Easter weekend road death toll of 287 from 208 crashes represents a 48% increase compared to the 2014 Easter death toll of 193 from 148 crashes. The chilling part is that this figure is actually a preliminary one as it does not include subsequent deaths in hospitals and mortuaries as a result of road crashes. Time and time again we hear the same politically correct words being uttered by yourself; about how we need to reduce the death toll and improve on the road safety statistics. However, your words don’t get put into action. Unless you introduce proper and effective interventions, the carnage on our roads will continue to go up, as I had predicted it would last year. Unbelievably, you and your department continue to do the same thing year after year and expect a different (improved) result! Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Indeed, your road safety “strategy” is insane! I noticed that the Transport department recently ran a media campaign encouraging people to respect the rules of the road. Although it is good to have such a campaign, it appeared to occur in isolation. The implication was also there that this campaign alone will suddenly turn motorists and road users into compliant ones when they previously weren’t. Insane! You simply refuse to see the obvious problems and lack the political will to solve them. I could hardly believe it when I read that you said that government is in talks to soon introduce a system where metro police officers can randomly stop motorists and retest their driving. Insane! The reality is that metro police officers are not qualified driving license examiners. Your ludicrous suggestion is not the solution, besides the fact that it would be illegal as only qualified driving license examiners are qualified to conduct these tests. Your suggestion becomes even more ridiculous when one considers that the day before you made this crazy suggestion, you visited driving license testing centres in the East Rand of Gauteng. There you saw for yourself the bad service and allegations of fraud and corruption taking place. Surely the logical course of action would be to sort out these problems happening at practically every single driving license centre in the country? Coupled with that would be mandatory retesting of drivers on renewal of their driving licenses every five years. Until enforcement is taken seriously as a road safety measure and not a source of revenue, nothing will change. I speak from personal experience, as millions of other motorists will attest to the fact, that I often get stopped by traffic and other police and all that is checked is the validity of my driving license and my car disk. Nothing else is checked! This one dimensional approach does little to improve road safety. This practice has been going on for as long as I can remember, yet you expect improved results. Insane! Why are motorists not fined for moving violations which we all see every day on our roads? This should be one of your key pillars in any road safety campaign. Yet all this happens under your watch and you refuse to take action or responsibility. Surely by now you have realised that your strategies are not working? You must know this as your planned National Road Safety Summit which was to be held in October 2014 was suddenly cancelled just days before the event, based on the fact that by your own admission “insufficient progress had been attained by State institutions on the resolutions adopted at the 2013 summit”. Insane! You have the power to make changes now and to become the champion of road safety in South Africa. All you need to do is focus on doing a few things well, instead of lots of things badly. Here are my proposed list of the few things you can do well: • Ensure that the RTMC (Road Traffic Management Corporation) fulfils one of its core functions; collecting, collating and releasing accurate road statistics which can be used to develop strategies to reduce road carnage and deaths. • Review the out-of-date K53 licensing model which produces a high number of incompetent drivers; • Eradicate the widespread systemic corruption in both, licensing and traffic law enforcement; this would include computerising processes so that human intervention is not required as it is now and is where corruption takes place. • The complete change of culture by traffic law enforcement officials to become corruption free (with consequences for those that are corrupt), effective and visible 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. Presently only the Western Cape has such a permanent visible traffic service. Other provinces only work during official office hours! • Sort out and roll out the long awaited points-demerit system. In order for the above things to take place you would need to put some “firecrackers” under some of the Transport agencies and officials that are in your watch. These agencies and officials need to take their mandates seriously. They need to be accountable so that their respective mandates becomes a reality. I seriously urge you to consider the contents of this letter. I invite you to take my proposals as your own. This is not a political matter, it is a matter that affects our economy and the saving of lives. You Minister, could be a saver of thousands of lives if only you did a few things well and stopped doing the same things every year and hoping for different results. That is simply insane.