We are going to be hearing a lot more about the budget in the budget speech shortly.  I certainly do hope, amongst other things, there will be the usual annual increase to the Road Accident Fund in terms of 10c or 15c per litre, but more particularly a lump sum.  Lump sums have been given to the Road Accident Fund in the past, and with the way they are doing their very best to settle as many cases as quickly as possible, they have reduced their cash flow to the extent that a cash injection is now needed.  

I do hope that the Finance Minister is looking at this and that that grant will be given.  The RAF is one of the few taxes where the people get what they pay for in terms of input relative to output.  I cannot help but notice the uncanny coincidence that financial problems of the RAF only started after the Law Society of the Northern Provinces, whose RAF committee I chaired at that time, handed in our submission on the new proposed Road Accident Benefit Scheme or RABS as we know it.  In that submission we alleged that the Road Accident Fund had no cash problems, and there was no need for a new system.  Lo and behold, only one or two months later, the Road Accident Fund was settling every single case it could possibly find, appealing to people to try and settle their cases, writing to attorneys asking what matters they needed to be paid and before you knew it, they then said they were short of cash.  That is almost as if they are determined to show that the allegations of them not having financial issues are not true, that they have gone out of their way as quickly as they could to run out all of the money that they did have.