The Road Accident Fund (RAF) has welcomed the sentence handed down by the Cradock Regional Court in the Eastern Cape to a woman who defrauded the fund.
Thembisa Lawana Dakuse, 38, was convicted of submitting a fraudulent claim after an accident in 2018.
Dakuse submitted the same claim twice — the first time alleging she had been involved in a vehicle crash in Motherwell, and the second time, stating she had been a pedestrian coming home from work at the time of the accident. She lied that she could not continue working, yet she was found to be unemployed.
Dakuse was investigated by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (known as Hawks) who had found that she misrepresented the facts and this almost resulted in a loss of over R700,000 for the RAF.
She was sentenced to two years imprisonment which was suspended for five years.
“False claims have drained the Fund’s limited resources and further strategies are being implemented by the Forensic Investigation Department to curb corruption internally and externally of the organisation,” said RAF Chief Executive Officer Collins Letsoalo.
In the past three financial years, 2021/22 – 2023/24, 37 claimants were arrested for submitting fraudulent claims to the value of R48 million. A total of R65 million’s worth of claims were blocked over the same period as part of a crackdown on fraudulent and corrupt activities. Over the same period, 1,138 cases were referred to the South African Police Service (SAPS), while 44 arrests were handed down.
“Corruption continues to plague the organisation, and we will continue to guard against crooked claimants, medical experts, attorneys and employees. A thorough process is undertaken to scrutinise the validity of each claim, leading to the detection and deterrent of fraudulent activities. All accident survivors are encouraged to report suspicious fraudulent activities to the RAF with immediate effect,” Letsoalo said.