Beware lawyers swindling road accident claimants with loan scheme, warns RAF

Thabo Mashao interviews McIntosh Polela, the RAF's head of communications.

It's come to light that more and more unscrupulous attorneys are swindling Road Accident Fund (RAF) claimants out of their money.

A common method is lending cash to clients to cover living expenses such as grocery and transport costs while their claim is being finalised.

The money then has to be paid back with exorbitant interest from their RAF compensation.

The Fund has issued a warning to claimants about this ripoff scheme.

Thabo Mashao interviews McIntosh Polela, the RAF's head of communications.

Polela says the practice, already rampant, is growing.

"It is terrible. Initially, we were seeing just random cases, but now it's a systematic pattern that is happening in Mpumalanga province and has spread to other provinces."

"Unfortunately once something like this happens in an industry led by attorneys, it catches on very quickly and you'll find that it will engulf the whole country."

McIntosh Polela, Head of Communications - RAF

RAF claimants must be careful, Polela says, and NOT allow themselves to be coerced into signing these 'loan' agreements.

"(If they fall for it) they'll find at the end that they owe a lot more to the lawyers other than the 25% that is due for litigating on their behalf."

McIntosh Polela, Head of Communications - RAF

The Fund is encouraging all claimants to phone its contact centre for more information about the claim process, the status quo of their claims and the amounts paid to their attorneys.

You can also visit their website, www.raf.co.za.

Contact centre details:

Number: 087 820 1 111

Hours: Monday to Friday, 07h45 to 16h00

For more detail, scroll up to the audio player to listen to the interview