16 RAF employees have cost millions while sitting at home
PRETORIA — The Road Accident Fund has spent more than R28.5 million paying 16 suspended employees, including three who have been off work for more than a year, while thousands of accident victims continue waiting for finalised claims to be paid.
The figures emerged from a parliamentary question by ActionSA MP Alan Beesley to Transport Minister Barbara Creecy and have renewed scrutiny of the RAF’s handling of lengthy disciplinary processes.
According to Creecy’s response, the 16 employees were suspended at different times between May 2024 and July 2026. Their monthly salaries range from R48 796 to R333 874, with all remaining on full pay while their disciplinary processes are finalised.
Creecy said the employees must continue receiving their salaries while suspended in accordance with labour requirements. Several disciplinary hearings are expected to take place over the next two months, while some cases depend on the completion of forensic investigations.
ActionSA calculated the total remuneration at R29.11 million and described the expenditure as another example of dysfunction at the RAF. Beesley also pointed to about 37 000 accident victims with finalised claims who are still awaiting payment.
The controversy is particularly significant because the RAF is funded largely through a levy motorists pay on every litre of petrol and diesel, while its primary purpose is compensating people injured or financially affected by road accidents.
It is also not the first time lengthy paid suspensions have raised concerns at the fund.
Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts said earlier this year that more than 50 RAF employees had previously been placed on paid suspension for periods extending beyond three years without corruption being proven or disciplinary cases being finalised. SCOPA subsequently identified the financial cost of prolonged suspensions as one of the issues emerging from its extensive investigation into the RAF’s finances.
The fund has been under sustained parliamentary scrutiny over its financial management, procurement and outstanding claims. SCOPA said in February that RAF liabilities were estimated at nearly R100 billion against annual income of approximately R50 billion.
The latest figures therefore raise a question beyond whether suspended employees are legally entitled to their salaries. They place renewed focus on why disciplinary processes at a financially troubled public institution are taking long enough for the cost of suspensions to run into tens of millions of rand.
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