Heath Commission to Recover Money Stolen from Victims of Road Crashes

The President has issued a proclamation requiring the Heath Commission’s Special Investigating Unit to investigate the defrauding of road crash victims by members of the legal profession.

The establishment of the investigation follows a Memorandum from the Minister of Transport Mac Maharaj to the Minister of Justice that certain legal practises be investigation by Judge Heath’s unit where road crash victims have been defrauded by their legal representatives. The proclamation will be published in the Government Gazette soon.

Maharaj said that the Road Accident Fund, of which he is the shareholding minister, has been aware of unethical and illegal behaviour by some members of the legal fraternity for a while after numerous complaints to both his office and the RAF. Of 143 cases investigated by the RAF and the Department of Transport, on average 56% of what was supposed to be paid to victims was kept by their lawyers and in six instances is appears that 100% of the amount the claimants were awarded was kept by their lawyers.

Source: Minister of Transport

Reasons: A discipline which curbs arbitrary judicial decisions

"There is no express constitutional provision which requires judges to furnish reasons for their decisions. Nonetheless, in terms of section 1 of the Constitution, the rule of law is one of the founding values of our democratic state, and the judiciary is bound by it. The rule of law undoubtedly requires judges not to act arbitrarily and to be accountable. The manner in which they ordinarily account for their decisions is by furnishing reasons. This serves a number of purposes. It explains to the parties, and to the public at large which has an interest in courts being open and transparent, why a case is decided as it is. It is a discipline which curbs arbitrary judicial decisions."

– Justice Richard Goldstone in Mphahlele v First National Bank of South Africa Ltd