East London Man Fined R60,000 for Faking a Road Accident Fund Claim, South Africans Crack Up

East London Man Fined R60,000 for Faking a Road Accident Fund Claim, South Africans Crack Up

  • A man was sentenced for fraud at the East London Regional court on 5 February for faking a Road Accident Fund claim
  • The man claimed that he was a victim of a hit-and-run accident, and investigations revealed that he was lying
  • He was ordered to pay R60,000 or be sentenced to three years imprisonment, a sentence South Africans laughingly accepted

Tebogo Mokwena, a Briefly News current affairs journalist in Johannesburg, South Africa, covered police investigations and court cases at Daily Sun for over three years.

The East London Regional Court ordered a man that he pay R60,000 fine or face imprisonment for trying to defraud RAF, and SA laughed
SA was busting after the courts ordered a man to pay a hefty fine for trying to scam RAF. Images: boonchai wedmakawand and Klaus Vedfelt
Source: Getty Images

A man from the Eastern Cape has been ordered to pay R60,000 for filing a fake Road Accident Fund claim and saying he was involved in an accident when he wasn't. He will be imprisoned for a three-year sentence if he does not pay the fine.

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Man makes fake RAF claim

According to TimesLIVE, Tubalomthandazo Butshingi filed the RAF claim in 2020. He claimed that he was standing by the road and was about to cross when a car knocked him down. The driver didn't stop, and he claimed to have received a fractured right ankle and wanted to get R5 million from RAF.

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His claim could not be verified, and the Serious Commercial Crime Investigation Team and the RAF investigators investigated it. They found that the man's injury was caused by slipping and falling. He was fined R60,000, or three years' direct imprisonment and three years' suspension.

South Africans cracked up

Netizens on Facebook could not stop laughing at the man's attempt to defraud RAF.

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Mpho Kingmove said:

"He's a business. Unfortunately, he ran a loss this time around."

LEbohang Ba Ga Lathane added:

"'I blew it' but with a twist."

Ras Magosi St Magakwe remarked:

"Shame. He tried but failed at a price."

Jacques Z Swanepoel wrote:

"MR Tubalomthandazo Butshingi tried to pull a fast one and now he must dole out money or go to jail."

Sello Mokobotjo added:

"Times are rough."

RAF's proposed Bill aims to cut foreign nationals out

In a similar article, Briefly News reported that the Road Accident Rund's proposed Bill seeks to exclude foreign nationals from benefitting from RAF.

This was after it was revealed that 86000 foreign nationals benefitted from the fund from April 2021 to March 2023.

South Africans were unhappy about the stats and supported the Bill because RAF said that foreign nationals must have medical insurance.

Source: Briefly News

Authors:
Tebogo Mokwena avatar

Tebogo Mokwena (Current Affairs editor) Tebogo Mokwena is a Current Affairs Editor at Briefly News. He has a Diploma in Journalism from ALISON. He joined Daily Sun, where he worked for 4 years covering politics, crime, entertainment, current affairs, policy, governance and art. He was also a sub-editor and journalist for Capricorn Post before joining Vutivi Business News in 2020, where he covered small business news policy and governance, analysis and profiles. He joined Briefly News in 2023. Tebogo passed a set of trainings by Google News Initiative Email: tebogo.mokwena@briefly.co.za