IN THE HIGH COURT OF SOUTH AFRICA 
(WESTERN CAPE HIGH COURT, CAPE TOWN)
Case No: A40/2009
Date: 27 May 2009
In the matter between:

and

JUDGMENT

OWEN ROGERS A.J.

[1] The appellant is the Road Accident Fund referred to in the Road Accident Fund Act 56 of 1996 ("the Act"). The appellant was sued as defendant by the respondent as plaintiff for damages arising from injuries suffered by her when she was hit by a passenger bus belonging to Golden Arrow Bus Services (Pty) Ltd ("Golden Arrow"). For convenience I shall refer to the parties as they were in the court below.

[2] The defendant filed a special plea which raised two special defences in the alternative. In the first special defence the defendant alleged that the plaintiff's claim as lodged was a claim as contemplated in s17(1)(b) of the Act since the claim form disclosed the name of neither the owner nor the driver of the bus. Since the accident occurred on 2 August 2000 and the claim form was submitted only on 19 December 2002, the two-year prescription period for s17(1)(b) claims as specified in regulation 2(3) of the regulations promulgated under the Act had run its course before the claim was lodged. In the alternative the defendant pleaded that in terms of s23(1) the claim prescribed on 2 August 2003 because the plaintiff failed during that period to lodge a valid claim in accordance with s24, her claim form being materially deficient.

[9] In the present case the claim form did not even contain the make and registration number of the vehicle. On the other hand, the vehicle was identified as a bus operating on a particular road and scheduled to call at a bus stop on that road. The claim form fixed the time of the accident at 08h20 on 2 August 2000, named the police station to which the accident had been reported and gave a police case number. There is thus merit in the submission by the plaintiff's counsel that the claim form passed muster and provided the Fund with enough information to investigate its liability.

[16]   I would thus dismiss the appeal with costs.

OWEN ROGERS AJ

[17]   I concur and it is so ordered.

DLODLO J