Jacob Modise was quoted in this past weekends Weekender newspaper as confirming the Road Accident Fund (RAF) has a shortfall of funds paying out R1 billion a month and receiving R700 million. Read the article for more.

A link to the article: http://www.businessday.co.za/weekender/article.aspx?ID=BD4A856071

My site at www.accidentclaim.co.za often has other information on RAF matters.

One assumes that the report of the Gauteng Law Council as contained in the annual report of the Law Society, which should be arriving in attorneys’ post boxes now, is incorrect, containing as it does the following sentence, “The Gauteng Law Council contributed financially to the recent successfully concluded court case against the Road Accident Fund”. The Law Societies have of course levied their members, many years ago, and the Gauteng Law Council has budgeted more than R500 000,00 towards the Road Accident Fund campaign, but this battle which was led by the LSSA, has been paid for by them and SAAPIL and Raj Daya confirmed to me, on 27 October 2008, that no contribution had been received by the Gauteng Law Council and nor had any of the legal expenses of the direct payments challenge been paid for by the Gauteng Law Council. That is of course the recent successful court case, but on the other hand, there may well be some other case the Gauteng Law Council had recently been involved in and about which I know nothing.

The current market conditions (and I am somebody who felt that the market was overheated in October last year and sold out of my shares) are beginning to offer some value, particularly if you get government assistance in purchasing your shares.  Don’t forget when your accountant works out what tax you have to pay every year, he is going to ask you whether you made any contributions to retirement annuities, as you can deduct those and essentially, it means that the taxman is contributing towards your retirement and thus your share purchases.  With the index currently at 18 000 and assuming an overall 30% rate, you would effectively have to see the overall JSE Index drop below 12 400, from a height of 33 000, before you would be under the water if, at this time, you put your contributions into retirement annuities.  I have made some pretty good predictions in my newsletters over the years and this is one you cannot really go wrong with unless we start using wheelbarrows to take our money to the local shopping centre, in which case it is not really going to matter where your money is in any event!  All I am saying, is if you are investing on a long-term scale, and having the tax benefits of a lump sum contribution to your retirement annuity, you will get tremendous value right now.  

_{This does not constitute investment advice.  Please speak to your own financial advisor.}