By Musa Mdluli

MBABANE:Neal Rijikernberg,the Minister of Finance says,over R600million has been paid to accident victims over the past five(5) years.

The Finance Minister was addressing the Southern African Development(SADC) Road Accident Funds meeting held at the Hilton Hotel-Mbabane on Tuesday.

“This meeting is a testament to the long-standing collaboration among our nations in ensuring that we provide effective social safety nets for victims of road traffic accidents. The history of our cooperation dates back to the formation of the Road Accident Fund in South Africa, which served as a blueprint for Namibia, Botswana, and Eswatini in establishing similar compensation models. Over the years, our countries have recognized the need to refine and adapt these models to meet local needs, leading to necessary legislative reforms that have strengthened the effectiveness of our respective Funds.In Eswatini alone, over the past five years, more than E600 million has been paid out in respect of road accident claims,” said the Finance Minister.

On another note, the Minister said, eSwatini stands to benefit from other SADC Accidents Funds benchmarking, expressing the significance of collaboration at regional level.

“Collaborating institutions such as the police, hospitals, and road infrastructure agencies collectively bear additional costs that run into billions of Emalangeni over the same period.These staggering figures highlight the urgent need for enhanced accident prevention strategies and efficient claims management systems to ensure that we are not only compensating victims but actively reducing the number of crashes on our roads.This is why collaboration at a regional level is so critical. Through engagements such as this, Eswatini stands to benefit immensely from benchmarking against best practices from our sister Funds and other participating countries.Learning from the successes and challenges of our peers will enable us to continuously improve our policies, systems, and service delivery to the people who need it most,” he said.