08 Oct 2015

Motor Vehicle Accident Fund (MVA) chief executive officer, Mr Cross Kgosidiile says the amendment of legislation would enable them to assist Batswana who are involved in accidents in foreign countries.  

Speaking at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) hearings on Wednesday (October 7), Mr Kgosidiile said this would also enable his organisation to pay for their repatriation as well as those of foreigners involved in accidents while visiting Botswana.

He said the current legislature constrained them as they did not provide lifetime care for people involved in catastrophic accidents adding the prescribed P1 million was not sufficient due to exorbitant medical and rehabilitation costs.

The P1 million is for medical and rehabilitation only but does not include financial assistance where accident injury has resulted with permanent loss of income.

Mr Kgosidiile further said they were faced with various challenges such as high rate of accidents saying while they had been declining, they remained high.

Botswana also had limited medical and rehabilitation facilities and they also experienced a decline in the revenue base following the levy adjustment from 9 thebe to 5 thebe.

Issues of medical and rehabilitation and road accidents were not necessarily the mandate of MVA but they had a working relationship with other stakeholders such as the police, the department of road transport and safety and the Ministry of Health, he said. 

Mr Kgosidiile said they had been able to undertake investments such that only 15 per cent of their income came from the fuel levy.

The MVA CEO further said they planned to increase their footprint in the country in line with their strategy of providing services within a radius of 100 km to make it easy for Batswana to access their services. Ends