Disgusting Service from Discovery!

On the 12th of December 2025, I was involved in an accident on the Macassar Road (close to the traffic robots), Macassar, Cape Town. The vehicle in front of me indicated that he was changing lane to take right exit (to Zandvliet Road) at the robot (which he did) and I kept straight in my lane . The robot were green for us. I was going straight and he was about to take the right exit to turn to Zandvliet Road when he suddenly swerved to the left lane (my lane) without any indication trying to take the left exit at the robot to Reeb Road. Please bear in mind, I was already at a speed where I was unable to ‘dead brake” at the robot to prevent from bumping his car as the car distance was about five meters already. I also could not turn away from the other driver’s car to prevent impact, I would’ve hit the traffic light pole or even crashed into someone else’s yard. Point is the accident was inevitable (the driver admitted that the cause of the accident was his fault) as he should’ve taken the left exit at the fork to turn to Reeb Road. Both of cars ended up damaged (my windscreen, front bumper, grill with headlights and my wheel shaft is badly damaged) – see pictures and documents attached. The traffic and police officers were both on the scene and they filled out their accident report and took our affidavits. The tow trucks took our vehicles to their yard to clear the road as morning traffic was approaching. I was taken to the nearest clinic and treated for injuries and lost two days of income (12 & 15 December 2025.) On the 15th I went to towing yard to get my vehicle back but had to pay an enormous amount of fees amounting to R8250 (money that I had to borrow) in order for them to release my vehicle. I made contact with the other driver and he provided me with Discovery’s Third party Claim Division’s email address to put in a claim for my damaged vehicle. They sent me an email on the 22nd of December with a list of what they need and we could only respond to them on the 8th of January 2026 as most panel beating businesses were closed for the December holidays. I got two quotes where I also had to pay them a call out fee of R350.00 of R450.00 respectively (please bear in mind that this is already a large amount of money coming out of my own pocket for an accident that wasn’t my fault at all.) I provided them with the required information and we were advised to wait 20 days for them to respond. We followed up closer to the time, but the advisor is either not available or on lunch, but never responding to our calls. On the 2nd of February, we received an email from her stating that the vehicle of their client (the other driver’s) damage were greater than ours so they would not be able to pay us to fix our car. This Nonhlanhla was rather referring us to an insurance rule which stated “a proper lookout means more than just looking ahead. It includes awareness of one’s immediate vicinity”- this all after the driver already admitted that he was the cause of the accident and I could not dead brake when the cars was already so close to each other. Also in the same breath telling me that they will defend their client should I take legal action against him. Basically saying that my back is against the wall and I can’t do anything about it?! He is the one that violated the traffic rule by trying to make a left exit at the robot when the road signs clearly says that you cannot turn at the robot (he should've used the fork) and if this rule applies to us, then it should apply to him as well. He should've switched lanes when it is safe to do so, but instead he swerved to the lane I am in without any indication.

I am now stuck without a running vehicle which I used to travel to work. Even though the vehicle is old, it was still in running condition before the accident and we had just repaired the entire engine in November 2025.

Discovery doesn’t even wanted to calculate the total amount of towing fees in their calculations. They only want to give me R1500 for the R7950 I paid. Managed to get in contact with the legal advisor this morning and she told me that a final decision has not been made yet, but they are not going to fix my car because it's too old and because the accident didn't happen at "night time" How can you conclude something so stupid as that?!

Very disgusting service!