Transport Department goes to court to avoid paying foreign nationals R390 million

The Road Accident Fund (RAF) currently owes undocumented foreign nationals R390 million in outstanding claims, which it has been mandated to pay by the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA).

This is according to Transport Minister Barbara Creecy, who responded to a parliamentary question by MP Vuyolwethu Zungula.

“According to the latest version of the Requested Not Yet Paid (RNYP) register, a total of R390 million relates to illegal foreigners,” the minister said in her reply.

“These have been deemed non-payable matters, but the Supreme Court of Appeal ruling makes them payable.”

The ruling allows undocumented foreign nationals to claim compensation from the fund, which the court found includes them.

This comes after the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria struck down the RAF directive that requires foreign nationals to prove their legal presence in South Africa at the time of injury when claiming compensation.

The Department of Transport has since opted to challenge the decision and is appealing the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Deputy Minister of Transport, Mkhuleko Hlengwa, confirmed to the Portfolio Committee on Transport that the department has decided to appeal the ruling during a parliamentary briefing on Easter road fatalities.

Hlengwa noted that other considerations should have been taken into account when the court made its ruling.

“We believe it was a wrong ruling, and the court could have applied laws of restriction, even if the department could have been required to provide some rights like healthcare provisioning,” he said.

The deputy minister added that he is hopeful that an appeal would be found in the department’s favour.

During the briefing, the Road Traffic Management Corporation highlighted that drivers receive light sentences for their transgressions, considering courts do not take traffic offences seriously enough.

Hlengwa noted that offenders are released too quickly and traffic fines are low, adding that he hopes the implementation of the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) will become a more effective deterrent.

RAF management under fire

The Minister of Transport has come under fire following a suggestion that her department plans to tax South African motorists even more to support the Road Accident Fund.

The proposed tax would be attached to annual vehicle licence disc renewals and the registration of new vehicles.

According to the minister, one reason for introducing the new fee is the growing popularity of electric vehicles (EVs) in South Africa.

Because the RAF is funded through the fuel price-linked Road Accident Fund Levy, and EV owners do not contribute towards this, RAF funding is expected to decline as EV adoption increases.

As a result, the Department of Transport sees a vehicle-linked fee as a transitional levy to capture revenue from all road users, and not only those who pay for fuel.

Civil rights organisation AfriForum has warned that it is unreasonable to propose a new funding mechanism for the Road Accident Fund while the fund is being mismanaged.

It highlighted that the fund is technically insolvent, had a backlog of 400,000 claims in November 2025, and that there is no indication that said backlog has been cleared.

Additionally, the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) is still investigating the RAF’s management and recently requested that the Secretary of Parliament lay criminal charges against its former CEO.

AfriForum noted that Minister Creecy is correct that EVs do not currently contribute to the RAF, but that this represents only a small loss of revenue.

The organisation argues that the fund’s real financial damage stems from years of poor governance and mismanagement.

Louis Boshoff, AfriForum spokesperson, said it was odd for the minister to point to electric vehicles as a cause of reduced revenue, and then propose a levy that would seemingly apply to all vehicle owners.

“If this proposal goes ahead the way it is currently being presented, owners of fuel-powered vehicles will effectively pay twice,” he said.

“They already contribute through the fuel levy, and they would then face an extra charge when renewing their licence discs.”

Boshoff said South Africans should not be expected to pay more because of the management failures in the RAF.

“Government must first show that it can manage public funds efficiently and responsibly before asking motorists to contribute more,” he added.

“It is time to stop pouring additional money into systems where resources continue to be lost through mismanagement and weak oversight.”