R23 billion in Road Accident Fund claims from foreigners
Minister of Transport, Barbara Creecy, revealed that 13,127 claims were lodged by foreigners against the Road Accident Fund (RAF) over the last five years.
She added that, as at 31 March 2026, the value of foreign-related claims lodged between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2026 was R23.324 billion.
The Minister shared these details in response to a Parliamentary question from National Assembly member Sanele Mwali.
Mwali asked Creecy about the number of documented foreign nationals who have lodged claims against the Road Accident Fund in the past five financial years.
He also asked for details about the amount claimed from the Road Accident Fund by documented foreign nationals in each of the past five financial years.
Creecy responded, saying that the Road Accident Fund claim management system does not differentiate between documented and undocumented foreign nationals.
“The figures I can provide, therefore, include all foreign-related claims, along with their claimed amounts,” she said.
She said that, between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2026, there were 13,127 foreign-related claims lodged at the RAF.
The Rand value claimed for foreign-related claims lodged between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2026 was R23,323,568,682,” she added.
The highest claim amount was recorded in the last financial year, when foreign-related claims totalled R8.5 billion.
Creecy highlighted that this figure is not the same as the actual payout value, but rather the amount claimants hope to receive from the fund.
The table below shows the value claimed from the Road Accident Fund by foreign nationals in each of the past five financial years.
| Financial year | Total |
| 2021/22 | R5.1 billion |
| 2022/23 | R5.5 billion |
| 2023/24 | R1.4 billion |
| 2024/25 | R2.9 billion |
| 2025/26 | R8.5 billion |
| Total | R23.3 billion |
Loading ...
“The Minister shared these details in response to a Parliamentary question from National Assembly member Sanele Mwali.”
Sanele Mwali would have been better asking what the VALUE of SETTLEMENTS from the RAF to foreign claimants had been over the period April 2021 and March 2026.
Newsday readers need to be aware of a number of realities pertaining to the RAF:
The first being that the RAF is an SOE and, like the vast majority of South African SOEs, it is, to all intents and purposes, dysfunctional. With an annual revenue of some R50bn the RAF has accumulated a liability approaching R500bn with an outstanding backlog of around 400,000 claims. Roughly 40% of collected revenue goes to administrative, legal and operational costs. Annual revenue in this instance is hypothetical and based on the levy extracted from annual national fuel sales. This levy is not paid directly to the RAF; instead it is paid into the national fiscus. The treasury will then make a discretionary payment to the RAF, based on its obligation to the 700-odd SOEs that it is underwriting (Eskom, SAA et al).
Secondly, the RAF’s mandate is controlled by the RAF Act of 1996, Section 21 of which removed Common Law from the process of compensation claims and cast liability for any settlement at the feet of the RAF. By removing Common Law from the act, legislators have exposed the fund to obligations it would always struggle to meet as road accident statistics soar – currently some 12,000 deaths per annum with over 100,000 injuries. Whether licensed or not (some 50% of South African drivers have fraudulently-obtained licences) perpetrators of our road accident horrors carry no liability for the damage they cause.
Thus emerges a “Winners and Losers” scenario, thanks to the removal of Common Law from the RAF Act:
Winners are the insurance industry and the litigation law industry. Some 30-35% of motorists are insured (with minimum Third Party cover) but insurers have ring-fenced third party obligations to material damage to vehicles only; death and injury compensation claims are conveniently and legally passed to the RAF. If Common Law was reinstated to the RAF Act, a significant chunk of the RAF’s mountainous claims burden would be shouldered by insurers and the RAF could act as a safety net for those incidents where no insurance is held. The other winner, the litigation law industry: the RAF’s workload has resulted in protracted (often years-long) resolution and settlement periods over which time accumulated and justifiable costs to the pursuant litigation firms leave only a small portion of the final settlement to the claimant.
Losers are the South African motorists.
Put into the context of the overall situation of the RAF’s predicament, claims by foreign nationals against the fund are minute. South Africans rage must be directed against the current government and its comprehensive failings.