Road Accident Fund battles to prevent payments to illegal foreigners

Lester Kiewit interviews Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage.

Listen below.

Up to 2022, compensation by the Road Accident Fund was available to any person injured in a road accident in South Africa regardless of their immigration status.

Then, in 2022, a directive was published by the RAF, stating that a claim by foreigners would be rejected if they couldn’t prove they were legally in South Africa.

In March this year, a full bench of the High Court in Pretoria set aside those rules on the basis that there was nothing in the relevant legislation to indicate that foreigners who were not in the country legally were excluded from claiming from the fund.

It also found that the RAF and the Transport Minister had acted outside of their powers when they introduced these new rules.

Now though, the Supreme Court of Appeal has granted the RAF leave to appeal the High Court ruling.

The RAF raised concerns about the hundreds of millions of rands it pays annually to legal and illegal foreign nationals.

Duvenage suggests that the move by the RAF could be a way of trying to improve its finances.

"I think the real problem here is that the Road Accident Fund is losing control of its financial affairs..."

- Wayne Duvenage, CEO - OUTA

"It needs to get it's house in order instead of having these kneejerk reactions to deal with its financial plight."

- Wayne Duvenage, CEO - OUTA

In 2008, the fund made its largest payout to date: over R500 000 to a Swiss billionaire who lost two limbs in a motorcycle accident in Cape Town.

Duvenage says the issue is not the amounts being claimed by foreigners.

"The issue is, what are the rules? They should be clearly laid out and applied. We can't just say, sorry, you're a foreigner, so now you can't claim."

- Wayne Duvenage, CEO - OUTA

However, he agrees that those here illegally should not be entitled to receive payouts from the fund.

"I think if you're undocumented, you're here illegally and shouldnt have been here in the first place... There is a case to dispel those claims."

- Wayne Duvenage, CEO - OUTA

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