Parliament, Wednesday, 22 April 2026 – The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Transport, Mr Donald Selamolela, has noted and welcomed the ruling of the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) that foreign nationals are entitled to claim and receive benefits from the Road Accident Fund (RAF).
Mr Selamolela said the ruling spoke to the long-overdue review and update of legislation that governs the RAF, a process that the new Minister of Transport promised to get started during this term of administration. “It is interesting that the ruling comes at a time when there had been a lot of good work around RAF governance, and improved payment methods and systems are being put in place,” he said, adding that the RAF is an institutional service delivery mechanism to attend to the needs of the vulnerable whose normal lives had been compromised on the roads.
The Chairperson noted that the SCA had legitimately upheld a ruling of the High Court that the interpretation of “any person” in the RAF legislation did not exclude foreign nationals from claiming under the scheme. Mr Selamolela said the legislation, as it stands, clearly accommodates any person injured on the roads, and seeking to alienate them retrospectively would be unfair and unlawful.
“The RAF funding is intended for victims of road accidents, a purpose for which no one should interfere based on nationality. Failures elsewhere in the migration system should not be translated as meaning the RAF system is open to foreign nationals. This would be a narrow way of looking at things,” he said.
“Until the review and amendment to RAF legislation happen, we must do the right things in line with the courts’ interpretation. There are various methods in which the matter of foreign nationals could be accommodated in legislation,” added Mr Selamolela.
He cited Botswana and Namibia case studies where foreign nationals are required to take out a 90-day insurance cover before being allowed into the country. “We could adopt that, but such a decision should be informed by law, as made by South Africans themselves. We can’t decide policy positions on gut feeling or emotions,” he said.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORT, MR DONALD SELAMOLELA.
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