RAF In the News
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Keeping you updated on critical developments within the Road Accident Fund.
Motorists may pay new RAF fee with licence renewals
Written By Roy Cokayne | Published on 26 May 2026 | Moneyweb The Department of Transport is researching a vehicle owner contributory scheme to fund the RAF, according to Minister Barbara Creecy. Motorists in future might have to pay a separate amount to fund the Road Accident Fund (RAF) when they first buy and annually renew their vehicle licence disc. Read: DoT considering private and public contributions to fund the RAF Minister of Transport Barbara Creecy confirmed during an exclusive interview with Moneyweb on Monday that the Department of Transport (DoT) believes it needs to introduce a vehicle owner contributory scheme – apart from introducing the no-fault system and a standard schedule of benefits. Creecy said the DoT has two concerns regarding RAF funding. She said the first is the increased uptake of electric vehicles by consumers, as the current RAF funding model is a levy on petrol prices. Her comments
Court ruling prompts RAF to allow claimants to re-lodge rejected claims
SEPTEMBER DEADLINE Written By Zelda Venter | Published on 14 May 2026 | IOL THE Road Accident Fund is set to launch a communication campaign to assist claimants whose submissions were rejected due to new requirements. Following a Supreme Court ruling, claimants will have the opportunity to re-lodge their claims by the end of September, IOL reported. The Pretoria High Court earlier slammed the directives contained in what was called the new RAF1 claim form published by the minister of transport in July 2022, as well as a similar board notice published in the Government Gazette. This followed an application by several legal bodies, which said the directives made it near impossible for road accident victims to lodge their claims. The RAF, however, appealed the earlier ruling. The new claim requirements replaced the old claim forms, where claimants did not need to submit all the required details at the stage of lodging
Gert Nel SABC Interview on RAF 1 Claim Form Ruling
On April 30, the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) upheld a previous ruling from the Gauteng High Court, dismissing an appeal and ordering the appellant to cover legal costs. The dispute centered on whether the Road Accident Fund (RAF) and the Minister of Transport overstepped their legal authority by complicating the process for filing compensation claims. The case examined the legality of Board Notices 271 and 302 (2022), which introduced stricter documentation requirements for claimants seeking relief under the Road Accident Fund Act 56 of 1996. For years, the RAF 1 claim form followed the standard 2008 regulations. However, beginning in 2021, the RAF sought to implement more demanding criteria through internal mandates and board notices. The High Court had previously halted these changes, ruling that the RAF did not have the constitutional or statutory power to unilaterally increase the burden on claimants. Furthermore, the court invalidated a specific regulation that
Carla Burg of Pretoria FM interview Gert Nel
Listen to Carla Burg of Pretoria FM interview Gert Nel of Gert Nel Inc about Road Accident Fund Claims and how the process works. The interview is in Afrikaans. Listen here:
Bumpy road for RAF as court orders rejected claims be resubmitted
Written By Jeanette Chabalala | Published on 4 May 2026 | Sowetan The cash-strapped Road Accident Fund (RAF) is facing a daunting task of re-rolling hundreds of claims it rejected from four years ago based on information claimants provided on the RAF1 form, which has now been declared unlawful. This will be in addition to the 430,000 claims backlog the RAF is grappling with. Claimants who previously used the RAF1 form and were rejected for noncompliance had been given until September 30 to resubmit their claims. The resubmissions stand to give the RAF a financial headache that could run into billions, as it is estimated that 600,000 claims were rejected as a result of the RAF claim form, which it unlawfully introduced in 2022. The Supreme Court of Appeal last week declared the form unlawful and ordered the RAF to revert to the older form it introduced in 2008. The
RAF faces claims surge if form falls
Written By Mthobisi Nozulela | Published on 30 April 2026 | Moonstone Information Refinery The Road Accident Fund (RAF) could face a “massive influx of claims” – liabilities it has not recognised and may not be able to meet – if its controversial RAF 1 claim form is ultimately set aside. That warning appears in a section of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts’ draft RAF oversight inquiry report, which was discussed at the committee’s meeting on 24 April. The draft adds that the impact could have “severe financial consequences on the business of the RAF… and society as a whole”. From hearings to deliberations SCOPA’s inquiry into the RAF – initiated after concerns about governance failures, misleading information provided to Parliament, and the Fund’s long-standing financial instability – concluded its public hearing phase in early 2026 after months of testimony from the RAF, government departments, regulators, and industry bodies.
The RAF might need a major government bailout …
Written By Roy Cokayne | Published on 4 May 2026 | MoneyWeb It appears increasingly likely the Road Accident Fund (RAF) will require a significant government bailout. This follows the RAF receiving another bloody nose from the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA), which on Thursday dismissed, with costs, its appeal against a high court judgment that declared a Board Notice and its RAF1 Form unconstitutional, unlawful and invalid. Read: RAF counter application over ‘blank cheque’ claims dismissed Mandatory mediation of RAF cases ‘a failure’ RAF gets fourth CEO in seven months It has been estimated the RAF has about R500 billion in unqualified contingencies, a portion of which is attributable to the fund rejecting claims that complied with the RAF Act but did not comply with the Board Notice and RAF1 Form. Attempts at the weekend to obtain comment from RAF board chair Kenneth Brown and Songezo Zibi, chair of
Supreme Court rules RAF must compensate all accident victims, including undocumented foreigners
Written By Mthobisi Nozulela | Published on 17 April 2026 | IOL The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has ruled that the Road Accident Fund (RAF) must compensate all road accident victims, including undocumented foreign nationals, finding that “any person” in the RAF Act includes them. IOL previously reported that the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria struck down a RAF directive requiring foreign nationals to prove legal presence in South Africa at the time of injury to claim compensation. A full bench of three judges, led by Judge Norman Davis, set aside the directive to the extent that, in respect of foreign claimants, it requires that proof of identity must be accompanied by documentary proof that the claimant was legally in South Africa at the time of the accident. “These accidents don’t discriminate in respect of the victims thereof between race, gender, age or between illegal foreigners and citizens of this country,” Davis said
SA’s next big SOE crisis threatens to blow a R400bn hole in the fiscus
Written By Greg Ardé | Published on 10 March 2026 | Daily Maverick The Road Accident Fund faces an imminent financial crisis, threatening a R400bn hole in the national budget due to mounting debt and mismanagement. Penny-wise South Africans are basking in the general Budget hurrah. A bit of good news is like a tonic, boosting cautious optimism that SA Inc has finally started to tidy its books and is poised to turn the corner. But the ticking time bomb of state-owned enterprise (SOE) debt, particularly the calamitous Road Accident Fund (RAF), threatens to explode. Debt estimates of the RAF differ. The problem is that the RAF debt is not properly quantified. Contingent liabilities could be above R400-billion. RAF contingent liabilities are potential future costs linked to the fund that are not yet fully certain, but could fall on the RAF, and ultimately the state, if certain claims, court matters or