R8.5bn surge puts foreign national RAF claims under scrutiny
JOHANNESBURG — Foreign nationals have lodged Road Accident Fund claims worth more than R23.3 billion over five years, prompting the MK Party to push for a law barring undocumented migrants from claiming, but government figures do not establish how much of that money was actually paid or how many claimants were in South Africa illegally.
Transport Minister Barbara Creecy disclosed that 13 127 foreign national related claims, with a combined claimed value of R23.32 billion, were lodged with the RAF between April 2021 and March 2026.
The distinction between money claimed and money paid is important. Creecy said the R23.3 billion represents what claimants sought from the fund, not what the RAF ultimately paid them. The RAF’s claims management system also does not distinguish between documented and undocumented foreign nationals.
The figures nevertheless show a sharp increase in the latest financial year. Foreign national related claims were valued at R5.05 billion in 2021/22 and R5.49 billion the following year before falling to R1.35 billion in 2023/24. They increased to R2.89 billion in 2024/25 before jumping to R8.53 billion in 2025/26.
The MK Party has seized on the figures to argue that access to RAF compensation should depend on a foreign national’s legal status in South Africa.
Party spokesperson Sifiso Mahlangu said it was unacceptable that the RAF system could not differentiate between documented and undocumented claimants, arguing that this exposed weaknesses in immigration and border controls.
The party intends introducing a Private Member’s Amendment Bill seeking changes to Section 17 of the Road Accident Fund Act. Its proposals would prohibit undocumented foreign nationals from claiming, require foreign claimants to provide valid passports, visas and compulsory accident insurance, and require the RAF to verify immigration status with Home Affairs before processing claims.
The proposal could open a wider legal and policy debate over what the RAF is designed to compensate.
The fund provides compensation for loss or damage resulting from bodily injury or death caused by the negligent driving of motor vehicles in South Africa. The MK Party’s proposal would introduce immigration status as an additional qualification for foreign nationals seeking that compensation.
However, the R23.3 billion figure itself cannot currently demonstrate the scale of claims by undocumented migrants because the RAF does not record foreign claimants according to their immigration status.
That leaves two separate questions requiring scrutiny: why foreign national related claims surged to R8.53 billion in the latest year, and whether the RAF should continue processing claims without determining whether foreign claimants are legally present in the country.
With the MK Party promising legislation, those questions could now move from political argument into Parliament, where any proposed restriction will have to be tested against South Africa’s existing compensation laws and constitutional framework.
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