RAF paid foreign claimants R18bn in the past five years, CEO reveals

The Road Accident Fund (RAF) has paid R18bn to foreign claimants in the past five years.

Some of those claimants were in SA illegally when they were involved in accidents. 

This is according to the fund's CEO Collins Letsoalo, who told Sowetan that the agency would have paid at least R3.6bn to foreign nationals annually for the past five years.

"Foreigners can just claim and that is the problem. Most of them are [undocumented] ...  when we say to them, ‘give us a stamped passport’, they refuse. You can't refuse unless you are here illegally," he said.

Despite the foreigners being illegally in the country, Letsoalo said the RAF still paid them. But in July 2022, the RAF stopped paying them after introducing the minimum requirements and insisted on people bringing stamped passports. 

Letsoalo said the agency was taken to court and is now challenging a judgment of the Pretoria high court that found that the RAF and the minister of transport overreached their powers by issuing a directive that excludes illegal foreigners involved in accidents from accessing the fund’s benefits.

According to Sowetan sister publication Business Day, the agency had argued that allowing undocumented foreign nationals to claim from the RAF in terms of the act would offend "against the provisions prohibiting the aiding and abetting" of an undocumented foreigner to contravene either the Immigration Act or the Refugees Act.

However, the court found the argument lacking in substance.

Letsoalo also told Sowetan the RAF was dealing with a case of three Belgians who were exchange students at Wits when a bus they were travelling in was involved in a crash and they sustained injuries.

The trio is now claiming about R150m each from the fund., "What we picked up is that although they [the students] were injured, they were able to do what they intended to do," he said. 

"They were medical students, so they are actually doing the work they intended to do. What we can pay for is the delay ... the accident created the delay for them, they were in the hospital recovering and it delayed them in qualifying to be doctors but they ended up qualifying anyway," Letsoalo said.

"So, what we are being told is that we must pay for the damages. We are assessing those damages and we have asked them to come to SA for assessment. They are refusing to come but we are talking to their representatives."

According to Letsoalo, SA should also align itself with global practices that require one to have insurance when visiting other countries.  

He said the draft new bill which proposes the exclusion of foreign nationals from claiming from the RAF was closed for comment in October and is awaiting its outcome. 

 "It [the bill] must then go through to cabinet and taken through to parliament for it to be discussed there. We have to wait for the seventh administration," he said.

CEO of the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse Wayne Duvenage said until SA has new legislation to address the issue of foreign claimants, the agency would continue to experience problems.

"We have got to look at the Road Accident Fund in its totality, there are a lot of flaws. The biggest problem of the RAF is the leadership, mismanagement, corruption and lack of control.

"It has more money than it needs. It just needs to be run properly. Of course, the foreign claims are ludicrous and are high and we need to resolve that but the real issue is not that, the real issue is with the RAF itself," Duvenage said.

"The RAF gets R45bn a year and what happens to that? Yes, that [foreign claims] seems excessive and needs to be resolved and I think you can resolve that with proper management and legislative change to the whole process..." 

chabalalaj@sowetan.co.za