The South African high court in Pretoria has ordered the Road Accident Fund – R.A.F – to pay illegal foreignness who get involved in accidents in South Africa.
The court challenge was brought by four illegal foreigners whose claims were rejected by the R.A.F.
The court found that the minister of transport and the road accident fund are not permitted to issue a directive to exclude foreigners fro receiving benefits when they are involved in accidents in South Africa.
The judgement was issued by a full bench of the High court in South Africa and found that the minister and the R.A.F were trying to interfere with the R.A.F Act outside their powers.
The R.A.F issued the directive on June 21 in 2022, which required foreigners making claims to prove that they were in South Africa legally when the accident happened. The R.A.F directive required foreigners to provide copies of their passports, clearly showing the date stamped when they entered.
The R.A.F’s CEO, Collins Letsoalo, told the High court that the intention of the directive was to prevent illegal foreigners from accessing social benefits that were put in place for citizens and permanent residents and those who are lawfully in the country.
RAF spokesman McIntosh popela said that the fund would appeal against the decision of the High Court.
The High court found that this argument did not hold water as R.A.F is required to compensate victims of all motor vehicle accidents as provide for in Section 17 of the Act and they are not allowed to make an interpretation of any other unrelated matters.
The court said having reached this conclusion, it was unnecessary to deal with the constitutional matters.
In a related matter, the R.A.F has issued a R.A.F amendment bill for comment which bans non South African Citizens and those who are not permanent residents from receiving benefits.
Popela said the amendment of the R.A.F act is a separate process that is subject to parliamentary approval.
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