Court throws out new RAF rules aimed at foreigners
The rule required foreigners to prove they were in the country legally at the time of their accidents, before they could lodge a claim.
Picture: Pixabay.com
JOHANNESBURG - The High Court in Pretoria has thrown out new rules directed at foreigners which was introduced for the Road Accident Fund (RAF).
The rule required foreigners to prove they were in the country legally at the time of their accidents before they could lodge a claim.
This on the back of a case brought by a Zimbabwean man who was left with "significant" facial disfigurement after he was hit by another vehicle while he was driving his motorcycle in Pretoria.
He wasn't able to lodge a claim because he came to the country as an asylum seeker in January 2020 and his permit had since lapsed.
A full bench, headed up by Judge Norman Davis, heard the case on 5 March and handed down their ruling on Tuesday.
They found there was nothing in the RAF Act, or "in the context of the RAF scheme as a whole and the purpose of the Act", to indicate that foreigners who were in the country illegally were excluded from being able to claim from the fund.
And further that the actions of the RAF and the minister of transport in introducing the new rules violated the RAF Act.
They also found the RAF and the minister had acted outside of their powers.
The fund and the minister were slapped with the costs of the application.