RAF faces surge of almost 160 000 claims after SCA ruling

The Road Accident Fund is preparing for almost 160 000 RAF 1 Form claims to be resubmitted following a Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) judgment, creating a substantial additional workload with potentially significant financial implications for the Fund.

The figures were presented to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Transport on 11 August, as the Fund provided an update on the separate stream of claims being submitted following the SCA’s 30 April 2026 judgment, which set aside the 2022 RAF 1 Form regime and left the 2008 version in place.

Read: SCA ruling revives rejected RAF claims – and backdates the bill

The claims counted in these figures are claims affected by the RAF 1 Form judgment. They are additional to the claims the RAF receives in the ordinary course of its day-to-day operations.

By 1 July, the Fund had received 62 643 claims in this post-judgment stream. Of these, 59 306, or 95%, were personal claims and 3 337 were supplier claims. Based on the current rate of intake, the RAF expects a further 96 948 claims to arrive by the 30 September deadline, taking the total to 159 591.

The presentation also showed that the RAF paid R8.9 billion on 80 665 claims during the first quarter of 2026/27, covering April to June, providing a useful indication of the scale and cost of claims moving through the Fund during the period.

The potential financial exposure associated with the RAF 1 Form claims is likely to run into the billions. As an illustration of the scale involved, applying the RAF’s average payment of R283 595 per claim during the first quarter of 2026/27 to the projected 159 591 RAF 1 Form claims would produce a figure of about R45.3bn. This is not a forecast of the eventual cost of these claims, because their values will vary and many have yet to be assessed or adjudicated.

The claims counted in these figures are affected by the RAF 1 Form judgment and are additional to the claims the RAF receives in the ordinary course of its day-to-day operations.

62 643 claims – and counting

The RAF’s presentation shows how quickly the post-judgment claims have been coming in.

Of the 59 306 personal claims received by 1 July, 30 443 had been registered. Of these, 25 426 (43%) were registered on Bokamoso and 5 017 (8%) on the Legacy system, while a further 28 863, or 49%, were still awaiting registration or matching.

The claims have been concentrated in the Fund’s largest centres. Pretoria accounted for 29 958, followed by Johannesburg with 17 904. Durban accounted for 5 672, East London for 5 016, and Cape Town for 4 093.

Weekly intake started at 2 939 claims in the week of 5 May and rose to 7 283 the following week. It remained at about 8 000 a week through late May and June, reaching 12 077 claims in the week of 9 June.

The RAF’s projection of 159 591 claims is based on an average intake of 1 492 claims per working day. It expects another 96 948 claims over the 65 remaining working days to 30 September.

This additional workload is being dealt with alongside the Fund’s ordinary claims intake.

Acting chief executive Radikwena Phora said the RAF had brought in additional resources, including contractors and interns, introduced overtime, re-organised staff, and made IT and process changes to deal with the intake.

The RAF’s Integrated Claims Management System, known as Bokamoso, has also been reconfigured to accommodate the re-instated 2008 RAF 1 Form, while additional capacity has been made available for scanning, uploading, and pre-assessment.

The Fund is also communicating with affected claimants through online advertising, regional radio, newspapers, and social and digital media. Further community radio and newspaper campaigns are planned for August.

How many of these claims meet the requirements for registration, how they progress through assessment and adjudication, and what liabilities crystallise will emerge as the Fund works through them.

Why the RAF changed the form

The RAF 1 Form is the prescribed document through which a claimant lodges a claim for compensation with the Fund.

The version in use before the dispute dated back to 2008. The RAF began trying to introduce more stringent lodgement requirements in 2021, with the stated aim of addressing its claims backlog.

The Fund’s argument was that too many claims were entering its system without the information and supporting documents needed to assess them. Those claims could then remain open while the RAF sought the outstanding information.

The thinking behind the revised requirements was to obtain more of what the RAF needed at the point of lodgement, rather than allowing incomplete claims to accumulate in the system.

The RAF’s 2023/24 annual report described the minimum requirements introduced in July 2022 in similar terms, saying they were intended to prevent claims from accumulating where the required documentation was missing. It reported that only 28% of claims submitted during the period under review were compliant.

The first attempt to change the requirements came in March 2021, when the RAF introduced an internal directive requiring additional documentation at lodgement. This was followed by an attempted substitution of the RAF 1 Form. The approach was challenged and subsequently withdrawn.

The RAF returned to the issue in 2022.

On 6 May 2022, it published Board Notice 271, setting out additional mandatory information and documentation for the lodgement of claims.

The Fund’s subsequent discussions with the Department of Transport recognised that the power to prescribe the RAF 1 Form rested with the Minister under section 26 of the RAF Act, rather than the RAF.

An Acting Director-General memorandum sent to then Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula on 17 June 2022 recommended that he approve publication of the revised form. Mbalula signed off on the recommendation on 30 June 2022, and on 4 July 2022 the revised RAF 1 Form was published through Board Notice 302.

The new form incorporated the additional information and documentation requirements. It stated that a form not completed in full would not be acceptable as a claim.

The revised requirements were subsequently challenged in court.

From the 2022 form to the SCA judgment

On 20 March 2024, the Gauteng High Court declared Board Notice 271 and the revised RAF 1 Form unlawful and set them aside. It held that the 2008 RAF 1 Form should apply until the Minister lawfully prescribed an amendment.

The RAF appealed.

On 30 April 2026, the SCA dismissed the appeal and confirmed the High Court’s decision.

The Court found that the RAF did not have the authority to impose the additional binding requirements. It also found that the Minister’s approval of the revised form was unlawful.

Among other things, the SCA found that the required public participation process had not taken place, and there was no evidence that the Minister had independently considered whether the revised requirements were necessary or consistent with the purpose of the RAF Act.

The Court also found that the revised form created barriers to lodging claims by requiring extensive documentation upfront, rather than allowing substantial compliance at lodgement.

With the Minister’s decision set aside, the 2022 form fell away and the 2008 RAF 1 Form remained the applicable form.

What the judgment meant for rejected claims

The SCA judgment dealt with more than which version of the form should be used going forward.

It also addressed claims that had been submitted under the 2022 regime but rejected or not acknowledged because they did not meet the additional requirements.

Those claimants were given an opportunity to resubmit their claims using the 2008 RAF 1 Form by 30 September 2026.

Where such a claim is successfully lodged, it is treated as having been lodged on the date on which the claimant originally attempted to submit it. This protects the claim from prescription. Claims that were already accepted under the 2022 regime remain valid and do not have to be resubmitted.

What happened under the 2022 regime

Between July 2022 and March 2025, 105 039 RAF 1 claims that reached pre-assessment were reviewed. Of these, 29 049, or 28%, were compliant, while 75 990, or 72%, were rejected for failing to meet the documentation requirements.

Those figures did not include submissions that were turned away before registration or were never recorded.

During the period, weekly registrations fell from nearly 2 000 to just over 300. New claims fell from 328 173 in 2018/19 to 65 732 in 2024/25, while finalised claims declined from 229 534 to 78 384.