If you lodged a claim with the Road Accident Fund after 2022 and it was rejected, or simply never acknowledged, because of the form you used, this affects you. And you have a deadline.

What happened

The RAF 1 form is the statutory gateway to compensation. Until a valid claim form is lodged, the Fund is not obliged to consider your claim at all. For years the form in use was the one prescribed in the 2008 RAF regulations.

In 2022 the RAF introduced a new claim form through Board Notice 271 of 2022, followed by Board Notice 302 of 2022. The new form demanded considerably more compulsory information before a claim would even be looked at. In practice, claims that did not meet the new requirements were turned away. Those board notices were challenged, and in 2024 a full court of the Gauteng Division declared Board Notice 271 and the new form invalid. The RAF appealed.

What the Supreme Court of Appeal decided

On 30 April 2026, in Road Accident Fund and Others v Legal Practitioners’ Indemnity Insurance Fund NPC and Others, the SCA dismissed the RAF’s appeal with costs.

The Court found that the Minister’s decision to gazette the new form amounted to administrative action, and was therefore subject to the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act. Measured against that standard it did not survive. There was no adequate evidence that the Minister had properly considered the burden the new requirements placed on claimants, or the constitutional rights of the people who would have to comply with them, and the required public comment process was not followed. The RAF, for its part, had strayed into making regulations, a power that belongs to the Minister under section 24 of the Act.

The SCA restated something worth holding onto: the RAF Act is social legislation, and its primary object is to ameliorate the plight of road accident victims. A claim form that makes access to compensation harder, introduced without proper process, runs against the grain of the statute it is meant to serve.

What this means if your claim was turned away

• The 2008 RAF 1 form is reinstated as the applicable standard, and remains so until it is lawfully amended.
• Claimants whose submissions were declined or not acknowledged under the 2022 regime may resubmit their claims using the 2008 form.
• If accepted, those claims are treated as if they were lodged on the original date.
• The deadline to resubmit is 30 September 2026.

That backdating is not a technicality. RAF claims prescribe: three years where the driver is identified, two years where the driver is unidentified. A claim that is treated as lodged on its original date may still be alive. The same claim, lodged fresh in October 2026, may not be.

The Minister has also been directed to develop and publish a revised RAF 1 form within six months, this time following the proper process.

A second win for claimants this year

In April 2026 the SCA also held that the Fund’s obligation under section 17(1) to compensate “any person” injured by the negligent driving of a motor vehicle does not exclude foreign nationals who are in the country unlawfully. The Fund’s contention to the contrary was rejected. (Road Accident Fund v Mudawo and Others; Road Accident Fund v Lyton and Others [2026] ZASCA 54, 16 April 2026)

What you should do now

If you were told your claim was invalid, incomplete, or lodged on the wrong form at any point from 2022 onwards, do not assume the door is closed. Have the file looked at before the end of September 2026.

If you are not sure whether your claim was ever formally accepted, that is also worth checking. Silence from the Fund is common, and it is not the same thing as rejection.

Sources: [2026] ZASCA 63 (30 April 2026); [2024] ZAGPPHC 294; 2024 (4) SA 594 (GP); [2026] ZASCA 54 (16 April 2026).

Malcolm Lyons and Brivik Attorneys are leading experts in the field of Road Accident Fund claims and personal injury law in South Africa. To discuss whether you have a case, contact our offices below:

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