The South African Road Accident Fund’s (RAF) new draft bill proposes to exclude foreign nationals from claiming compensation from the fund, which has been labelled by tourism leaders as unconstitutional.
The fund said it had paid out over R3.3 billion (€160.8m) in claims to over 8 000 foreign nationals over the past two years, and that it wanted to clamp down on those who had turned the fund into a “cash machine”.
The fund now proposes that foreigners will have to take up travel insurance or other means to cater for themselves when entering South Africa, which is standard practice in other countries.
The RAF’s new draft bill had recently closed for public comment.
‘May cause self-drive tourists to rethink whether to visit SA’
Onne Vegter, Chairman of SATSA’s Transport Committee, told Tourism Update that the new draft bill would have a major impact on all tourists travelling on South African roads, whether self-drive or driven by operators.
“Since travel…