Mayibongwe Maqhina|Published
While Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana allocated R1.1 billion towards HIV-Aids and food and mouth disease pressures, no allocation was made to the Road Accident Fund despite being saddled with R449 billion in outstanding claims.
This emerged when Godongwana tabled the 2026 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement on Wednesday.
Godongwana said R556.7 million will be reprioritised over the next three years to sustain HIV-Aids programmes following the withdrawal of the US’ President’s Emergency Plan for Aid Relief funding.
He said the allocation will supplement the R3.8 billion reprioritised through the district health programmes grant.
In last year’s MTBPS, the minister had announced that not only will R26 billion be allocated to provinces to bolster HIV/AIDS programmes, but R410 million would be reprioritised from the Department of Health over the medium term to offset research grant funding that was withdrawn by the United States.
The minister also announced that R20.5 billion will be allocated over the next three years to the provincial equitable share to compensate provinces for increased costs in health and education.
Godongwana said R606 million has been allocated to the Agriculture Department to contain food and mouth disease as part of agricultural interventions to strengthen food security and biosecurity.
“R423.4 million is reprioritised in the Department of Agriculture in 2026/27 and R183 million is rolled over from the previous financial year to roll out vaccines,” he said.
MTBPS did not make any allocation to RAF
However, the MTBPS did not make any allocation to the Road Accident Fund.
The Auditor-General recently found that the fund’s liabilities stood at R439.49 billion for the 2025/26 financial year.
No provision has been made to settle the outstanding claims.
The Road Accident Fund had reported that it decreased outstanding claims from 304,530 in 2024/25 to 288,574 in the year ending in March 2026.
This happened as the claims grew from 116,788 in 2024/25 to 133,903 in 2025/26.
Asked why no direct appropriation was allocated for the Road Accident to pay its liabilities, Godongwan said “RAF is above my pay grade” and then referred the question to director-general Duncan Pieterse.
Pieterse said the National Treasury has appointed two teams of auditors to assess the liabilities at RAF and what it means for the entity in the long term, and surplus in Unemployment Insurance Fund work will conclude before the end of the year.
“We will have an update in the budget next year,” he said.
Ruled out an increase on fuel levy
DA spokesperson on finance Kingsley Wakelin said his party has requested for structural reform of the RAF and complete overhaul.
“A sustainable point of view is the way to go,” Wakelin said.
Meanwhile, Transport Minister Barbara Creecy said her department has ruled out an increase on fuel levy.
“We believe first of all RAF must sort out its own house and get its administration in order,” Creecy said.
She also said there was need for change in the definition of benefits wherein all claimants could enjoy the same benefits irrespective of their circumstances or legal representation.
“We want to move to a ‘no-fault’ system. We believe RAF is spending too much on lawyers,” said Creecy, adding that RAF has a history with rising contingent liabilities, failure to deal with claims backlog and a culture of not defending cases.
“We need a period to deal with the historical cases of backlog,” she added.