The Department of Transport on Tuesday said that it respected last week's Constitutional Court ruling declaring part of the Road Accident Fund Act unconstitutional.

"The department acknowledges, respects and is happy with the judgment of the Constitutional Court handed down in the matter of the Road Accident Fund and the minister of transport versus Vusumzi Mdeyide," the department said in a statement.

The Constitutional Court last Thursday found the section 23 (1) of the RAF Act, which limits the time period in which a claim can be lodged to three years, to be unconstitutional.

Judge Johan Froneman said that it limited the right of access to court under Section 34 of the Constitution, which was of fundamental importance to ensure concrete expression was given to the foundational value of the rule of law.

The section was challenged by accident victim Vusumzi Mdeyide after the fund rejected his claim because it was instituted three days after the three-year period expired.

The fund and the ministry appealed to the Constitutional Court after the High Court ruled in his favour, deeming the clause an "unjustifiable limitation" on the right of access to court enshrined in the Constitution.