Former RAF CEO vows not to appear before Parliament’s inquiry

Former Road Accident Fund (RAF) CEO Collins Letsoalo has insisted that he will not appear before Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts’ (SCOPA’s) inquiry into dysfunction at the entity.

After failing to appear before SCOPA despite being issued a summons, Letsoalo went on SABC’s Face The Nation on 25 November.

“I am not going to that kangaroo court, where Songezo Zibi is the Chairperson, evidence leader, interrogator, witness elector, and adjudicator in one,” said the former CEO of an entity that collects R48 billion from fuel levies annually.

His no-show on 25 November is likely to lead to SCOPA laying criminal charges against Letsoalo for defying a summons, an offence that could carry a prison term.

He was meant to appear by 09h00 on Tuesday, but never arrived. SCOPA chair Songezo Zibi said that “this has serious implications for the work of the committee.”

ActionSA MP and member of SCOPA, Alan Beesley, told Newsday that “Letsoala has effectively shown the middle finger to SCOPA, Parliament and the people of South Africa.”

“It is ironic that Letsoala says he will not appear before a ‘kangaroo court’. Many good, honest and competent staff at RAF were subject to one of Letsoala many ‘kangaroo courts’ because they refused to buckle to unethical practices.”

Parliament is busy probing the state-insurance entity, and has been wanting Letsoalo to appear to explain his role in major governance failures.

Letsoalo’s legal team claimed that they had ‘no legal authority’ to probe the RAF to the extent that they are doing. Parliament’s legal office strongly disagreed.

In a message to the Parliament’s legal advisor, Letsoalo said: “Kindly refrain from harassing me. My lawyers have sent a letter to Parliament. Also, stop this nonsense that I have gone into hiding.”

The address he previously used to communicate with Parliament turned out to be an abandoned house, with the sheriff finding signs no one had lived there “for a while.” A second address was also a dead end.

Zibi explained to the committee that Parliament’s legal team repeatedly extended deadlines for him to appear.

ANC’s Helen Neale-May says that, given the magnitude of governance failures at RAF, “what message does this non-appearance send to Parliament, public and claimants whose lives have been affected?”

DA MP Patrick Atkinson and ActionSA’s Beesley urged Zibi to lay criminal charges against Letsoalo if he does not appear.

“His failure to appear is in breach of Section 14 of the Powers and Privileges Act of Parliament and has broken the law,” said Beesley.

He said that in a prior interaction with the Auditor-General, he inquired about the key recommendation to end corruption in government departments and entities.

She stated that any public official who breaks the law must be put in orange overalls.

Beesley said that his party endorses this view and will therefore demand that Letsoalo, “as a law-breaker”, receives jail time.

‘A witch hunt’ – former RAF CEO

Former RAF CEO a no-show to Parliament

Letsoalo, which the committee found had spent R23 million on bodyguards, has denied wrongdoing and called the probe “a witch-hunt by lawyers and the media.”

He has dismissed Parliament’s inquiry into the fund as an unfair and politically driven process.

He claims witnesses, including ex-executives, were not given proper opportunities to submit affidavits or respond, describing the hearings as “chaotic” and filled with untested allegations.

Letsoalo argues the inquiry is aimed at undoing RAF reforms introduced from 2019, which he says disrupted lucrative arrangements benefiting “white law firms” and other vested interests.

He alleges recent decisions, including the reinstatement of old attorney panels, show the fund is being steered “back to pre-2019” when it was “milked dry.”

Defending his tenure, Letsoalo insists RAF performance indicators improved significantly under his leadership and that key policies were approved by the National Treasury and auditors.

He says former and current transport ministers should be called to explain why reforms are being reversed.

SCOPA response and rot probe

Speaking to the SABC following Letsoalo’s interview, Zibi rejected claims made by the former RAF CEO that he was vetted by state security agencies and faced threats requiring extensive protection.

Zibi said SCOPA first questioned Letsoalo in October 2024 after the Auditor-General briefed the committee on the RAF’s 2023/24 audit outcomes.

He said the fund repeatedly refused to hand over key information in the months that followed.

He accused Letsoalo of misleading both the public and the committee, saying the State Security Agency confirmed he had never submitted vetting documents.

Despite no verified threat, the RAF approved R480,000 annually for Letsoalo’s security as part of his contract, but spending ballooned to R1.7 million in fuel for bodyguards, nine protectors for him and his family, and an armoured vehicle costing R4.4 million.

Zibi dismissed Letsoalo’s suggestion that SCOPA lacked authority, noting that members of Parliament’s transport committee are also involved in the inquiry.

The inquiry has uncovered far-reaching governance failures at the RAF. “Dysfunction is the right way to describe it,” said Zibi. 

The RAF board recently placed its acting CEO, CFO, Chief Governance Officer and the Head of the CEO’s office on precautionary suspension.

One of the most alarming revelations, Zibi noted, is that a major change to the fund’s accounting policy, affecting 500,000 claimants, was implemented without any recorded executive meeting or board approval.

Suppliers were consulted and preparations were made before the RAF’s own governance structures had even discussed the decision.

SCOPA also heard that the RAF outsourced nearly R1 billion in procurement to two external companies, each awarded contracts worth R500 million, without examining invoices or questioning the spending.

This lack of oversight allowed suppliers to procure from relatives and friends at allegedly inflated prices.

On top of this, the RAF spent more than R100 million on disciplinary cases over the past five years, routinely using external lawyers and chairpersons who billed hourly rates.

Many employees remained on suspension for up to four years without being charged, while acting staff filled their posts, effectively doubling salary costs.

The committee also heard that the RAF’s decision to dismiss its panel of attorneys resulted in thousands of unattended court cases.

Current attorneys are each handling up to 5,000 matters, forcing them to appear in multiple courts simultaneously.

When they cannot, the RAF either pays full costs for postponements or suffers inflated default judgments, adding billions to its liabilities.