Former RAF CEO a no-show to Parliament

Parliament’s inquiry into the Road Accident Fund (RAF) has exposed staggering dysfunction, and now MPs cannot locate the fund’s former CEO, Collins Letsoalo.

On 25 November, Letsoalo did not appear before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) after sheriffs repeatedly attempted to summons him.

This was to explain his role in major governance failures at the entity that collects R48 billion in fuel levies annually.

He was meant to appear by 09h00 on Tuesday, but never arrived.

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.”

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

SCOPA chair Songezo Zibi said that “this has serious implications for the work of the committee.”

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.

If Letsoalo fails to appear by the end of the scheduled time, Parliament will lay criminal charges for defying a summons, an offence that could carry prison time.

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.”

She urged Parliamentarians to stay in the precinct during his scheduled time, and if it lapses with a no show, possibly lay charges.

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

ActionSA MP Alan Beesley “He has shown the middle finger to Parliament and I think we are setting a very dangerous precident if we don’t take him into the full might of the criminal justice system.”

“As Parliament, we do have an oversight responsibility, and it will be a very dangerous precedent if people ignore summons going forward.”

The committee’s legal officer is set to contact Letsoalo’s legal team, with a decision on the next steps expected by tomorrow morning. MPs will wait in the precinct until midday to see if he will arrive.

RAF 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, friends, and 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 can’t, the RAF either pays full costs for postponements or suffers inflated default judgments, adding billions to its liabilities.

Zibi said SCOPA has put measures in place to protect witnesses, including allowing key individuals to testify anonymously via virtual appearance, using pseudonyms with verification by Home Affairs and the SIU.

Despite intimidation concerns, he insisted the investigation will continue. SCOPA is expected to continue its hearings this week, with or without the former CEO.

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.”