RAF In the News
Keep Updated
We invite you to keep abreast of the latest updates on the Road Accident Fund’s New Strategy.
In 2020, Collins Letsoalo, Acting CEO of The Road Accident Fund (RAF) introduced a new strategic plan that involved moving away from litigation to claims management. This strategy had been adopted as, according to Letsoalo, “the current operating model has left the RAF unsustainable”. Moving forward, the priority is early investigation and settlement of claims within 120 days.
We’ve kept a collection of audio clips, video and news articles for you to keep abreast of RAF’s new strategy.
RAF board remains defiant: we are right, it tells Parliament
Written by Carol Paton | Published on 19 April 2023 Photo: Andrew Mkhondo Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) wants the board of the Road Accident Fund (RAF) dissolved due to its ongoing defiance of the Auditor-General to revert to the accounting standards it used before 2021. The RAF board and its top executives appeared before Scopa on Wednesday, which was united across party lines that it was time for the board to go. The meeting was also attended by the Deputy Minister of Transport, Lisa Mangcu, who said he would convey the committee’s sentiments to Minister Sindi Chikunga, who appoints the board. But Mangcu stopped short of pronouncing who was right and who was wrong in the dispute. The issue first arose in 2021 when the RAF changed its accounting standards from International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 4 to Generally Accepted Accounting Standards (GAAP) 3, which is the
Are the Road Accident Fund and other legal institutions imploding?
Written by Johann van der Westhuizen | Published 9 March 2023 ‘The law is for protection of the people”. So, in a song with the same name, sang country singer and poet Kris Kristofferson, decades ago, sarcastically. In the protest song Hurricane Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan felt “ashamed to live in a land where justice is a game”. Amid the deeply depressing crime-induced lack of electricity and water, while this article is being written, the crucial importance of the rule of law as a founding value of our constitutional democracy comes to mind. The recent assurance by Chief Justice Raymond Zondo that the courts will not be intimidated by anyone is most welcome. The judiciary not only has to be as honest and independent as humanly possible, but also efficiently managed. The cliché that justice delayed is justice denied contains wisdom, as clichés often do. Abstract democratic values mean
Proper protection for RAF and medical negligence awards
Written by Amanda Visser | Published 8 Mar 2023 South Africa has seen a significant increase in the number and payouts of claims against the Road Accident Fund (RAF) as well as in medical negligence cases. A major concern is the protection of the awards made to people who were severely injured or who have reduced legal capacity. Our legal framework offers protection through court order trusts, the appointment of a curator bonis (legal representative appointed to manage the affairs of someone who is incapacitated), or of an administrator, says Penelope du Plessis, vice chair of the Fiduciary Institute of Southern Africa (Fisa). In the case of court order trusts the trustees take control of the award and have the discretion on how to manage the funds, whereas the Master of the High Court must approve all decisions relating to the award when a curator bonis or administrator manages the
Road Accident Fund CEO Collins Letsoalo, board must pay millions for botched cases
Written by James Mahlokwane | Published on February 8 2023 Pretoria – In another blow for the CEO of the Road Accident Fund (RAF) and its board of directors, the Mpumalanga High Court sitting in Mbombela yesterday turned down an application against an earlier order that they had to pay from their own pockets the costs associated with two cases. Mpumalanga High Court Judge President Francis Legodi, who issued a lengthy, carefully-reasoned judgment last month, made several scathing remarks regarding CEO Collins Letsoalo and the board’s running of the RAF, especially after they had fired their panel of attorneys. This resulted in the personal costs order against them, which could run into millions. Judge Legodi yesterday refused leave to appeal as he concluded that there was no prospect that another court would come to a different finding than that of the full Bench he had headed. The judge did, however,
RAF to challenge court ruling that board, CEO Collins Letsoalo must pay cases from own pockets
Written by Zelda Venter | Published 30 January 2023 Pretoria – Hot on the heels of last week’s damning judgment by three judges against the Road Accident Fund (RAF) – that its board and chief executive, Collins Letsoalo had to pay from their own pockets the costs associated with two RAF cases – they indicated that they wanted to appeal against the judgment before the Supreme Court of Appeal. The fund and its heads stated 14 points in which they claimed that Mpumalanga High Court Judge President Judge Francis Legodi, who wrote the judgment, erred in his findings. The court last week issued a 97-page scathing judgment against Letsoalo and his board, which resulted in the personal costs order against them. It is not clear at this stage what the costs are, but some say it can be millions. Judge Legodi said the system the fund implemented after the disposal
RAF CEO, board ordered to pay costs from own pockets in High Court matter
Written by Getrude Makhafola | Published 25 January 2023 | Photo supplied The high court said the costly long-winded case against RAF could have been avoided. Road Accident Fund (RAF) CEO Collins Letsoalo and the board of directors have been ordered to personally pay legal costs by the Mpumalanga High Court, in an unprecedented judgment for the troubled transport entity. The fund fired its team of attorneys, leaving its work in disarray and without a plan for its court cases. RAF failed to execute its duties Judge Francis Legodi’s Tuesday judgment came after the RAF failed to attend trials and pre-conference hearings despite numerous notices over a period of time, and further failed to fully comply with court directives in respect of two claimants. The cases…
High Court orders RAF CEO to pay legal costs ‘out of his own pocket’
Written by Roy Cokayne | Published 25 January 2023 | Image: RAF, via Twitter Judge criticised the late settlement of RAF claims when enormous costs of litigation were already incurred and not preventable. Road Accident Fund (RAF) CEO Collins Letsoalo and the fund’s board have been ordered in a High Court judgment to jointly and severally “pay out of their own pockets” the costs associated with the late settlement of two claims lodged with the fund. Mpumalanga Judge President Frans Legodi, with Deputy Judge President Sheila Mphahlele and Judge Brian Mashile concurring, were highly critical of Letsoalo and the RAF board in the judgment handed down on Tuesday to an inquiry into the late settlement of two claims lodged against the fund by Dumisani Elvis Hlatshwayo and Mzwandile Modcay Masilela. Legodi criticised the late settlement of RAF claims, or the settlement of claims on the dates of trial, when enormous
Medical schemes get certainty that RAF will pay members’ costs
Written by Tamar Kahn | Published 24 January 2023 Road Accident Fund unilaterally decided stopped paying medical expenses of victims who belonged to medical schemes, a decision that was successfully challenged in 2022 The high court in Pretoria has denied the Road Accident Fund (RAF) leave to appeal against its ruling in 2022 that the fund’s decision to stop paying medical schemes was unlawful. The development has industrywide implications, giving medical schemes and their administrators the assurance that they can continue to claim from the RAF on behalf of their members…
Groundbreaking judgment will have devastating effect on pockets of RAF CEO Collins Letsoalo, board members
Written by Zelda Venter | Published Jan 24, 2023 Pretoria – In a groundbreaking judgment that will have a devastating effect on the pockets of the Road Accident Fund CEO Collins Letsoalo and his board members, the Mpumalanga division of the high court ordered they were personally liable to pay the legal costs in two RAF matters in which the fund did not do its work. The disarray at the RAF – especially after it fired its panel of lawyers with no workable plan in place – and the disregard for the rules of court to try and avoid chaos in dealing with RAF matters, are some of the reasons cited by the judge president of this division, Judge Francis Legodi, why Letsoalo and his board must personally dig into their pockets. In a strongly worded 97-page judgment, the judge made it clear if the fund did not get its