Road Accident Fund (RAF) CEO Collins Letsoalo and his board of directors have been ordered to pay legal costs by the Mpumalanga High Court, in an unprecedented trial for a troubled transport entity. The fund freed up a team of lawyers, left their jobs and had no plans for court cases. RAF failed to perform its duties Judge Francis Legodi’s decision Tuesday came after RAF failed to attend trials and pre-conference hearings despite many notices over a period of time, and further failed to fully comply with the court’s directives regarding the two claimants. The case…
Road Accident Fund (RAF) CEO Collins Letsoalo and his board of directors have been ordered to pay legal costs by the Mpumalanga High Court, in an unprecedented trial for a troubled transport entity.
The fund freed up a team of lawyers, left their jobs and had no plans for court cases.
The RAF failed to do its job
Judge Francis Legodi, on Tuesday, ruled after the RAF failed to attend the trial and the pre-conference hearing despite many notices for some time, and further failed to comply with the court’s directive regarding the two prosecutors.
The cases of prosecutors Dumisani Hlatswayo and Mzwandile Masilela were combined because they both faced similar frustrations with the RAF.
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The court even went further in April last year asking the entity to provide its own policy documents, including pre-trial attendance and judicial case management conferences.
The RAF was also asked to provide information on the number of cases handled by each claims handler and the procedures followed in cases previously handled by the solicitor.
To ensure that the RAF can help, the court asked industry regulator the Legal Practice Council (LPC) and the bar council to join the case and help entities comply with the directive.
After several attempts by the court to get funds to carry out its work, the entity chose to settle after years of litigation with Hlatswayo and Masilela.
The lawyer first filed the claim in January 2018.
‘Litigation can be avoided’
In a scathing 97-page judgment, Legodi said a drawn-out judgment should be avoided.
“As the CEO correctly recognized in one of the affidavits, litigation should be avoided. Litigating instead of investigating, establishing, and paying without the need for protracted litigation should be avoided.
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“It is unsustainable to handle the money of the Road Accident Fund by defending every matter that has been issued a summons and only to settle it after large legal costs will be brought to the door of the court as happened in these two cases.”
‘Pay out of your pocket’
Legodi told Letsoalo to bring the decision to the attention of Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula on Thursday, January 26.
“The CEO and the board of directors to pay out of pocket, together and one by one, one to pay the other to be released from the costs connected and caused by the final settlement in each case.”
“The costs include the costs to date, connected, or associated with the inquiry here and from the two advisers if any.”
The RAF, which is in the Mbalula department, is also in a legal tussle with the Auditor-General (AGSA) over accounting methods. AGSA found that the entity had liabilities of more than R3 billion.
Dlamini and Mkhwebane costs order
Previously, two well-known precedents were handed down by the Constitutional Court in recent years, when former minister Bathabile Dlamini was ordered to pay her handling of the Sassa grant distribution debacle.
Dlamini paid R600,000 to pay legal bills for social grant litigants Black Sash and Freedom Under Law.
In 2019, the apex court did not spare a serial litigant – suspended Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane – when it ordered him to cough more than once.
His conduct in the Bankcorp-Ciex reporting matter was labeled as “less than the high standards required of his office.”
The RAF remains mum
When contacted for comment, the entity’s spokeswoman Linda Rulashe on Thursday said she had not heard from management about the decision, and asked for it. The Warga to send an email.
“Send through the official inquiry and I will give the answer to the management. I have not received anything about it,” he said.
Follow-up calls and texts on emailed questions went unanswered.
Letsoalo was previously CEO of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa).
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