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IOL News
16-07-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Reactions to Minister Creecy's dissolution of the Road Accident Fund board
Transport Minister Barbara Creecy has dissolved the RAF Board. Image: File Minister of Transport Barbara Creecy's decision to dissolve the board of the Road Accident Fund (RAF) has been met with varied reactions from stakeholders, including the Association for the Protection of Road Accident Victims, the Parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), and ActionSA. The RAF has faced financial and administrative instability in recent years, including the suspension of its CEO, Collins Letsoalo, due to alleged corruption and his failure to appear before Scopa. The entity, funded entirely by South African motorists through the fuel levy, has over R50 billion in annual revenue. According to Creecy, the dissolution was necessitated by persistent governance and operational challenges at the RAF, which included protracted and costly litigation pursued by the RAF on accounting standards and the inconsistent handling of the suspension of the CEO. Other reasons include the frequent incurrence of default judgments against the RAF, deep divisions within the board, and failure to fill critical executive positions like Chief Claims Officer and Head of Legal. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Deputy President of the Association for the Protection of Road Accident Victims, Ngoako Mohlaloga, said that his organisation was aligned by Creecy's decision. "We are hoping that the minister's decision will be in the best interest of the victims because ours is for the victims. We are in alignment with the minister's decision and we are hoping that her decision will fulfil its core mandate, which is to investigate administration within the RAF, which will result in compensating victims," said Mohlaloga. He stated that the board must ensure the organisation runs smoothly and that systems are in place for the RAF to function optimally. Chairperson of Scopa, Songezo Zibi, warned that the dissolved board had to be replaced with one that is capable. "The dissolution of the board came as no surprise. We've noted as a committee a number of underperformances by the board in overseeing the Road Accident Fund... It's important that whoever steps in on an interim basis is capable, experienced, and strong-willed because it doesn't help to replace one weak and problematic board with another,' Zibi said. Earlier this year, Scopa heard that the head of legal lacked a law degree, a revelation made during the board's appearance before the committee. An inquiry was launched by the oversight committee to investigate allegations of maladministration, financial impropriety, and the misuse of public funds at the embattled entity. The board's dissolution, according to Zibi, was not unexpected. "We've noted as a committee a number of underperformances by the board in overseeing the Road Accident Fund. We've highlighted the numerous vacancies in critical posts. The accumulation of default judgments that the Road Accident Fund does not defend amounts to R5 billion at the moment, at a rate of up to 100 million per week. We had said in our committee that this board is failing, so the decision is not surprising." ActionSA welcomed the decision to dissolve the RAF board, citing the entity's history of mismanagement, corruption, and state failure. "The RAF has become a cesspool of mismanagement, corruption, and a symbol of state failure." The party had formally demanded the dissolution of the board after the RAF's appearance before Scopa and findings from the Special Investigating Unit (SIU). Creecy has requested the National Treasury to appoint an interim Accounting Authority and initiated a recruitment process for a new board. Other steps include establishing an expert advisory committee to review the RAF's business processes and have requested the SIU to consider expanding the scope of their investigation into the RAF.
News24
15-07-2025
- Business
- News24
Creecy dissolves board of Road Accident Fund amid governance failure
Minister of Transport Barbara Creecy has dissolved the board of the Road Accident Fund (RAF) after a litany of operational and governance failures at the entity. She has also asked the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to request an expansion of the scope of its current investigation to cover the events of the last three months. The RAF is insolvent, with liabilities exceeding its assets. It also has chronic governance problems, which resulted in the suspension of its CEO, Collins Letsoalo, last month. In addition to the SIU investigation, it faces a probe by Parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa). Several whistleblowers have made disclosures about corruption at the fund. Creecy said that among the reasons for the board's dissolution was its 'reckless' handling of Letsoalo's suspension, which has attracted a legal challenge and caused institutional uncertainty. Other reasons included: The RAF's protracted and costly litigation against the Auditor-General on the application of accounting standards. The occurrence of frequent default judgments against it. Deep divisions within the board, which reflect a lack of cohesion in critical decision-making processes. The board's failure to fill at least two executive positions, critical to the mandate of the fund, namely the chief claims officer and head of legal. Creecy said these factors had 'resulted in the loss of confidence in the board's ability to run the entity effectively'. In a statement issued on Tuesday, Creecy said that more than a month ago, she had allowed the board to make representations to her on why they should not be suspended. She had also asked the National Treasury to appoint an interim accounting authority while recruiting a new board. Creecy has also established an expert advisory committee to review the RAF's business processes and make recommendations. The panel's members will be announced in due course. She reiterated her department's intent to reintroduce a new version of the Road Accident Benefit Scheme (RABS) Bill, which failed to pass in the fifth Parliament under suspicious circumstances and amid heavy lobbying from the legal fraternity. 'The bill will introduce a no-fault system to make it easier for road accident victims to access benefits without costly legal bills,' said the statement.
IOL News
14-07-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
Collins Letsoalo, the suspended RAF CEO claims corruption within the legal fraternity
Collins Letsoalo, suspended RAF CEO during a media briefing claimed there is corruption within the legal fraternity Image: File SUSPENDED Road Accident Fund CEO Collins Letsoalo, during a media briefing held on Saturday, together with chief investment officer Sefotle Modiba, attributed many of the problems at the fund to 'corruption' within the legal fraternity, which he claimed included the judiciary. Letsoalo and Modiba, who has also been suspended, said they were being targeted for trying to expose corruption within the fund. The aim of the briefing was to provide 'context' into the reasons behind their suspensions. While Letsoalo was soon due to once again face Judge Nasious Moshoanathe to ask for leave to appeal against the judgment in which the judge refused Letsoalo's urgent application to immediately be reinstated, Letsoalo was clear that he thought the judge was biased from the start. He said his and Modiba's journey at the RAF was one of victimhood. 'We have been victimised all the time. One does not know why. It would seem people want to believe when we arrived at the RAF everything was fine, but that is not true.' Letsoalo said before he took over in 2020, the RAF was repurposed into a looting vehicle where people could 'loot legally." He referred to one law firm, which he said at the time made R1.2 billion a year from the fund. 'We are dealing with corruption, which permeates itself across the legal fraternity. Our judiciary comes from the legal fraternity. So the question you must ask yourself is when is this Damascus moment when this plaintiff attorney or panel attorney suddenly becomes a judge and suddenly becomes honest?' Letsoalo said while he has evidence against the 'corrupt' legal fraternity, nobody wants to hear him. He was told to present his evidence to the Judicial Service Commission, but believes that the JSC will, in any event, do nothing about it. Speaking about first being placed on special leave and later on suspension, Letsoalo said the reason given was that he did not attend a Scopa meeting on May 28. But, he explained, he was placed on special leave the previous day and told not to attend the Scopa meeting. 'Then they tell me I'm placed on special leave because I did not attend Scopa. It's absolute nonsense, but certain judges believe they were right,' he said in referring to Judge Moshoanathe's findings against him during his recent urgent application to have his suspension lifted. Letsoalo also referred to the fact that his urgent application was moved by the judge president from being heard on the urgent roll to a week later when it was placed on the special motion roll. He said the judge who was due to hear the matter was changed twice - and that the matter was eventually given to Judge Moshoanathe - who issued a scathing judgment against him. He also questioned how, under these circumstances, he was still slapped with a costs order. But, Letsoalo said, he was a man of integrity and he was ready for the battle to prove that the judiciary had been captured. 'I will show you the capture of the judiciary - they close ranks and they change the rules,' he said.
Daily Maverick
14-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Maverick
‘A journey of victimhood' — suspended executives say they were targeted for exposing corruption at RAF
Collins Letsoalo and Sefotle Modiba said their actions saved the fund significant money, and their suspensions were politically motivated attempts to undermine their reforms. Suspended Road Accident Fund (RAF) executives Collins Letsoalo and Sefotle Modiba allege they were targeted for exposing deep-seated corruption within the fund. At a press briefing on Saturday, CEO Letsoalo and Modiba, the acting chief investment officer, said there were widespread systemic issues within the RAF, including fraudulent claims, questionable legal practices and a misrepresentation of the fund's financial liabilities. They contended that their suspensions were a direct result of their attempts to implement reforms that challenged established interests, alleging a pattern of judicial bias, questionable actions by other entities, and a desire to revert the RAF to a less transparent, more vulnerable state. They said their actions saved the fund significant money, and their suspensions were politically motivated attempts to undermine their reforms. This comes after Parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) in June announced that it would launch a full committee inquiry into the RAF following concerns about financial mismanagement, irregular expenditure, procurement irregularities, cash flow and investment disclosures, and non-compliance with financial regulations. Convoluted system In addition to the RAF's R340-billion in liabilities, the Auditor-General has repeatedly pointed out irregular expenditures, procurement failures and inadequate internal controls. All of this while victims of road accidents face significant delays in claim payouts, leaving thousands trapped in a convoluted system that has been made worse by poor management. Letsoalo, who was appointed as acting CEO in April 2020 under the then minister of transport, Fikile Mbalula, and whose appointment was made permanent in August 2021, was suspended by the RAF board on 3 June for insubordination related to his refusal to appear before a Scopa meeting. He launched a court bid to be reinstated, but the Gauteng Division of the High Court dismissed it on 26 June, finding that Letsoalo had failed to show he had any legal right to an urgent interdict. Modiba was placed on precautionary suspension on 17 June due to the circumstances surrounding the termination of his previous employment with the City of Johannesburg, among other things. In a letter to Modiba's lawyer, Scopa's chairperson, MP Songezo Zibi, said the committee was concerned that the RAF had neither vetted Modiba nor inquired into the City of Johannesburg terminating his employment. Scopa had received a letter from Johannesburg's executive mayor stating that Modiba had not faced a disciplinary hearing because he had resigned. This, according to Zibi, directly contradicted Modiba's assertion that charges of gross negligence, gross dishonesty and gross dereliction of duty against him were withdrawn. On Saturday, before the briefing, Zibi posted: 'This week, there have been attempts to get the decision of Scopa to hold a Committee Inquiry into the RAF rescinded. They have failed. There will be accounting for public funds under oath, in public. We will upload every document the public is entitled to see on the Parliament website.' At the press briefing on Saturday, Modiba said his and Letsoalo's suspensions were primarily because of their efforts to reform and clean up the RAF. 'I identified that there was cherry picking and prioritisation of claim payments by certain employees within the RAF, driven by bribery. I found out there was a corporatised, intentional approach to prioritising certain legal firms' claims over others. This thing was termed 'fixed allocation'. 'So you had a few legal firms, predominantly white, who would then get the biggest slice of the fuel levy as it was paid into the fund's account, while the marginalised would have certain claims of theirs which were not paid. Some of these claims were sitting at over 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 days of age, versus these other prioritised ones whose age was sometimes even lower than 30 days,' said Modiba Letsoalo's version 'Ours has been a journey of victimhood where we are just victimised all the time. One does not know why we are victimised,' said Letsoalo at the briefing. He said there were major problems at the RAF before he and Modiba arrived, and it had turned into 'a looting vehicle that people could do lawfully'. He said he was placed on special leave on 27 May, the day before he was scheduled to appear at Scopa. He was then suspended for not attending Scopa on the day he was on special leave, which he called 'absolute nonsense'. Letsoalo detailed how his court case challenging the suspension was moved and reassigned to different judges multiple times under 'strange circumstances'. He said he had received threats because of his actions at the RAF. Now the RAF is facing a substantial financial challenge with a reported liability of R322-billion. However, Letsoalo said: 'There's no such thing [as a R322-billion liability]. The reality is that we are dealing with previously advantaged individuals who had cornered the RAF, and they continue to do that. And they buy people. They tried to buy me, I refused.' Ahead of the media briefing, the suspended executives said they would show how a R322-billion 'phantom liability' was created to loot at least R250-billion from the national coffers and the alleged involvement of the judiciary in creating a crisis at the RAF. Letsoalo said that the International Monetary Fund and the Financial Services Board had reclassified the RAF as a social security fund or social benefit fund, meaning that its business model was 'not based on insurance principles'. He contended that the Auditor-General of South Africa and the Accounting Standards Board were incorrectly pushing the RAF to account like an insurer, which caused the liability to 'balloon'. He said that upon implementing a new strategy in FY2020, the RAF under Modiba's leadership had reduced the short-term liability from R19-billion in November 2019 to R8.27-billion by March 2024. He claimed they reduced the overall liability by R304-billion from R320-billion in 2020 and that the 'actual liability was sitting at less than R20 billion'. Modiba's version Modiba was adamant that the charges against him by the City of Johannesburg were 'fully withdrawn' before he joined the RAF, and the RAF had conducted a screening for criminal records and qualifications when he was hired. He said he had provided correspondence to the RAF proving no charges were pending, but it nevertheless proceeded with his suspension. He added that the State Security Agency's vetting of him was almost complete when he was suspended. He questioned whether his suspension had a 'racial connotation,' noting that his replacement was a 'young gentleman, very professional', who is white. Modiba claimed this person was not vetted and lacked the experience to run an investment management team. Modiba's press briefing presentation Modiba said his suspension posed risks to the RAF's stability and progress. Alleged underlying reasons Both executives argued that their suspensions were a direct consequence of their successful efforts to combat corruption and improve the financial stability of the RAF, which they claimed upset powerful individuals and entities who had benefited from the fund's mismanagement. They claimed that state institutions, particularly the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and Scopa, had been 'repurposed and weaponised' against them. DM
Boston Globe
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Just like the North End, but in Lynn, Scopa offers Italian American classics
Calamari at Scopa. Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff What to eat Fried calamari with a thick, crisp batter and hot cherry peppers in the mix, alongside a mayo-based dipping sauce (you can also request the house marinara). Big, juicy pork and beef meatballs served with marinara on their own or with pasta. Chicken Parmigiana on pasta tossed with the house sauce. You'll also find eggplant rollatini, chicken or veal piccata, orecchiette with broccoli rabe and sausage, lobster risotto, and much more. What to drink The wine list is disappointingly dull, and in a region where craft beer is a thriving industry, not a single one appears here. Advertisement An exterior shot of Scopa in Lynn. Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff The takeaway The 55-seat dining room, when full, is so noisy it's hard to hear above the din. But it has a lively, fun vibe with large parties and multi-generation diners. A covered outdoor patio with strings of lights overlooking the Saugus River is quieter with a pleasant view (except for some industrial buildings). Many of the Italian American classics are well done but in dishes with the house marinara, too generous with sauce. One night after an endless wait for pizza, we are told that the kitchen burned it and another is on the way. Then more wait and one arrives — too burned to eat. 'This is not how we run the place,' says Matthew Gateman later on the phone and I do think it was an anomaly. There wouldn't be so many people having a jolly time in the dining room if this were routine. 829 Boston St., Lynn. 339-231-7047. Appetizers and salads $5.95-$16.95; pasta $13.95-$22.95; entrees $19.95-$25.95 (seafood dishes are market price, about $30 to $32). Advertisement Sheryl Julian can be reached at
