Axed Road Accident Fund staff await reviews after CEO’s exit

The Road Accident Fund (RAF) is accused of failing to reinstate allegedly “unfairly” dismissed and suspended employees as directed.

When the now axed RAF chief executive officer, Collins Letsoalo, took over about five years ago, more than 100 RAF employees from the Durban, Cape Town and Gauteng offices were allegedly unfairly dismissed and suspended.

Directives

After Letsoalo was suspended as CEO, the newly appointed board issued directives that all the allegedly unfairly dismissed and suspended employees must be reinstated.

The Standing Committee on Public Accounts is waiting for Letsoalo to come and answer questions in parliament regarding the RAF failures. He was subpoenaed after repeated attempts to get him to voluntarily appear before the committee were unsuccessful.

RAF, under his leadership, has reportedly spent about R100 million on disciplinary matters in the past five years. The fund is also being accused of subjecting employees to suspensions for many years without charging them.

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Internal memo

The Citizen has seen an internal memo dated 3 November stating that all dismissals and suspensions should be reviewed to ensure fairness and compliance with labour legislation.

“Recognition should be given that not all disciplinary processes and actions were unfair or unwarranted. “Rectify or reverse any unfair disciplinary action identified by the review,” the document read.

Employees

The Citizen has been reliably informed that all the cases in other provinces were reviewed, and most of the employees were reinstated. But offices in Gauteng have been reluctant to review cases.

“All our colleagues from other provinces returned to work, while we are still sitting at home without income. “We are appealing to the RAF to implement the directives of the board so that we can go back to work. I was dismissed and without income for over a year.

“I lost my car and have been failing to pay instalments for my house. “Some of my colleagues, who had been suffering from chronic diseases, died as they failed to deal with the situation,” said one affected employee.

“We are told that the Gauteng management is divided, as there are people who were promoted by the former CEO, and they are refusing to allow the review of the cases because we were intentionally removed under their leadership, so they are blocking this process.”