Costs ruling highlights RAF chaos
The disarray at the Road Accident Fund (RAF) – especially after it fired its panel of lawyers with no workable plan in place – and the disregard for the rules of court has landed its CEO Collins Letsoalo and the board in trouble.
A Pretoria News report says they now have to personally dig into their pockets to pay the costs associated with two RAF matters.
The President of the Mpumalanga division of the High Court, Judge Francis Legodi – in a strongly-worded 97-page judgment – ordered Letsoalo and his board to jointly and severally foot the bill in the RAF matters before the court.
Legodi also ordered a subsequent inquiry before a full Bench of this division during which the court tried to obtain answers from the RAF over its apparent lack of proper functioning.
The court made a de bonis propris cost order against them, marking the court’s displeasure.
Letsoalo appeared before the court in June and faced a volley of questions by the judges regarding the functioning of the RAF.
The Pretoria News report says these included what contingency plans were in place when it fired its panel of attorneys in 2020. The judges made it clear that as things stood, the courts had to step in to ensure claims were dealt with adequately and to try to prevent chaos. They wanted answers as to why Letsoalo and his board should not personally face the brunt.
The inquiry was sparked by two cases which were – against the directives of the division of the court – settled at the last minute, as the trials were to begin.
After the matter stood down in June – to resume in September – Letsoalo wrote a letter in his personal capacity to the judge, asking, among others: ‘What is the nature of these proceedings before the full Bench? Is it an inquiry and, if it is, under what provision of the court rules is it held?’
He also wanted to know ‘what is intended to be achieved or determined in these proceedings?’
In his judgment, Legodi referred to the letter not only as being inappropriate as the case was ongoing, but also as ‘startling’, notes the Pretoria News.
Legodi said things started going wrong after the RAF fired its panel of lawyers. While Letsoalo said there was a plan in place, the judge said it was clear that they were fired with no plan in place.
The judge added that the frustrations brought about by the chaos could be seen from the directives issued by various divisions of the courts in a bid to try to deal with RAF matters.
While Letsoalo blamed financial constraints and a lack of manpower as part of the problems, Legodi said it was the responsibility of the CEO and board to ensure that the RAF prepared properly for cases before the courts.
‘The lack of funds for defence would mean that at the time when Mr Letsoalo, his management team and the board consistently demanded the return of the files from the panel attorneys, they knew or ought to have known that there were not enough claim officers and other officers to deal with those matters due to budgetary constraints. Everything was actually caused by lack of planning at the time when the files were demanded from the panel of attorneys. One wonders what is going to happen to the RAF if indeed the notice to retrench thousands of its employees was to become a reality.’
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
