Numsa urges Road Accident Fund staff to strike, citing mismanagement

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has served the Road Accident Fund (RAF) with a strike notice, citing mismanagement by CEO Collins Letsoalo.

The RAF has defended its turnaround changes and said the targeting of its CEO is unfair.

“We are mobilising our members for a shutdown of all RAF offices on Thursday. On that day we will march to the offices of the national department of transport in Pretoria to hand over a memorandum of demands to the minister of transport Sindisiwe Chikunga listing all the problems at the organisation,” said Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim.

Jim said they are demanding Letsoalo be removed because of the “disastrous state of the entity”. 

“Letsoalo behaves as if he is untouchable, which is why the RAF is in shambles. There is a complete failure to regulate his behaviour, and it seems even the board of the RAF is helpless in the face of his gross incompetence. Numsa is demanding Collins Letsoalo must be fired for the disastrous state of the RAF,” he said.

RAF head of corporate communications McIntosh Polela said changes are under way at the entity as part of the 2020-2025 strategy to turn around the entity. The changes were approved by the board and the department of transport, he said.

“An attack on the CEO is unfortunate and unwarranted. The RAF is not a one-man show, it’s an organisation. It is therefore disingenuous to attack one person, Collins Letsoalo,” Polela said.

Jim said one of the issues of contention was the outsourcing of some operations to private companies, including its call centre operation, raising the spectre of possible retrenchments.

He said there is a major backlog of unprocessed RAF claims and inefficiency in the processes.

He said at least 200 claims handlers remain on suspension since 2022 when they were accused of fraud by management, and there has been no disciplinary action against them. 

“The failure by the RAF to pay out claimants on time means the assets of the institution are routinely attached by sheriffs of the court so they can be sold to pay monies owed. As a result, desks, chairs and office equipment is attached. 

“As recently as two weeks ago, a sheriff of the court attached items at the RAF offices in East London. They attached the server of the RAF, which contains all the personal information of the claimants including their names, addresses and ID numbers, as well as other personal information. Chairs and desks were also taken. The personal information of individuals is in the hands of a third party. This is a gross violation of the Protection of Personal Information Act, which states the RAF has the responsibility to secure the integrity and confidentiality of all the personal information in its possession.”

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