Road Accident Fund’s (RAF) Chief Executive Officer, Collins Letsoalo, apologised to legal practitioners for stepping on their toes. Mr Letsoalo was addressing the Black Lawyers Association (BLA) members at their Annual General Meeting that was held on 23 November 2024 under the theme ‘Reflections on the 30 Years Post Democracy, the BLA’s Perspective of the Present, Progressive Thus Far, Challenges and the Future.’ The RAF and the legal profession have been at loggerheads, due to the remarks that have been made on both sides in the media. Among those remarks, Mr Letsoalo blamed the backlog of non-payments on claimants of legal practitioners, claiming that it was due to the non-compliance of the legal practitioners, with regard to submitting all the necessary support documents to the RAF.
Mr Letsoalo also accused the legal profession of being against the Road Accident Benefit Scheme. He further said that legal practitioners had a problem with the fact that he was not a legal practitioner by profession. Legal practitioners pointed out that the RAF 1 Form is unreasonable as it requires many items that claimants do not have and as a result claims are not paid. Legal practitioners also said that Mr Letsoalo did not respect the legal profession, as he would often lambast and generalise that legal practitioners steal their clients RAF money and as a result claims are repudiated.
At the BLA meeting, Mr Letsoalo said that when people speak of his name and legal practitioners in the same sentence, they make it seem like they are enemies. He, however, assured legal practitioners that he was not their enemy. He spoke to them about the direction that the RAF took and why the fund decided to take that direction. Mr Letsoalo said that the RAF, which is an organisation with origins in the Motor Vehicle Insurance Act 29 of 1942, was established to resolve a white middle-class problem, because the middle-class white people were hitting many black people with their vehicles and when the victims sued in common law, it was discovered that after being sued most of those families could not afford to pay out damages and claims.
