OUTA calls for team of experts to fix Road Accident Fund

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) is calling for a team of experts to be brought on board to fix the Road Accident Fund (RAF), which is being investigated by Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA).

"Not people who work for the government," said Duvenage.

Money from the fuel levy paid by motorists goes into the fund, which has a budget of almost R50 billion a year. Payouts are made when people are killed or injured due to negligent driving.

Duvenage argued that a fund with such a massive budget could benefit from the experience of insurance industry staff.

"You bring in specialists, you bring in people from the private industry if you have to. As I said, there are a lot of successful insurance companies out there, and a lot of the processes at RAF are very similar. You've got to deal with fictitious claims, you've got to deal with the legal fraternity that is on your back the whole time."

Duvenage said the RAF became a lucrative cadre deployment position. "Lots of money can be made. Contracts can be farmed out, and start to outsource as much as you can. This is how cadre deployment and mismanagement take place."

According to him, over the years, it has become a 'hole that is so big'.

"What do the ministers do? Go and appoint someone like Collins Letsoalo and put a board in that doesn't hold him to account. Of course, it's a recipe for disaster."

Letsoalo was made permanent CEO of the RAF in 2020, after 'very questionable conduct' at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa.

At the end of January, EWN reported that former RAF board members had defended their recommendation of Letsoalo, saying they believed he was the best person for the job.

To listen to Duvenage's discussion with CapeTalk's Clarence Ford, use the audio player below: