Pretoria - Hot on the heels of last week’s damning judgment by three judges against the Road Accident Fund (RAF) – that its board and chief executive, Collins Letsoalo had to pay from their own pockets the costs associated with two RAF cases – they indicated that they wanted to appeal against the judgment before the Supreme Court of Appeal.
The fund and its heads stated 14 points in which they claimed that Mpumalanga High Court Judge President Judge Francis Legodi, who wrote the judgment, erred in his findings.
The court last week issued a 97-page scathing judgment against Letsoalo and his board, which resulted in the personal costs order against them. It is not clear at this stage what the costs are, but some say it can be millions.
Judge Legodi said the system the fund implemented after the disposal of its panel (of) attorneys appeared to be the cause of the problem for lack of a back-up plan in place.
The prognostication by the fund in doing nothing to investigate or settle and pay, resulting in settlements at the doorstep of trial when costs are already incurred, were earmarked by the court as a huge problem, which could see RAF cases in courts around the country being plunged in chaos. Letsoalo had argued that plans were in place to deal with the removal of the panel of attorneys, but he also blamed a shortage of money and staff.
The judgment was sparked by two cases instituted against the fund and in which the RAF did little, if anything, to resolve them. Only on the day of the trial did the RAF want to settle.
In hitting back, Letsoalo and his board said they had at all times acted in good faith.
Neither Letsoalo nor his board had any personal knowledge of the two cases; neither were they appointed at the time the summons were issued, they said. The court was also wrong in finding a link between the RAF firing the panel of attorneys and the two cases. These attorneys’ mandates had expired and there was a lack of trust between the parties, thy said.
RAF management could not be held liable for the maladministration, fraud and corruption under the old management, which the new board and Letsoalo had inherited, they said.
Pretoria News