Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) has serious concerns about corruption at the Road Accident Fund (RAF), and will recommend criminal charges and financial recoveries where needed, says Scopa chair Songezo Zibi. The unprecedented decision by Scopa in June this year to lay a criminal charge against former RAF CEO Collins Letsoalo is also “in motion”, Zibi told Moneyweb in an interview on Friday after his engagement with attorneys, medico-legal practitioners and other professional service providers to the RAF. Zibi said he and Scopa’s legal team have met with the South African Police Service (Saps), which has specified the documents it needs from Scopa.
The legal team is providing the requested documents, and the Saps will take the matter forward. Zibi said the Saps indicated that this is “not a complicated case, so they should be able to complete their investigation without undue delay”. Scopa asked the Secretary to Parliament to lay a criminal charge against Letsoalo for failing to appear before the committee in response to a summons issued during its November 2025 inquiry into the RAF.
In his address at the inquiry, Zibi mentioned several decisions that had a significant impact on the RAF’s operations – including the new RAF1 claims form, changes to the fund’s accounting policy, and the closure of regional and satellite offices. He said disciplinary action against those responsible for these decisions is however moot because they are no longer working at the RAF. Instead, Scopa will closely examine cases where there was gross financial mismanagement and is likely to recommend the recovery of funds from those responsible, while also considering whether financial misconduct charges should be brought against them.
“We are taking legal advice on those instances,” he said. Incompetence costing billions Although Zibi acknowledged serious concerns about corruption at the RAF, he said Scopa’s inquiry found these concerns “are dwarfed by incompetence”, which leads to inefficient expenditure that is costing the RAF billions a year. He cited the RAF’s failure to invest in technology and an effective information management system for handling claims and court cases as a prime example.
In my estimation, if it was to be run properly like an insurance company, it would be easy to save more than R5 billion that cu…
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