‘It is in a shambles’: Numsa demands removal of RAF CEO Collins Letsoalo

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has served the Road Accident Fund (RAF) with a 48-hour notice to strike.

Numsa secretary-general Irvin Jim said the union was mobilising its members for a shutdown of all RAF offices on Thursday, 14 March.

“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,” Jim said.

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Numsa demands

Among the union’s demands is that the RAF CEO Collins Letsoalo be removed. Numsa accused him of being responsible for the disastrous state of the entity.

“RAF is a public entity whose core function is to compensate victims of road accidents. Mr Letsoalo behaves as if he is untouchable which is why the RAF is in [a] shambles,” Jim said.

He said there is a complete failure to regulate the CEO’s behaviour.

“It seems even the board of the RAF is helpless in the face of his gross incompetence. Numsa is demanding that Collins Letsoalo must be fired for the disastrous state of the RAF.”

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Issues at RAF

Numsa said the issues that led to it declaring a strike included the outsourcing of critical operations to private companies. Jim said the RAF decided to outsource its call centre operation despite the uncertainties surrounding the RAF employees’ job security.

Jim said Numsa has always argued that the money spent on the outsourced call centre could be reserved for saving jobs, and improving the claims process.

“The employees who were employed in the internal call centre of RAF are now redundant and they will be retrenched by RAF.”

‘Personal information compromised’

Jim said the RAF’s financial difficulties also means that its assets, including desks, chairs, and office equipment, are often attached by sheriffs of the court.

“Workers sit on boxes or on the floor when doing their work, because there are no desks or chairs.

“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,” he said.

Jim said the personal information of individuals is now in the hands of a third party, which is in violation of the POPI Act.

“This is a gross violation of the POPI Act section 19(1) (a) which states that RAF has the responsibility to secure the integrity and confidentiality of all the personal information in its possession,” he said.

The RAF had not responded to questions from The Citizen by the time of publishing this article.