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NUMSA demands removal of RAF CEO and calls for strike action this week

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Johnathan Paoli

THE National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) has officially called for the removal of Road Accident Fund (RAF) CEO Collins Letsoalo, and notified authorities of a looming 48-hour strike action set for Thursday.

The trade union issued a statement on Tuesday and said it has served the RAF with a 48-hour notice to strike and is planning a national shutdown this week at the fund’s offices across the country.

NUMSA General Secretary Irvin Jim said the union is expected to 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, and demanding that the RAF CEO Collins Letsoalo be removed because of the disastrous state of the entity.

The strike is against the outsourcing of critical operations, the alleged violations of the Protection of Personal Information Act and the inability of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts to effectively hold Letsoalo accountable.

In addition, the union is protesting the suspension of 200 fraud-accused claims handlers, the considerable backlog of unprocessed RAF claims caused by the lack of claims handlers; and the continuing restructuring of the organisation, despite abandoning the formal, lawful restructuring under the auspices of CCMA, since February last year.

Jim said that due to the removal of the panel of attorneys, the RAF remained unable to meaningfully settle matters in court, unable to pay claimants on time, and ultimately resulting in a pile of unpaid court orders which are left unattended.

“Mr. Letsoalo is single-handedly destroying the RAF and he believes that no one will hold him accountable for his shocking behaviour,” the GS said.

Jim said due to the clearly apathetic response by the government to this crisis, the union has no choice but to embark upon protest action in order to compel the government to intervene and remove Letsoalo.

“Letsoalo has made workers suffer because he is a bully. Bullies can only be defeated if they are overthrown! We call on them to ignore his threats of dismissal and disciplinary action for going on strike,” Jim said.

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