Simon Nare
Former Road Accident Fund (RAF) chief executive Collins Letsoalo on Tuesday night said he would not appear before Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA), which he called a “kangaroo court.”
Letsoalo failed to attend a SCOPA hearing earlier in the day, where he had been scheduled to account for his role in the RAF’s financial problems and alleged governance failures during his tenure.
Speaking during a television interview on SABC later on Tuesday, Letsoalo, who has repeatedly questioned SCOPA’s authority to conduct an oversight inquiry into the RAF, said that MPs were focusing on matters related to human resources, internal audit reports, and management reports, rather than issues he believed were relevant for him to answer.
“SCOPA can only deal with matters that the auditor general has looked at. That is what we submit to parliament yearly, by the way. I am not going to that kangaroo court where Songezo Zibi is the chairperson, the evidence leader, the interrogator, the witness selector and the adjudicator in one. Where have you seen that?” said Letsoalo during the SABC interview.
Letsoalo said that all the RAF employees who had thus far appeared before SCOPA were not given a chance to tell their story. Instead, he said, committee members asked questions were not in line with the affidavits of those who testified.
He said South Africans wanted to know what was happening at the Fund, and that if a proper and conducive forum were created, he would be willing to appear.
“You just arrive there, and people just start asking you about what other people were saying, some salacious things. I am not interested in that,” he said.
A visibly confident Letsoalo said the committee was seeking to return the RAF to its pre-2019 position and to implement regulations contained in a bill that did not pass in Parliament.
He said that SCOPA wanted to undo changes made during his tenure, including the disbanding of a panel of attorneys, which he said had been supported by then transport minister Fikile Mbalula.
He said Mbalula had written to cabinet to inform it that the department was changing the system and proceeding with the Road Accident Fund Amendment Bill of 2023.
“Everything that we have been doing since then is now being reversed as we speak. The panel of attorneys that we have removed, they are bringing them back. Now, the question is, why is the minister of transport then not called?
“There are four ministers that must be called: minister Blade Nzimande, minister Fikile Mbalula, minister Sindisiwe Chikunga and the current minister (of transport) Barbara Creecy,” he said.
SCOPA chairperson Songezo Zibi has said all ministers who previously held the transport portfolio will be called to testify, but they have been scheduled to appear towards the end of the inquiry.
Letsoalo’s claims about changes to the RAF system have not been supported by testimonies heard by the committee so far. He defended the new accounting system, which some current RAF senior managers have told the inquiry has increased the entity’s liabilities and contributed to operational chaos.
On the issue of a summons issued by Parliament, Letsoalo said the sheriff had delivered documents to his postal address. He said he did not know what they related to and insisted that Parliament should serve any papers on his lawyers.
In the interview, Letsoalo addressed some of the issues SCOPA wants to question him about, including his security detail, which is alleged to have been approved without a threat assessment report, as well as his vetting.
He said that SCOPA had no jurisdiction to probe his security arrangements, adding that the matter was being investigated by Public Protector Kholeka Gcaleka and that the committee should wait for her findings.
He said a threat assessment report had been done and submitted to the committee, although evidence before SCOPA so far has suggested otherwise.
He also maintained that his security vetting had been completed, despite evidence before the committee indicating that he had not been vetted.
Letsoalo has been implicated in wrongdoing several times by former and current RAF employees who have appeared before the committee since the inquiry began eight weeks ago.
He was placed on precautionary suspension in May over a R79 million office lease and other contracts flagged by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), which is probing alleged corruption and maladministration at the entity.
He ceased to be an employee of the RAF when his term expired at the end of August.
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