Court rules against Collins Letsoalo's appeal for RAF CEO reinstatement

In yet another blow for suspended Road Accident Fund CEO, Collins Letsoalo, the court on Friday refused his application for leave to appeal against his failed bid to be reinstated.

His fixed-term contract of employment between himself and the RAF expires on Wednesday. One of the reasons Letsoalo had launched an urgent application for his suspension to be lifted was his belief that he would be reappointed. According to him, the fund’s board promised him a second term - something the then board vehemently denied.

Letsoalo had applied for leave to appeal against the judgment issued by the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria at the end of June, in which it turned down his bid for his suspension to be lifted. In a scathing judgment at the time, Judge Nasious Moshoanathe said Letsoalo's application was deemed vexatious.

He found Letsoalo’s suspension effected by the RAF board earlier to be lawful, rational, and reasonable. In his leave to appeal, Letsoalo at length stated that Judge Moshoanathe was from the start biased and against him, which he claimed was clearly visible in the body language of the judge.

He also cited 38 points which he claimed the judge erred in his judgment. Letsoalo, in his leave to appeal, said he wanted to turn to the Supreme Court of Appeal, which he said without doubt would rule in his favour.

But time has run out for him as by Wednesday, he will no longer head the RAF - a point taken by Judge Moshoanathe, who said the appeal will then be moot. This was, however, denied by Letsoalo’s counsel during arguments.

The judge said accepting that the rights which Letsoalo is seeking to protect and enforce are contractual in nature, once the contract expires, those rights would be unenforceable in law. The judge added that even if the appeal succeeds, the relief Letsoalo is seeking will not yield practical results to him.

“He cannot be returned to his position, in the circumstances where his employment contract had expired. Interdicting the alleged advertisement of the position in order to protect his alleged re-appointment by the disestablished board will not yield any practical results for him". 

In addressing the 38 points in which Letsoalo claimed errors were made, Judge Moshoanathe commented that all Letsoalo did was to try and reargue the matter. Not one of these points holds any water, he found.

The judge also discussed the fact that Letsoalo claimed he (the judge) was biased from the start and he questioned why Letsoalo then did not ask for his recusal. “This is considered to be startling in that having observed the actual bias, the applicant chose to remain silent and not seek an order to have the biased judicial officer recused. He waited for the outcome and only thereafter conjured up this ground,” the judge said.

He added that Letsoalo wants to have the best of both worlds.

“He simply cannot do so. As he apparently observed the body language of the judge and developed an apprehension of bias, as he now seeks to contend, he should have asked the biased judge to recuse himself.”

Judge Moshoanathe concluded that Letsoalo has no prospect of succeeding with his case on appeal, which includes his "newly conjured up ground of reasonable apprehension of bias or actual bias".

Cape Times