Embattled Road Accident Fund (RAF) CEO Collins Letsoalo is alleged to have spent more than R10m in public funds on his security detail, including a R4m armoured BMW X5, over three years.
It is also alleged that Letsoalo, who is suspended and this week lost his bid in the Pretoria high court to be reinstated, was also given three VW Golf 8 GTIs costing between R800,000 and R1m, as well as nine bodyguards. The vehicles were provided by the RAF board.
This level of security makes him the most-protected CEO of a state-owned entity (SOE) and government official after the president and his deputy, each of whom have between 15 and 20 bodyguards, according to sources in law enforcement. Ministers and the national police commissioner are usually given around four bodyguards.
However, the transport department and the State Security Agency (SSA) this week said they had no record of Letsoalo ever reporting threats to his safety or requesting that a threat assessment be done.
Three of Letsoalo’s nine bodyguards are a permanent security detail for his wife, Lily, and their children, while the rest are in charge of his safety.
However, RAF security policies do not cover the protection of spouses, according to a whistleblower who earlier this month wrote to the chair of parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa), Songezo Zibi, and portfolio committee on transport (PCOT) chair Selelo Selamolela.
Letsoalo is adamant, as was argued in his urgent court application for reinstatement and before the PCOT earlier this month, that his and his family’s lives are in danger without bodyguards. This was so, he said, because he had intervened to prevent law firms and medical aid schemes from milking the RAF of billions of rands.
A preliminary Special Investigating Unit (SIU) report has implicated Letsoalo in possible wrongdoing involving a R79m lease for the fund’s Johannesburg regional offices. The SIU found that Letsoalo allegedly interfered with supply-chain processes in the appointment of Mowana Properties — a claim he denies.
Letsoalo told the Sunday Times this week that he had reported threats to his life to the RAF board and the SSA, which then took steps to provide him with a bigger security detail. However, when the SSA was contacted to confirm Letsoalo’s claims, it referred enquiries to the transport department, which it said would have notified the agency about any threats.
Transport spokesperson Collen Msibi said there was no record of any report from Letsoalo.
“The head of the road branch, which is responsible for the oversight of the RAF, is not aware of the alleged security details to the CEO and the amounts paid or payable. The branch only became aware of [them] ... during the court proceedings. As a result, the branch is also not aware of any engagements with the SSA,” Msibi said.
Letsoalo claims that an attorney in a long-running battle with the RAF over unpaid fees had promised taxi bosses in KwaZulu-Natal millions of rands if they killed him.
Nine bodyguards is excessive ... If there is a threat found, the parastatal will foot the bill — but it can never be nine bodyguards
— Anonymous police source
“The painful part is that my family [has been] put in harm’s way ... because people now know how many bodyguards my family has,” Letsoalo told the Sunday Times. “I have done nothing wrong. There are bodyguards given to ministers, [but] who wants to kill ministers?
“There have been attempts on my life, and the board did a full assessment on everyone in my family. They said that maybe I [was] safe, but not my family, and then they added [more bodyguards]. They had to get an armoured car. They must tell you why they got [it]. Besides, what is the value of my life and [the lives] of my family?”
The whistleblower asked Scopa and the PCOT to investigate “serious misrepresentation of facts and misuse of state resources under false pretences” by Letsoalo.
This is not the first time Letsoalo has claimed his life is in danger. In 2017, when he was acting group CEO at the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), he made the same claim and was provided with bodyguards at a cost of R1m a year.
The RAF process followed in procuring his security has been flagged as irregular by the auditor-general of South Africa (AGSA), Tsakani Maluleke.
“The national audit office confirmed that [Letsoalo’s] fixed-[term] employment contract included personal protection services as a fringe benefit,” said AGSA spokesperson Harold Maloka. “As part of the 2022/23 audit, we found the personal protection service process to be irregular. This finding was communicated to the entity’s management and [included] in their management report.”
As part of his contract, Letsoalo was given a R480,000 fringe benefit for his security. However, the costs associated with it escalated when the RAF added the armoured vehicle and insourced his bodyguards, whose annual salaries range from R750,000 to R850,000.
RAF management and the fund’s board refused to answer detailed questions from the Sunday Times about the cost of Letsoalo’s protection. “The CEO’s security was approved by the board after a detailed risk assessment. Any further details cannot be provided,” said RAF spokesperson McIntosh Polela.
The Sunday Times has seen the allegations contained in the whistleblower’s complaint to Scopa and the PCOT.
Scopa spending probe looms
Scopa this week established a full inquiry into the RAF to investigate allegations of maladministration, financial mismanagement, wasteful and reckless expenditure, and related financial misconduct.
“There [has been] a flood of whistleblower reports, and they have enough detail for us in some cases to notify the SAPS, the SIU and the auditor-general in terms of her current audit,” Scopa chair Zibi said.
“The information we are getting from the RAF is so incomplete and misleading that it is difficult for the committee to get an accurate insight into the affairs of the RAF, [to the extent] that we are [unable] to conduct our oversight role,” he said. “It has now become necessary [for us to] subpoena some of this information. The corporate structure and vacancies are costing the RAF billions [as a result of] unopposed litigation.”
Zibi said there was a lack of capacity at the RAF. The legal department had lost 28 staff members in the last three years, and there was no legal head or head of claims — positions crucial in RAF litigation.
The whistleblower's complaint to the committees followed the drama surrounding Letsoalo’s suspension earlier this month, after he allegedly defied the board’s instruction to appear before Scopa and account to it.
In the complaint, titled “Misrepresentations by RAF CEO Mr Collins Letsoalo to parliament and misuse of state resources”, the whistleblower requested an investigation into Letsoalo’s claims that his life was under threat.
“Mr Letsoalo has constantly made claims, both in parliament and in his high court affidavits, that his life [is] under threat, and that several cases have been opened with law enforcement in relation to these alleged threats. However, upon verification, no such cases exist under his name to substantiate these claims. The only confirmed case [was] opened at Lyttelton police station, [and it] relates to an incident at the RAF’s offices. Importantly, that case does not involve any threat against Mr Letsoalo’s life, [and] nor does it support his narrative of [an] assassination attempt,” the whistleblower said in the complaint.
Letsoalo insisted that the case was related to a direct threat to his life, as he later learnt in January 2023 that the individuals involved were from Denver Men’s Hostel in Johannesburg and were looking for him.
The Sunday Times spoke to at least three sources in law enforcement who deal with risk assessments for politicians and top officials in the government and SOEs. The sources said the procedure that should be followed when a CEO of an SOE is threatened is to report the matter to the police or request a threat assessment from the police or the SSA.
“Nine bodyguards is excessive. The ministers have bodyguards stationed at home and those who travel with them, but it is way less than nine. If there is a threat found, the parastatal will foot the bill — but it can never be nine bodyguards,” said one police source.
Another source in the security cluster said: “Even generals in the SAPS do not have [security details that cost that much]. The cost of having an entourage of Golfs is huge.”
Another source said even when a threat against a minister was detected, the security detail provided never exceeded six bodyguards.
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