RAF CEO dodges jail

JUDGMENT DEBT: COLLINS LETSOALO AVOIDS 'COERCIVE IMPRISONMENT'

- Roy Cokayne

Fund and its boss 'cannot be singled out' for scheme's failure.

An application to have Road Accident Fund (RAF) CEO Collins Letsoalo sentenced to "coercive imprisonment" because of the failure of the fund to make payment of judgment debts has been dismissed with costs by the High Court in Pretoria.

Advocate Michelle van Antwerpen, on behalf of Scholtz JC and Paul Anton van Aswegan, had applied to declare the failure by the RAF to make payment of judgment debts as being deliberate, contemptuous of the court, and inconsistent with the constitution.

They were seeking, under Section 172 of the Constitution, that the court grant a remedy in the form of the coercive imprisonment of the CEO of the RAF as a result of the failure of the fund to make payment of judgment debts owing to the applicants, which arise from damages claims for personal injury sustained as a result of motor vehicle accidents.

The RAF and its CEO were cited as respondents to the application.

Court's power to forbid imprisonment