Rogues no longer in vogue for Moyane
It was in the same office building, in the same briefing room, but a very different South African Revenue Service (SARS) commissioner Tom Moyane addressed journalists on the resignation of his second-incharge, Jonas Makwakwa.
Almost a year ago, Moyane addressed journalists on his strained relationship with then finance minister Pravin Gordhan. It was a briefing in which he came out fighting, complaining that Gordhan treated him like a “nonentity” and shouted at him.
Moyane’s combative stance in that briefing resembled his appearances before Parliament’s standing committee on finance while answering questions related to the Makwakwa controversy. It was also reminiscent of his stance on the auditor-general, with whom Moyane was in dispute over the declaration of bonus payments to executives as irregular spending.
In his stance on Gordhan, the finance committee and Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu, Moyane was insistent that as SARS commissioner he was accountable to no one. Of course, this was while Jacob Zuma was still in charge and president of the country and the ANC.
That defiance will come back to haunt Moyane now that Zuma has been removed, along with his pick for finance minister, Malusi Gigaba. According to Moyane’s own logic, the mess around Makwakwa should be laid at his door, given that the buck stopped with him.
Makwakwa’s resignation from SARS was a rather ignoble one after serving in the institution for 22 years. The suspicious and unusual transactions identified in Makwakwa’s bank accounts and that of his partner, KellyAnn Elskie, remain unexplained. The 152% increase in the deposits into his accounts between 2010 and 2015 have not been accounted for, which is especially intriguing for an individual who is a senior executive employed in a fulltime position in a highly sensitive financial environment.
SARS paid international law firm Hogan Lovells to probe the matter, but that investigation did not fare very well for SARS or the law firm, which admitted on the day SARS announced Makwakwa’s reinstatement that it did not in fact investigate the transactions it was commissioned to probe.
This is becoming something of a trend. KPMG was commissioned to investigate the alleged “rogue unit” at SARS, and has since retracted parts of its damaging report and confirmed to Business Day that it refunded the tax agency the R23m it was paid for its “work”. The Makwakwa matter is under scrutiny by Parliament’s finance committee, and the conduct of KPMG’s investigators is set to be probed by the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants.
It was a markedly different Moyane who appeared before journalists on Wednesday. He was almost remorseful. Almost. He still blamed the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) for his failure to act on its report on the Makwakwa transactions.
But this does not explain why he provided both Makwakwa and Elskie with the FIC report before acting on it as the SARS commissioner.
However, Moyane admitting that SARS — himself, given that he is commissioner — could have handled the Makwakwa matter differently is significant. It is comparable to the sudden haste of the Hawks to act on allegations of state capture, particularly over the Estina dairy project.
Moyane was asked whether he still believed that the “rogue unit” existed — allegations he used to cull key individuals from the organisation. His response was telling. In contrast to the certainty with which he pushed this narrative in the past, he squirmed his way out of a direct response, saying the matter was up to the National Prosecuting Authority and it was “premature” for him to come to a conclusion on it.
Wow. That is spectacular backtracking by the man who has pushed this narrative since his entry into SARS in 2014. It was Moyane who laid a criminal complaint against the “rogue unit” in May 2015, which led to the pursuit and charging of Gordhan and others.
Despite this, he could not tell reporters whether he still believed it existed.
The change in political power in SA has certainly changed his attitude.
But it’s too little, too late. Steps to remove Moyane and revitalise SARS are well under way under the Ramaphosa administration. His replacement is being sought and there is talk of an advisory board being put in place to serve as a buffer against potentially errant SARS commissioners.
Once SARS is again governed by an ethical, uncompromised leadership, the allegations over the extent of Moyane’s complicity in Zuma’s state-capture project will emerge.
Resignation or removal should not absolve Makwakwa or Moyane from the damage they have wrought on this key state institution that is meant to serve as the very foundation of our developmental state.
THE CHANGE IN POWER IN SA HAS CERTAINLY CHANGED HIS ATTITUDE. BUT IT’S TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE. STEPS TO REMOVE MOYANE ARE WELL UNDER WAY