Suspended Moyane ready to say his piece
Suspended South African Revenue Services commissioner Tom Moyane is expected to publicly respond to his detractors on Monday. Business Day understands that President Cyril Ramaphosa has not acceded to any of the demands made by Moyane.
Suspended South African Revenue Service commissioner Tom Moyane is set to publicly respond to his detractors at a media briefing on Monday.
Business Day understands that President Cyril Ramaphosa has not acceded to any of the demands made by Moyane, in a response delivered on Friday.
Moyane, through his lawyers, wrote to Ramaphosa asking him to either halt Moyane’s disciplinary process or the governance inquiry into SARS chaired by retired supreme court judge Robert Nugent. He also asked Ramaphosa to recuse Michael Katz from being an assistant to Nugent.
These objections were previously raised before Nugent, but he dismissed them all last week, describing Moyane’s submission as a “disgrace” and “devoid of facts”. Nugent also ruled that he did not have the power to dissolve or disband the commission of inquiry into SARS, because it was appointed by the president.
Moyane’s attorneys later wrote to Ramaphosa, repeating these demands. Sources say Ramaphosa is to make a final decision on Moyane’s request after July 21, when advocate Azhar Bham, who is chairing his disciplinary inquiry, will hear the objection lodged by Moyane to the separate individual disciplinary process against him.
Moyane was suspended in March. The charges he faces include his handling of claims of suspicious and unusual transactions into the bank account of his former second-in-command, Jonas Makwakwa.
Meanwhile, the Nugent inquiry heard evidence that Moyane halted inspections of tobacco factories and his restructuring had resulted in the erosion of SARS capacity and sidelining of senior and experienced staff. This had allegedly contributed to the R50bn hole in revenue collection.