A deep look at Johann van Loggerenberg’s SARS busts
AS SOUTH Africa spiralled into political and economic descent, Johann van Loggerenberg became increasingly embroiled in the sinister dealings of those pulling the strings.
It stood to reason that SARS’s “super sleuth”, a former undercover police officer renowned for his by-the-book approach, would become the target of smear campaigns and character assassinations.
Taking on some of the most unsavoury elements in society, many of which were aligned with the highest powers in the land, carried with it an inevitability that the reputation of investigators would be tarnished as the perpetrators colluded.
This culminated in extensive media coverage of SARS’s so-called “rogue unit” that allegedly developed within the shadows. It is alleged members of this unit spied on the now-disbanded Scorpions and National Prosecuting Authority.
Many views on this case, which is ongoing, are contained in Van Loggerenberg’s previous book,
In this offering, he seeks to highlight some of the most high-profile cases he and SARS’s myriad teams investigated during the course of his 16-year career with the revenue service.
is not so much a tell-all account as it is an attempt to explain to the reader the processes involved in probing persons of interest, and how prosecutions and convictions are highly dependent on co-operation among the respective security agencies.
Van Loggerenberg has set out a wide range of cases to prove that his investigations were by no means restricted to those of political influence but rather, that for most of SARS’s 15 000 employees, no-one is above the law.
His role in going after businessman Barry Tennenbaum, who concocted the biggest Ponzi scheme in the country’s history, is fascinating, as it also explains the break-down of collaborative efforts in crime-fighting in South Africa at the time.
“One thing that frustrated the hell out of me was the lack of pace of some of the officials from the other agencies – we started off by having weekly progress meetings, and sometimes found the various role-players to not have done what they’d undertaken to do within set and agreed time frames,” he writes.
Van Loggerenberg also attempts to clear up his run-ins with Julius Malema, much-publicised due to the “Commander in Chief ” being sworn in as an MP.
Van Loggerenberg’s diatribes about SARS’s virtue in building a nation by bringing tax offenders to book can be annoying at times. That there are no holy cows for the organisation should mean holier-than-thou attitudes are cancelled out, but the author constantly reminds the reader of SARS’s benevolent “tax activism”.
That being said, one cannot forget that at the end of the day Van Loggerenberg is also human. Being so often in the public eye, on many occasions having to defend himself against slander and libel orchestrated by those he seeks to bring to justice, would take its toll on anyone, and he could be forgiven for taking a “fight fire with fire” approach.