Moyane’s mission
Since appointed in 2014, the man close to President Jacob Zuma has set about targeting his opponents. Where does this leave Sars, asks Natasha Marrian
Follow the money — that’s the mantra of tax authorities everywhere. This week the SA Revenue Service (Sars) announced it would be doing just that in a matter involving unexplained cash transfers made by none other than its second-incommand, Jonas Makwakwa.
This latest scandal at the revenue service has once again highlighted the stand-off between Sars commissioner Tom Moyane and finance minister Pravin Gordhan.
Trevor Manuel, asked about the relationship between Gordhan and Moyane, retorted: “Is there a relationship?”
Manuel was finance minister for 13 years, with Gordhan as tax commissioner for a decade of that time. Their relationship, Manuel says, was “structured but very comradely” and based on deep trust.
At the time, minister Manuel would meet commissioner Gordhan and his top officials at least once every two weeks, while the commissioner would meet the president — then Thabo Mbeki — twice a year to brief him, in the interests of transparency, on the tax affairs of all the cabinet ministers.
During that period Sars was also being transformed into a tax authority with a “higher purpose” — to deepen the democratic project and build a relationship of trust with citizens.
But such ideals seem to have crumbled under Jacob Zuma’s presidency. Instead Sars, which once represented the shining light of excellence in the state, appears to have slipped badly in recent months.
Staff who have been hounded out by Moyane in light of the “rogue unit” claims in the last two years talk widely of a “purge” of experienced Gordhan-era personnel, which now threatens the tax authority’s independence and its ability to do its job of collecting taxes. This is particularly poor timing, coming at a time of poor growth in the country when Sars is already likely to battle to hit its target of collecting R1.17 trillion in taxes from the country's citizens.
The bitterness between Gordhan and Moyane reflects the deep antipathy between the pro- and anti-Zuma factions in the ANC. Early last year, Gordhan and Moyane clashed over leaks around the alleged “rogue” intelligence unit at Sars; in an unprecedented move, the commissioner did not attend the minister’s pre-budget media briefing; on Friday, Moyane blamed Gordhan for his own months-long delay in acting with regard to Makwakwa’s allegedly suspicious financial affairs.
Last Friday Sars announced the suspension of Makwakwa, pending an investigation by international law firm Hogan Lovells.
Yet Makwakwa’s suspension only took place thanks to public pressure. The fact is, the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) handed Moyane a report as long ago as May, indicating that Makwakwa should be investigated because it had identified “sus- picious and unusual” transactions amounting to R1.2m deposited since 2010 into his bank account and that of his girlfriend, Kelly-Ann Elskie, who also works for Sars.
The burning question, which emerged after the revelations in the Sunday Times, was why Moyane had sat on the report for so long. Such allegations against a senior official, whose career at Sars began in 1997, were damaging to an institution which prides itself on integrity and transparency.
It also contrasts sharply with Moyane’s swift action over the “rogue unit” where he suspended Sars officials Ivan Pillay and Peter Richer within days of receiving a report on it — and Pillay was not even mentioned in the report by advocate Muzi Sikhakhane.
Clearly Moyane acts fast when it suits him: just five months after