SARS opposes business rescue for Mpisanes
Agency wants to recover R204m tax
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) wants to liquidate a company owned by the Mpisanes, a flamboyant Durban couple.
Judge Natvarlal Ranchod heard the liquidation application at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria yesterday.
SARS told Ranchod that it was against the plea by Shauwn and S’bu Mpisane that their company Zikhulise Cleaning, Maintenance and Transport should be placed under business rescue.
Advocate Etienne Coetzee, the lawyer for SARS, said the tax agency was asking the court to “dismiss [the] application for business rescue and to place the company under winding up”.
He said placing the company under a liquidator was the only way to investigate Zikhulise’s income.
SARS argued there was a huge discrepancy between the company’s tax returns and income. It sought to recover R204-million Zikhulise allegedly owed in taxes.
Coetzee said SARS had sufficient evidence to support a winding-up, instead of a business rescue. This evidence included that Zikhulise’s management accounts were “inaccurate and unreliable”.
“SARS was critical of the fact that only financials for 2015 are attached [in the company’s court papers],” said Coetzee.
“SARS has made out a significant case to indicate that these financial statements cannot be accepted.”
In January this year, the Durban High Court’s Judge Kate Pillay granted the application SARS sought to extend the preservation order that was originally granted in November last year.
The Mpisanes’ assets held by SARS include 128 cars and 10 properties, including their lavish La Lucia home.
Over the past decade, the Mpisanes secured more than R1-billion in government contracts, predominantly to build low-income houses.
This is not the first time the Mpisanes have battled with SARS. The wife, Shauwn, was in 2011 criminally charged for VAT fraud and forgery relating to the 2008 tax year.
The National Prosecuting Authority controversially withdrew the charges.
The pair are opposing SARS’s latest application.
Ranchod earlier dismissed an application by the Mpisanes to have the matter postponed. SARS argued for immediate hearing.
The matter continues.