Moyane tries to reverse axing
Ex-Sars boss banks on Concourt ruling
Axed SA Revenue Service (Sars) commissioner Tom Moyane has launched an urgent application in the high court to reverse his firing and block President Cyril Ramaphosa from appointing a successor.
The embattled former tax boss wants to remain suspended with pay, pending the outcome of an earlier Constitutional Court bid to halt either his disciplinary hearing or the Sars commission of inquiry chaired by retired judge Robert Nugent. Moyane is looking to stall all processes aimed at tackling the deep challenges at Sars since his suspension in March, after Ramaphosa informed him that he had lost confidence in him. Ramaphosa flatly refused to reinstate Moyane in a letter handed to him last week. The former commissioner now effectively wants to stop all processes under way to restore Sars, after his ruinous fouryear reign that culminated in a more than R100bn hole in revenue collection. Evidence before the Nugent commission indicates that Moyane entered into contracts costing a total of R400m with consultants Bain & Company and Gartner unlawfully, with the latter contract benefiting his long-time friend Patrick Monyeki.
Evidence also shows how senior Sars officials were purged and units that were key to the optimal functioning of the tax agency were neutralised.
In his application, Moyane wants Nugent to stop issuing any further interim or final reports. Nugent is expected to deliver his final report on fixing Sars to Ramaphosa by the end of the month. He has, however, asked that the disciplinary process against him, chaired by advocate Azhar Bham, remain in place. Moyane argues in his affidavit that the Nugent commission ‘‘strayed out of its terms of reference’’ in recommending his removal.
Nugent had stressed before the inquiry that his recommendation is related to the ‘‘management’’ of the institution and not the issues under consideration in the disciplinary process against Moyane.
In his affidavit, Moyane seeks to poke holes in Nugent’s interim report, which recommended his removal. Moyane wants the matter heard before a full court, with November 27 the date set down.