Beleaguered Moyane goes to ConCourt
Suspended Sars commissioner wants court to halt inquiry and his pending disciplinary hearing.
Gordhan ‘was apparently very mean to me upon his return as minister of finance’.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s appointments, decisions, and conduct around the SA Revenue Service (Sars) judicial inquiry were in violation of the constitution and were thus unlawful and invalid, according to suspended Sars commissioner Tom Moyane.
And he wants the Constitutional Court to suspend either the inquiry or his pending disciplinary, or both, and to declare Ramaphosa had breached his oath of office.
This was an expanded version of senior counsel Dali Mpofu’s presentation to the Commission of Inquiry into Tax Administration and Governance at Sars which had said Moyane enjoyed an “efficient and flawless” tenure with an “operational model which was magnificent”.
Moyane also wants the court to declare “the impugned involvement and participation” of Minister Pravin Gordhan “in any one or both of the relevant inquiries to be unlawful, irrational, unconstitutional” and in breach of “the principle of legality”.
This, and more, were contained in papers handed in at the Constitutional Court yesterday.
In his 91-page affidavit, Moyane stuck to his guns concerning the appointment of Professor Michael Katz which he believed was “unlawful and invalid on the basis of a conflict of interests and inherent bias” and “passing the buck, on the part of Judge [Robert] Nugent”.
Moyane based his claim on an amaBhungane article about “how ENSafrica, the law firm where Katz sits as chairperson, helped Christo Wiese with evading R3.7 billion in taxes. ENSafrica and Wiese are now facing a case of tax evasion in the Western Cape High Court”, Moyane said.
The “factual” 30-year relationship between Ramaphosa and Gordhan, “which centrally arises in this application” meant Ramaphosa “must have been aware” there was “deep-seated acrimony, enmity and bad blood between Gordhan and me” and that “Gordhan is hell-bent on my removal from Sars” and had an axe to grind with Moyane [sic].
Gordhan – mentioned 88 times in the document – was apparently very mean to Moyane upon his return as minister of finance, “following an ominous and bizarre twist of political events”, ie President Jacob Zuma’s Cabinet reshuffle in 2015.
Moyane noted he had a recording of Gordhan accusing him of being “cheeky”.