End of road for Moyane

The Constitutional Court yesterday dismissed former South African Revenue Service (Sars) commissioner Tom Moyane’s application for leave to appeal his dismissal. “The Constitutional Court has considered this application for leave to appeal. It has concluded that the application should be dismissed as it bears no reasonable prospects of success,” the court said. “The court has decided not to award costs.”

On November 26, the Constitutional Court dismissed Moyane’s application to review and set aside the decision to establish the Nugent Commission of Inquiry into Tax Administration and Governance by Sars.

In its ruling at the time, the Constitutional Court said Moyane failed to establish grounds for the engagement of the court’s exclusive jurisdiction. The court said no basis was set out to permit direct access considering that he had other avenues available.

Moyane launched an appeal with the Constitutional Court after President Cyril Ramaphosa accepted recommendations made by the Nugent commission to fire him to restore stability at the struggling revenue collector.

In his appeal, Moyane was supported by ex-president Jacob Zuma who said in an affidavit that he never intended that the Sars commission of inquiry deal with employment issues or with employment contracts.

The former Sars commissioner has denied any wrongdoing and hails himself as the most successful Sars commissioner in the democratic history of the country.

On November 1, Ramaphosa terminated Moyane’s appointment as Sars commissioner after the recommendation made by the Nugent commission that immediate action be taken to forestall any further deterioration of the country’s tax administration system.

In a letter to Moyane, Ramaphosa said that the interim report from the Nugent commission “paints a deeply concerning picture of the current state of Sars and the reckless mismanagement which characterised your tenure as commissioner of Sars”.

“Of further, and in many ways greater, concern is your refusal to meaningfully participate in the Sars commission in order to assist with identifying the root causes of the systemic failures at Sars and ways in which to arrest these,” he said at the time.

Ramaphosa appointed retired Judge Robert Nugent in June to chair the commission to probe allegations of financial misconduct at Sars, including that it led to a revenue collection shortfall of R50 billion between 2014 and 2018 under Moyane.

In the interim report released on October 16, Nugent said it was clear Moyane had no intention of engaging the commission. – ANA

The court has decided not to award costs