‘Bring capturers of Sars to book’

EX-OFFICIAL: ‘SERIOUS CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES’ CITED

Call for action against current and former employees and operatives.

With the controversial 2014 report that spawned the “rogue unit” narrative now set aside, Johann van Loggerenberg has called on the authorities to bring to book those involved in the tax collector’s “capture”.

On Monday, the High Court in Pretoria granted an order, by consent, reviewing and setting aside a report by then inspector-general of intelligence (IGI) Faith Radebe titled Report on Investigation into Media Allegations against the Special Operations Unit and/ or other Branches of the State Security Agency.

It charged there had been an unlawful covert intelligence unit operating at the SA Revenue Service

(Sars) and pointed to a number of Sars officials, among them Van Loggerenberg, then head of the high-risk investigations unit. Van Loggerenberg approached the court last year with an application to have the report reviewed and set aside.

He said at the time the report was “a concoction of lies, disinformation, fraudulent claims and a complete cover-up of evidence and facts that implicate persons associated with the State Security Agency (SSA), its Special Operations Unit (SOU) and other branches, as well as other state intelligence operatives and private entities and persons associated with the ‘services’”.

The minister of state security and the IGI initially opposed Van Loggerenberg’s case against them, but subsequently changed their stances. In a statement issued through his legal team at Werksmans Attorneys, Van Loggerenberg was yesterday “appreciative for the IGI, State Attorney and [department] of state security ultimately doing the right thing”.

He called on the Hawks, the National Prosecuting Authority,

Sars, the SSA and the IGI “to immediately act against current and former employees and operatives, as well as their co-conspirators in the media and private security companies and the tobacco industry, that [Van Loggerenberg] and others substantively and directly implicated in very serious criminal offences and the advancement of rogue activities that undermined Sars”.

The former head of enforcement at Sars, Gene Ravele, also welcomed Monday’s court order. Ravele was interviewed for the Radebe report but said afterwards that what appeared in the report was not a true reflection of what he had said. “There needs to be a lesson learnt from all this,” he said yesterday. “That the truth shall always prevail and that the court of public opinion doesn’t matter.”

He said the case highlighted how crucial it was for the authorities to investigate whistle blower claims properly. “It’s sad that as a country we had to travel this journey that led to the lives of innocent people being destroyed,” he said. –