Fate of whistleblower from Sars still in balance

Vlok Symington, the senior SA Revenue Service (Sars) legal expert who claims he was held hostage by Sars commissioner Tom Moyane’s bodyguard and members of the Hawks last year, will have to wait until next week to hear if his disciplinary hearing will proceed.

Judge Hans Fabricius reserved judgment in the High Court in Pretoria late yesterday in Symington’s urgent application to stop his disciplinary hearing and to protect him as a whistleblower against what he believed was his imminent dismissal.

Symington asked the court to declare complaints he made to the Independent Complaints Directorate (Ipid) and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) as protected information.

Symington signed off on an internal memorandum in 2009 that led to the NPA’s withdraw- al of criminal charges against former finance minister Pravin Gordhan.

He claimed in papers Sars, Moyane and the Hawks were aware of the memorandum, but deliberately hid it from the NPA and that they were involved in a conspiracy to manipulate the investigation against Gordhan and then deputy Sars commissioner Ivan Pillay.

Moyane denied in papers he had laid criminal charges against Gordhan or that he was aware of Symington’s disclosures to Ipid and the NPA.

But Symington said both National Director of Prosecutions Shaun Abrahams and former police minister Nathi Nhleko had stated that Moyane had, in fact, laid the charges.

Symington claimed he was the victim of a witch hunt.

He accused Moyane of instigating disciplinary charges against him in revenge for his role in having the criminal charges against Gordhan withdrawn.