My hands are clean, claims Moyane

SARS commissioner Tom Moyane has denied he broke the law by failing to act against senior officials alleged to have received large sums in suspicious payments, saying he was told the Hawks were already investigating the matter when he tried to report it.

Moyane hit back after a week in which video material emerged showing Sars Deputy Director of Law Vlok Symington allegedly being kept hostage by members of the Hawks in the presence of the commissioner’s bodyguard and he was warned in a letter from Corruption Watch it would lay criminal charges against him for failing to act against Jonas Makwakwa and Kelly-Ann Elskie.

Symington has laid a complaint against the commander of the Hawks’ crimes against the state unit, Nyameka Xaba, and colleagues who accompanied him, after they allegedly assaulted him and kept him in an office against his will in an attempt to retrieve an email which had been sent to him by mistake.

The email is believed to contain an opinion from Moyane’s lawyer expressing misgivings about charges against Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan for which he is to appear in court on Wednesday.

This came on top of a letter from Corruption Watch director David Lewis informing Moyane he was obliged in terms of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act to have reported Makwakwa and Elskie to the Hawks after he was furnished with a report from the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) in May detailing suspicious cash deposits into their accounts.

Lewis also said it was unlawful for Moyane to have told the two about the report from the FIC.

Moyane has been accused of sitting on the report until last month, when he finally suspended Makwakwa, who was his second in command at the revenue service, and Elskie.

In a letter to Lewis he said he was aware of his legal obligation to report the matter to the police but, before he could do so and “upon an enquiry”, he was told it had already been referred to the SAPS in early June.

He had given them an opportunity to respond.

craig.dodds@inl.co.za