Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Damage control seems order of the day
NEWSWORTHY events this week included the resignation of beleaguered Jonas Makwakwa as the second in charge at the SA Revenue Service (Sars).
During a media briefing on Wednesday, Sars commissioner Tom Moyane said Makwakwa had resigned as chief officer for business and individual tax, citing personal reasons.
He resigns under a dark cloud after he was reinstated by Moyane last year, despite him facing a tax-evasion investigation and serious allegations of suspicious deposits into his personal account.
However, the tables were turned yesterday as daggers were drawn for Moyane, following a news report that he forced an illegal VAT payment of R70 million to the Guptas, embattled former president Jacob Zuma’s friends.
However, Sars seemed to close ranks and rallied behind Moyane, dismissing the allegations against him as malicious, disingenuous and part of the “well-orchestrated agenda” to discredit him.
The revenue service characterised the agenda against Moyane as including a narrative hinging on assumption he was corrupt, a Gupta lackey and must be fired from his cushy job.
Another notable event was the South African Reserve Bank announcing that the VBS Mutual Bank, which shot to prominence in 2016 when it lent Zuma R7.8 million to reimburse the state for the non-security upgrades at his sprawling Nkandla homestead, would be placed under curatorship.
This was after the central bank raised concerns of a liquidity crisis at the blackowned financial institution. The National Treasury had issued instructions to municipalities not to make withdrawals from the black-owned financial institution. However, the municipalities went ahead and drew more than R1 billion from the bank, whose total assets were R1bn, according to its 2016 annual report.
In other news, Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Zweli Mkhize announced that R6bn had been set aside to deal with the drought scourge, which he declared a national state of disaster in terms of Section 27 of the Disaster Management Act. The decision was subsequently published in the Government Gazette.
The National Energy Regu- lator of South Africa also thrust itself onto the news agenda this week when it proposed a 6.84% increase for municipalities.
The regulator said municipalities applying for an increase higher than the guideline should justify their increase to Nersa.
In December, the regulator approved Eskom’s allowable revenue of R190.34bn for the 2018/19 financial year, against the utility’s request for R219.514bn.