Justify yourself, SARS tells deputy head
THE second in charge at the South African Revenue Service (SARS), Jonas Makwakwa, was asked this week to explain why he should not be suspended after suspicious payments into his bank account.
Makwakwa has allegedly received about R1.2m in “suspicious and unusual payments” since 2010, according to weekend reports.
The disclosure in the Sunday Times is set to further dent the integrity of the tax body, which has been rocked by scandal since 2014.
Business Day understands that SARS commissioner Tom Moyane received a report on the payments in May and first asked Makwakwa on August 31 to provide written reasons why he should not be suspended.
It is understood Makwakwa was asked this week to provide reasons orally, stating why he should not be suspended.
Asked on the sidelines of the Business Day/ Financial Mail investment summit whether he was aware of the report, Gordhan said he had met Moyane on Monday, but had not known about it before.
He declined to elaborate.
The handling of the matter is in stark contrast to the resignation of former SARS commissioner Oupa Magashula.
Magashula resigned after an internal inquiry into claims that he had offered a young woman a job without following procedure.
SARS did not respond to questions on the Makwakwa issue e-mailed to it on Monday. Spokesman Sandile Memela said the agency would respond at the “appropriate time”.
The Sunday Times reported that Makwakwa,
SARS chief officer for business and individual taxes, had received “unexplained” cash deposits and bank transfers amounting to R1.2m between 2010 and 2016.
Deposits of R450,200 had also been made into his girlfriend’s bank account in December 2015, the report said.
The information was contained in a report from a banking regulator and relies on bank records and camera footage from banks in which the deposits were made.
The suspicious deposits, according to a section of the report from the banking regulator, required investigation to determine whether they were the proceeds of crime or money laundering so that appropriate criminal action could be taken.
A total of 75 cash deposits amounting to R785,130 were made into Makwakwa’s personal account between March 1 2010 and January 31 2016, it said.
A total of 48 of these payments amounting to R726,400 were deposited between 2014 and 2015.
The report said the volume and the amounts of the deposits were “highly unusual” because Makwakwa was permanently employed.
It said the payments should be probed to ascertain whether they constituted payments from the proceeds of corrupt activities or other forms of crime as defined in the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act 12 of 2004.
The document also details suspicious and unusual “payments” traced through various accounts and companies to Makwakwa totalling R480,000.
A payment of R200,000 was made to Mercedes-Benz for Kelly-Anne Elskie, reported to be Makwakwa’s girlfriend.
The report goes further, detailing unusual deposits into Elskie’s account.
Between December 22 and December 24 2015, three payments amounting to R450,200 were deposited into her personal bank account in two payments of R160,000 and one of R130,200.
These deposits were made over a period of three days into three branches of the same bank within a 10km radius of each other.
Makwakwa could not be reached for comment on his cellphone on Tuesday.