President stares down Moyane
President Cyril Ramaphosa has flatly refused to withdraw his decision to fire Tom Moyane as SA Revenue Service commissioner.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has flatly refused to withdraw his decision to fire Tom Moyane as SA Revenue Service (Sars) commissioner. Moyane will now take the matter to court.
His lawyer, Eric Mabuza, said on Monday that his legal team is working as quickly as possible to take legal action to protect Moyane’s rights.
In his letter to Ramaphosa, Mabuza indicated that he will take legal action to block the president from appointing a successor for Moyane. “We will have to take whatever action that is necessary to protect Mr Moyane’s rights,” Mabuza told Business Day on Monday.
The state attorney says in a terse letter responding to Moyane’s demand to Ramaphosa to reverse his termination of service that it has been advised that the president will not withdraw the notice to Moyane.
Ramaphosa fired Moyane on November 1 after months of back-and-forth with the embattled former tax boss fighting the disciplinary process against him, as well as the Sars commission of inquiry to get to the bottom of a hole of more than R100bn in revenue collection over the last four years, under Moyane’s watch.
Ramaphosa had agreed with a recommendation by retired judge Robert Nugent, the chair of the Sars inquiry, to fire Moyane.
Acting commissioner Mark Kingon will continue in the role until Ramaphosa makes a permanent appointment.
In response to this, Moyane gave Ramaphosa until Friday last week to reinstate him, arguing that his axing is unlawful.
He threatened to approach the courts for urgent relief should Ramaphosa fail to reinstate him to his post.
Before his axing Moyane lodged papers in the Constitutional Court to compel Ramaphosa to halt one of the two processes — the disciplinary inquiry against him or the Nugent inquiry. Ramaphosa, in an affidavit to the court a day after axing Moyane, argued that his application was moot since he had already fired the embattled tax boss.
Business Day understands individuals whose names have been raised to replace Moyane include former auditor-general Terence Nombembe, Sars senior official Hlengani Mathebula, former Sars chief officer Nathaniel Mabetwa, former Sars COO Edward Kieswetter and former deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay.
Kingon’s acting role expires in mid-December.