Sars acts to keep Zuma tax files from protector
• Kieswetter seeks court order to keep Mkhwebane away from former president’s information
SA Revenue Service (Sars) commissioner Edward Kieswetter has launched urgent legal action to block public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane from obtaining former president Jacob Zuma’s tax information, an application that will have farreaching implications for the institution’s ability to access taxpayer details.
The legal action is an intensification of the distrust and acrimony that erupted between Mkhwebane and Sars during her investigation into the socalled Sars rogue unit.
Mkhwebane accused Sars of “colluding” with cabinet minister and former Sars commissioner Pravin Gordhan in how they responded to questions she raised about the unit.
Contradicting Mkhwebane’s finding, Kieswetter has stated that he was unaware of any evidence showing that the unit was unlawful.
Kieswetter now wants the high court in Pretoria to urgently stay the implementation of an October 21 subpoena issued by Mkhwebane to obtain Zuma’s taxpayer information, which she is seeking in connection with a November 2017 complaint laid by then DA leader Mmusi Maimane about payments Zuma allegedly received from a security company in the first months of his presidency.
Kieswetter wants the high court to order that Sars officials are permitted to withhold taxpayer information — specifically, “any information provided by a taxpayer or obtained by Sars in respect of the taxpayer, including biometric information”
— from the public protector.
SUBPOENA POWERS
Further, he wants the high court to order that the “public protector’s subpoena powers do not extend to taxpayer information”.
Last, Kieswetter wants the court to order that Mkhwebane personally pay 15% of the legal costs attached to this potentially precedent-setting case, if she chooses to oppose it.
While refusing to provide any further information about the case because it is “sub judice”, Sars spokesperson Sandile Memela insisted that it should not be perceived as an attempt to
protect Zuma. “We are aware of how this may be misconstrued. But it is simply about the Tax Administration Act, that binds us to confidentiality on any taxpayer affairs,” he said.
Mkhwebane’s spokesperson, Oupa Segalwe, confirmed that she had received Kieswetter’s application on Friday, and said she was still deciding how to respond to it.
Kieswetter’s lawyers have asked that his application for a stay of the Zuma tax subpoena be heard on Monday, but it is unclear if that will happen.
At the time of publication, Segalwe had not responded to questions about why Mkhwebane was pursuing the Zuma investigation now, given that Maimane made the complaint just months before Zuma was forced to step down.
The complaint arose from author Jacques Pauw’s claim in his book The President’s
Keepers that the then president had received monthly payments of R1m from Royal Security — a company reportedly owned by his close friend and businessman Roy Moodley.
Citing the provisions of the executive ethics code, Maimane said Zuma was obliged to declare these alleged payments as benefits, and had not done so.
“The only mention in the register of Mr Roy Moodley was the president’s use of Mr
Moodley’s Durban beachfront property in 2016,” Maimane said at the time.
He also said that it appeared Zuma had further breached the executive ethics code by using his position, or information entrusted to him, to enrich himself or improperly benefit other persons.
Maimane said that the former president appeared to have exposed himself to the risk of conflict between his official responsibilities and his private interests, and was paid for work or a service other than his functions as a member of the executive.
Zuma’s lawyers could not be reached for comment.
R1m
the amount allegedly paid to the former president by Royal Security — a company reportedly owned by his close friend and businessman Roy Moodley