Zuma backs Moyane in Cyril fight
Nugent stepped outside mandate
Former President Jacob Zuma has backed up axed Sars commissioner Tom Moyane’s legal challenge to his dismissal in the Constitutional Court. Zuma has given sworn evidence that he never intended that the Sars commission, which recommended Moyane be fired, should “deal with employment contracts of individual employees”. President Cyril Ramaphosa fired Moyane earlier this month, after Judge Robert Nugent – who has headed the Sars commission into tax maladministration – submitted an interim report, recommending that the suspended commissioner be dismissed, for the good of Sars and South Africa.
In a four-page affidavit filed at the Constitutional Court yesterday, Zuma says “it was never my intention or within my contemplation that the Sars commission would ever issue interim recommendations before gathering all the evidence”.
He adds: “To that extent, the Sars commission has deviated to (sic) its originally intended purpose”.
“Finally, I also wish to confirm that at all material times thereto, President Cyril Ramaphosa diligently served as my deputy president and he would have been familiar with the most important and relevant decisions made by cabinet and/or the presidency.” Zuma’s submission comes a day after public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan told the Zondo inquiry that the former president had been hellbent on appointing Moyane to lead Sars in 2014. Moyane’s lawyers are expected to apply to cross-examine Gordhan later this week, with the proviso that Moyane will take the stand and address accusations that he was a crucial player in the state capture machinations. Moyane has denied any wrongdoing, and describes himself as the most successful
Sars commissioner in democratic SA’s history – a claim that Ramaphosa has suggested is founded on misrepresentations as well as the deliberate withholding of refund payments to taxpayers. The president has told the ConCourt he fired Moyane to restore faith in the revenue service – and prevent further
catastrophe for the embattled South African economy.
“If the problems facing Sars are not addressed as a matter of urgency, there is a real risk of a further revenue shortfall in the current financial year which would likely result in ratings downgrading by international rating agencies. “This would have catastrophic consequences and must, accordingly, be avoided at all costs.”
“The resolution of the problems currently facing Sars requires the installation of credible and permanent leadership and cannot be achieved while charges of serious misconduct hang over the head of the Commissioner of Sars”. Zuma’s evidence will be used by Moyane’s legal team to bolster their argument that the Nugent Inquiry did not have the authority to make such recommendations. The former President has stressed that the Sars commission was not mandated to deal with employment issues “especially where such contracts were already the specific focus of a separate presidentially-initiated process”. Ramaphosa suspended Moyane in March and initiated an inquiry into misconduct charges against him, but – following Moyane’s challenges to the legality of the Inquiry’s processes – it stalled, pending the outcome of Moyane’s cases against Ramaphosa. Moyane maintains he is innocent of all the charges.