Top judge ‘advised Gordhan on spy unit’
FORMER Constitutional Court justice Zak Yacoob wants the record to reflect that Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan consulted him on the establishment of the South African Revenue Service “rogue unit” while the minister was the tax agency’s commissioner.
Yacoob advised Gordhan that the unit, which has been accused of illegally gathering intelligence and spying on taxpayers, was necessary and that it was not unlawful.
This was revealed by Yacoob at a fundraising dinner organised by the Merewent Justice Network in Durban on Friday. It raised more than R100 000 to pay the legal fees of former SARS officials implicated in what has become known as “SARS Wars”.
These include former acting SARS commissioner Ivan Pillay, who is from Merewent, and former members of the unit Johann van Loggerenberg, Helgard Lombard, Johan de Waal, Andrew Leask, Charl Fourie and Andries “Skollie” Janse van Rensburg.
Gordhan, who attended Friday’s dinner, received a standing ovation and rapturous applause when Yacoob described him as “the best minister in the country, the most honest, the most efficient and courageous minister”.
Yacoob said: “There is a huge debate about whether these units were unlawful. I want to say to you here and now that I have analysed it very carefully and I have discussed it with many people.
“The minister and I consulted with each other — and this may be known publicly now — on these units and I advised strongly that the units are necessary and they were not unlawful.
“The second thing we need to understand is that even if the units were unlawful, there is nothing in law which says establishing these units was a crime, and therefore the Hawks are acting improperly in wanting to prosecute former members of the unit.”
Gordhan is facing claims relating to a possible breach of the Intelligence Act for being involved in the formation of the “rogue unit” a decade ago — but the Hawks’ pursuit of Gordhan is seen as a power struggle between the National Treasury and the Presidency.
Yacoob blamed President Jacob Zuma for the Hawks’ decision to pursue Gordhan and former unit members.
“What is happening now is we have somebody in power who is not honourable, who is not respectful, who is able to exercise power because of control over power and not interest in our country at all.
“He is sending everyone opposing him to the grave,” said Yacoob.
Pillay and others were victims of that “philosophy”, he said.
“And I want to say that I’m happy to go to the grave for opposing Jacob Zuma as he is now.
“And I want to say further that I admired our president immensely, because absolutely I don’t know what happened.”
However, Yacoob said, Zuma’s resignation would not spell the end of South Africa’s troubles.
“Our troubles are not over when our current president resigns . . . the minister will agree completely: even if Pravin Gordhan became the president of this country, we need to organise, mobilise and develop a strong civil society.”
Gordhan has also received backing from the ANC’s head of economic transformation, Enoch Godongwana, who said the claims relating to the tax surveillance unit were politically motivated.