Fixing Sars now that Tom Moyane is almost history

‘The day Tom Moyane took office was a calamity to the South African Revenue Service.” This was the hard-hitting statement by judge Robert Nugent, who leads the commission of inquiry into the near collapse of the revenue service under the command of Moyane. Nugent has taken the extraordinary step of recommending the immediate removal of Moyane, even before his commission finalises its report, and while Moyane is under suspension. This, said the judge, was out of concern that Moyane’s continued association with the revenue service damages it even further. Moyane has wrecked a very important and once very capable institution and must depart.

When he took over at Sars about four years ago, Moyane found an institution that was not perfect but one that was effective and feared by tax dodgers and other unsavoury characters. Coming in without any experience in managing tax affairs, he proceeded to dismantle this capable institution. He instilled fear in the organisation, and destroyed specialist units such as the Sars large business centre that monitored tax compliance by big business. He also did away with units such as the one dedicated to investigating the illicit tobacco market, an industry rife with tax dodgers.

This is how Nugent summed up the beginning of Moyane’s reign of terror: “Almost immediately, and then continuously for the next 18 months, Sars was thrown into turmoil, with tragic consequences for the lives of many people, tragic consequences for the reputation of Sars and tragic consequences for the country at large.”

Moyane showed outright antipathy towards the Nugent commission from the moment it began its work. He appeared before it only once, and has since threatened legal action. He has every right to approach the courts and seek whatever relief he thinks is due to him. However, he cannot try to erase history. His tenure at Sars was a reign of terror, he was the worst commissioner in the post-apartheid history of Sars and he deserves to be shown the door, no matter what his protestations to the contrary.

Sars has missed three revenue targets under Moyane and suffered a R50bn revenue loss in 2017 alone. Evidence before the commission suggests that the erosion of capacity at the institution is partly to blame for the first VAT increase in SA in two decades.

Now that Moyane is almost history, it is time that we rebuild this important institution, which, according to acting Sars commissioner Mark Kingon, is left with an “executive leadership … broken and unstable and wrecked by division and mistrust”.

To his credit, Kingon is slowly working towards undoing the damage caused by Moyane.

He has apologised to the nation and the president for how the institution deteriorated to that point.

Kingon has made important strides since taking over in an acting capacity. He is reinstating the large business centre. Other dedicated units that Moyane discontinued are back doing the important work that was interrupted. Kingon has told Nugent that if he could, he would rehire all the 200 experienced executives and other staff members that Moyane got rid of.

Sure, Kingon is making a play for the top position and it will be up to the president to decide to make him permanent or seek a commissioner elsewhere. But now that we are moving beyond the Moyane era, we need to reflect not just on what went wrong at Sars but again cast our eyes over the gross excess that was broader state capture. We need to take stock as a country and create the necessary safeguards that will protect us and our public institutions from being sullied by characters such as Jacob Zuma, Moyane, the Guptas and their ilk. This country can ill afford a repeat of what we’ve been through over the past nine years.

We need to take stock as a country and create the necessary safeguards