Sars says sorry for two-year wait to tackle gorilla of a problem
● The South African Revenue Service (Sars) has apologised to staff for dragging its feet after a complaint of racism against a senior manager who used a toy gorilla in her address to black staff.
Acting Sars commissioner Mark Kingon wrote to the staff on Tuesday, his last day in the position before new commissioner Edward Kieswetter took over.
Kingon apologised that it “took a newspaper to expose the deep hurt and damage done to people’s dignity”.
Last week, the Sunday Times reported that Susan Fourie, a data-analytics executive, had produced the stuffed toy and told black colleagues it was a visual representation of a “gorilla of a problem”.
Fourie faces disciplinary charges of inappropriate behaviour and contravention of the Sars code of conduct. She is still at work.
The gorilla incident took place in August 2017. It was reported two months later and wasn’t investigated until a hearing in April.
Kingon said in his letter: “We should have acted far quicker and more decisively, even as we await the outcome of disciplinary procedures which are currently under way.”
He said that everyone had a right to a fair, confidential and impartial disciplinary process, but that Sars “will not tolerate acts of racism and discrimination”. He said it would deal promptly and assertively against breaches in human dignity.
Kingon said a single communication would not undo the hurt caused.
“We have an intensive journey to explore, celebrate and benefit from the many facets of diversity in the Sars workplace. This will take a lot of commitment, hard work, honesty and a willingness to succeed,” he said.
In her responding affidavit to the charges, Fourie, 51, said she had been asked to deal with what had been described to her as a “gorilla of a problem”.
She said: “As a visual representative of the problem, I got up from my chair and within context explained that the gorilla represented for me the nature of the task, the combined problem at hand, and put it on the desk in front of us.
“It was not aimed at any individual and I explained the ‘monkey doll’ [as it is referred to in business practice] in that context.”
Staff in Sars’ trade statistics department told their new manager, Victor Munyama, that the incident had left them disturbed. In a report to the human resources department he said one employee had been concerned by the premeditated nature of the act.
Sars spokesperson Sicelo Mkosi said he could not comment. “Disciplinary procedures against employees are confidential, and deemed an internal matter,” he said.