Gordhan ‘waited too long’
CO-OPERATIVEGovernance and Traditional Affairs Minister Pravin Gordhan waited too long to refute allegations of a rogue spy unit within Sars, and only did so once his record as the former head of the revenue service was directly called into question, the DA said yesterday.
“He waited an extremely long time to say anything. When his reputation was on the line, he decided to speak. He should have said something sooner,” said Dion George, the party’s spokesman on finance.
George said that Sars’s reputation had suffered irreparable harm as a result of the row over its intelligence unit and this was “a very bad thing for democracy”, noting that the departure of two senior officials last week did not resolve the situation but raised more questions.
Clean house
He also asked why, if commissioner Tom Moyane was trying to clean house at Sars, and had evidence of wrongdoing by Ivan Pillay and Peter Richer, respectively former deputy commissioner and head of the service’s strategic planning unit, he did not press criminal charges against them.
Gordhan was dragged into the protracted battle between Moyane and Pillay last week when he was asked by lawyers for Sars to help prepare for a disciplinary hearing against his former deputy, Pillay.
It was reported that he was also warned of the need to discuss his role in setting up the covert unit and approving an early retirement package for Pillay. Furthermore, should he fail to respond, they would go to court and ask for his sequestration to recover the cost of the package.
A deal was struck between the revenue service and Pillay and Richer late last week. They left the service in accordance with a confidential agreement, and disciplinary charges were withdrawn.
On Sunday, Gordhan issued a statement saying he rejected and resented the aspersions cast on his integrity.
“This is unacceptable and must not go unchallenged,” he said.
He insisted that the “establishment of an additional unit within the enforcement division was entirely legal”.
Gordhan went on to say that after he left Sars to serve as finance minister, he held regular meetings with the management team at the revenue service and received general performance reports.
He said there was clear evidence that Sars’s enforcement capacity had ensured that billions of rands reached the state’s coffers.
He stressed that during this time, Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene was his deputy.
Nene in February established an advisory commission headed by retired Judge Frank Kroon to look into the ructions at the service. A fortnight ago, Judge Kroon concluded that the existence of the intelligence unit had been unlawful. He did not call Pillay or Richer as witnesses, and based this finding on an earlier report by a panel which found that the unit was not lawful. – ANA