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Moyane takes his fight to stop inquiries to the Constitutional Court

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Suspended Sars commissioner Tom Moyane during a break in the proceedings of the Nugent commission of inquiry on tax government and administration on June 29, 2018 in Pretoria Picture: Masi Losi/ Sunday Times/Gallo Images
Suspended Sars commissioner Tom Moyane during a break in the proceedings of the Nugent commission of inquiry on tax government and administration on June 29, 2018 in Pretoria Picture: Masi Losi/ Sunday Times/Gallo Images

Suspended South African Revenue Service commissioner Tom Moyane has filed papers with the Constitutional Court to halt both the disciplinary inquiry instituted against him as well as the Sars Inquiry, which is reviewing the governance of the tax collector under Moyane’s tenure.

“This is a multi-pronged application primarily to declare the conduct and/or decisions of the president in connect with his appointment(s) of the Sars commission and the disciplinary inquiry, as well as various issues arising there from, to be unlawful and invalid.”

In his application, Moyane cited the following as respondents: President Cyril Ramaphosa, Minister of Public Enterprises Pravin Gordhan, Sars Inquiry commissioner – retired Judge Robert Nugent – and the chairperson of the disciplinary inquiry, advocate Azhar Bham.

He also cited Nugent’s assistants as respondents: Michael Katz, Mabongi Masilo and Vuyo Kahla.

Moyane said he objected to seven key points in his court papers. These included:

  • The decision to deny him the right to an oral hearing and/or cross examination of witnesses, alternatively to make the right of cross-examination subject to the discretion of Bham;
  • The decision to appoint both inquiries to run concurrently despite representations and requests made to the contrary;
  • The appointment of Katz as a member of the Sars commission despite his disqualifying conflict of interests, of which Ramaphosa “was fully aware and/or the refusal to remove him in the face of several disqualifying factors”;
  •  “The unlawful abdication of the powers of the president” to Gordhan, who is “not legally authorised to act as he did in respect of the disciplinary inquiry” and “who is in any event further disqualified due to his conflict of interests and proximity to the issues as relatively recent commissioner of Sars and his legendary hostile and disrespectful attitude and conduct towards me”;
  • “Violations of the president’s oath of office”.

He also objected to the decision by Nugent, whom he said had threatened to recommend that Moyane be removed from his position.

Moyane was looking to challenge the legality of the decisions made by Nugent and Bham, who dismissed all his objections.

Read: Disciplinary inquiry chair dismisses all Tom Moyane’s objections

Moyane said that: “By any lawful measure or standard, my tenure at Sars was the most successful in the democratic era.”

“For example, I was the first and only commissioner of Sars in the history of the institution to reach the psychological important revenue milestone of R1 trillion and to break that hitherto elusive barrier three times in a row.

“The inaccurate figure of ‘R50 billion shortfall’, bandied about in the media and in the Sars commission, is deliberately misleading. It is based on the unrevised target, when it is common knowledge that the Sars target gets revised every October in the midterm budget, according to economic performance indicators and not according to collection capacity.

“Such performances were particular remarkable given the well-known sluggish performance of the economy in the relevant period, at an average GDP growth of less than 1%. It is an internationally accepted truism of economics that the relationship between growth in revenue collection, all things being equal, is directly proportional to the revenue collection growth. This is known as the tax to GDP ratio, an international benchmark.”

Moyane said that his “record-breaking and unprecedented performances draw certain resentment from, inter alios, those who had failed to collect a trillion rand, notably Gordhan.”

“This is one of the explanations I can gather for the open hostility displayed by Gordhan towards me over a long period of time to date and specifically since my assumption of office as Sars commissioner. I have never had any previous direct dealings with Gordhan prior to my employment as commissioner by President [Jacob] Zuma, with whom Gordhan incidentally also had a hostile relationship.”

He added that Gordhan resented him, perhaps because he “incorrectly” believed that he was the person behind the revelations that Gordhan formed and allowed an unlawful rogue unit during his tenure as Sars commissioner.

Ramaphosa suspended Moyane, who is 65 years old, on March 19, pending disciplinary proceedings.

Moyane was appointed Sars commissioner for a five-year term from September 29 2014 to September 29 2019.

He was commissioner of correctional services between 2010 and 2013 and chief executive of the Government Printing Works from 2005 to 2010.


Justin Brown
Business editor
City Press
p:0117139001
w:www.citypress.co.za  e: justin.brown@citypress.co.za
      
 
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