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For the past five years, the SA Revenue Service (Sars) has experienced turbulent times.
After the now-discredited Tom Moyane was appointed as the new commissioner, there was a purge of senior executives who were seen to be close to the previous regime.
Moyane, a Jacob Zuma acolyte, destabilised Sars and its revenue collection capacity to such an extent that a huge hole opened in the fiscus.
Moyane created a climate of fear and an environment of uncertainty in which executives were not sure whether they were coming or going.
Read: Judge calls Moyane’s conduct ‘reprehensible and abominable’
Sars spent loads of money and endless hours in courts, defending itself from fired or suspended officials, or conducting investigation after investigation into matters that had nothing to do with revenue collection.
Moyane’s axing paved a way for a clean sweep of the once exemplary institution.
Enter Edward Kieswetter, who was announced as the new boss of the entity this week.
His experience and working knowledge of Sars is a huge advantage.
Key among his challenges when he takes office in May is to bring stability, restore credibility and integrity and focus on increasing revenue collections to help boost the fiscus.
He will have to deal with many detractors along the way as he makes the tough decisions to go after those who dodge their tax obligations – many of whom have deep pockets and can frustrate the service from collecting from them.
Kieswetter’s appointment was nearly soiled by the behind-closed-doors selection process.
President Cyril Ramaphosa received widespread appreciation for making the selection of the National Director of Public Prosecutions a public affair.
South Africa expected this would be emulated in the selection of the heads of all public institutions.
Not doing it in this case was short-sighted. But that horse has bolted.
South Africa must now get behind Kieswetter and support him where we can, monitor him closely and criticise him harshly if he falls short.
