Pretoria - Warning statements were taken from former SA Revenue Services official Ivan Pillay and Johann van Loggerenberg when they spent more than four hours with investigators from the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), or Hawks, on Thursday morning.
However, reliable sources, said no charges were put to the two men in relation to the investigation into a so-called rogue intelligence unit within Sars, nor were they given court dates for possible appearances.
Pillay and Van Loggerenberg, respectively former deputy Sars commissioner and the revenue's services group executive, evaded questions from a big media contingent waiting outside. Robert Levine, counsel for the pair, however made a brief statement. “My clients wish to thank civil society for the support.
“My clients consider the allegations to be baseless. They will be following due process in accordance with their rights. Thank you and that is all we are going to answer now,” said Levine before walking away with Pillay.
Pillay and Van Loggerenberg said Levine's statement was sufficient. The former Sars senior officials entered the Hawks offices in Visagie Street before 9am and only emerged after 1pm.
Outside the offices, scores of rights activists waited in a show of solidarity. Renowned human rights lawyer George Bizos said the abuse of criminal prosecution as a means to target certain individuals in South Africa was a major cause for concern.
“We're concerned because people are being unjustly involved in criminal prosecutions which we know are not valid,” Bizos told reporters.
“We're concerned about the future of justice and law in South Africa. (Retired Constitutional Court) Judge Johann Kriegler and I, and many others like the Helen Suzman Foundation fought apartheid for many years. We're concerned at the events of the past that are being repeated now.”
Bizos said he had joined the protests at the Hawks office to show support for Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, who is also part of the focus of the long-running Hawks investigation but refused to heed a summons to report to the unit's headquarters at 2pm on Thursday.
“We stand by the minister of finance (Gordhan). We hope that the people of South Africa will also stand by him and this prosecution will need to be nipped in the bud,” said Bizos.
Other activists supporting the former Sars officials included Mark Heywood of Section 27, a public interest law centre, Francis Antonie, director of the Helen Suzman Foundation and representatives of Right2Know, AfriForum and Corruption Watch.
It a statement on Wednesday, Gordhan said he had no criminal charge to answer and pleaded to be given the space to do his job. The Hawks letter sent to Gordhan said that he was facing three criminal charges, including setting up an investigation unit within Sars, which gathered, collected and evaluated intelligence.
The unit's latest attempt to close in on the trusted finance minister sent the rand to a three-week low and raised fears of repercussions from international rating agencies. Gordhan, Pillay and Van Loggerenberg were instructed on Monday to report to the Hawks on Thursday to receive warning statements “a step that could precede arrest “ on allegations of contravention of two intelligence laws, and in Pillay's case, of the Public Finance Management Act.
A letter sent to Pillay by the Hawks, alleges that he took early retirement at 56 but then saw to it that former Sars commissioner Oupa Magashule contracted him as a consultant to Sars for five years, while he knew that the minister had only granted permission for a three-year period.
Gordhan is the only one of the trio to have commented publically on the investigation. In a statement issued by National Treasury, he said he had been advised by his lawyers that allegations contained in the Hawks's missive to him on Monday were “wholly unfounded on any version of events”.
Gordhan, however, said he would be prepared to assist a “bona fide” investigation by the Hawks to the best of his ability. “I have a job to do in a difficult economic environment and serve South Africa as best I can. Let me do my job,” said Gordhan.
President Jacob Zuma on Thursday again denied that Gordhan was being targeted in a tug of war over public finances.
He did not have the power to stop the Hawks investigation, however “distressing” the fallout might be.
African News Agency