Cape Town - The South African Revenue Service (Sars) on Thursday issued a formal denial of a report that it had threatened Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Pravin Gordhan with sequestration if he failed to participate in disciplinary hearings of former colleagues at the service.
It said there was a “distortion of facts embedded in the allegations that Sars has furnished the honourable Pravin Gordhan with a letter wherein Sars bullied and threatened him (Gordhan) with sequestration of his estate, if he fails to cooperate with the now-defunct Sars’ disciplinary proceedings against Mr. Ivan Pillay and Mr. Peter Richer.”
“Sars vehemently denies the said allegations and wishes to place on record that neither SARS nor Commissioner (Tom) Moyane issued such correspondence to Mr Gordhan.”
It went on to allege that Gordhan had responded to requests to participate in the hearing and provide information about the establishment of the unit with repeated questions of clarity, including the name of the person who instigated the process and the role of the advisory panel appointed by Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene, his successor at Treasury.
Sars claimed that Gordhan disingenously only declared himself ready to participate once news broke that Pillay and Richter had reached settlement agreements with Sars.
“It was only on the 7 May 2015, after well published resignations of both Mr Pillay and Richer, which led to the ceasing of the disciplinary processes between Mr Pillay, Mr Richer and Sars, did Mr Gordhan respond by contending that he will partake in the upcoming disciplinary hearing,” it said.
The statement comes five days after City Press reported that current Sars top management had sought to coerce Gordan, the tax collector’s former commissioner, to participate in the hearings related to an alleged rogue intelligence unit which Monyane insists was set up illegally.
Gordhan last Sunday broke his silence in the long-running battle between Monyane and senior staff at Sars.
He rejected “unwarranted aspersions on my integrity” and insisted that the establishment of the intelligence unit had been entirely legal.
“Let me state that I have never approved, as commissioner of Sars, of any illegal activities,” he wrote in the 13-point statement.
It did not mention a threat of sequestration.
Gordhan’s spokesman Dumisa Jele said the minister was unable to comment on Sars’ statement.
ANA