Sars fight on to recover Juju ‘debt’

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) will not rest until deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa is jailed, party leader Julius Malema said. Photo: Nokuthula Mbatha

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) will not rest until deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa is jailed, party leader Julius Malema said. Photo: Nokuthula Mbatha

Published Jun 3, 2015

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Pretoria - EFF leader Julius Malema’s tax woes may not be over, as Sars said on Tuesday it had other legal instruments to recover the “outstanding tax debt” owed to it.

The South African Revenue Service confirmed that it withdrew its application to have the provisional sequestration order against Malema made final and that it was not proceeding with its application to have him finally sequestrated.

It said the decision was taken after weighing up the issues raised by Judge Gregory Wright, sitting in the high court in Pretoria.

As far as Malema is concerned, he owed nothing, claiming that he paid the R7.2 million, as stipulated in the compromise agreement reached with Sars.

Malema said he did not approach Sars to settle and did not withdraw his application because he lost faith in it, as suggested in the media statement by the taxman.

“As the basis of the proceedings before the high court would fall away if the sequestration application were to be withdrawn, it would be a natural consequence that there would be no need for the court to deal with my counter application. I therefore agreed that the counter application be withdrawn. It was as a consequence of Sars withdrawing the sequestration that the counter application was withdrawn.”

He said he had instructed his attorneys to address an urgent letter to Sars claiming that it must withdraw the malicious media statement, failure of which they would urgently approach the high court for an order that the compromise agreement was valid and that he did not owe any debt relating to the 2005 to 2011 tax periods.

It was regrettable that Sars was attempting to undo the events of Monday, he said. “I paid the whole debt. Sars decided to unilaterally withdraw from the compromise, keep the money that I had paid and hold me liable for the original assessments,” he added.

Counsel for Sars argued on Monday that in order to recover his outstanding tax debt, Malema had to be sequestrated. The judge, however, repeatedly questioned whether there were no other remedies available to Sars. “What is the upside in asking for a sequestration order?” the judge repeatedly asked advocate Nic Maritz SC, for Sars.

The taxman vowed to recover the tax debt using the Tax Administration Act, not the Insolvency Act.

Pretoria News

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