Johannesburg - ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe has expressed concern over disruptions at the SA Revenue Service (Sars) in an interview with Beeld newspaper published on Monday.
“An institution like Sars should be above suspicion, because this is the country's income collector,” said Mantashe, in a quote translated from the Afrikaans daily.
“If there is disruption at such an institution then anyone can think it was created deliberately. The quicker the problems there get figured out the better for the country.”
Mantashe's comments come as Sars deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay faces a second suspension in almost as many weeks.
Sars commissioner Tom Moyane announced Pillay's suspension on December 5, along with strategic planning and risk group executive Peter Richer.
Richer's suspension notice was later withdrawn while Pillay successfully fought his in the labour court; only to get another notice on Friday.
The developments are apparently linked to an “unconstitutional” intelligence unit appointed in 2007 to investigate a range of people, from taxi hitmen to cigarette and abalone smugglers and politicians.
A Sunday report said the intelligence unit over which Pillay was again facing suspension was far from being a “covert” or “rogue” unit and that its appointment was at the time approved at the highest levels of government and established in partnership with the National Intelligence Agency.
Reports have listed people whose names came up in these investigations, including President Jacob Zuma's nephew, mining boss Khulubuse Zuma. The unit was also said to have looked into Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir and convicted drug dealer Glen Agliotti, who testified against fraud-convicted ex-top cop Jackie Selebi.
Soon after news of Pillay's first suspension broke, reports suggested that he insisted the ANC pay customs duty on T-shirts imported from China for the elections earlier this year.
He also apparently commissioned legal advice on the tax implications of multi-million rand improvements to Zuma's Nkandla home in KwaZulu-Natal. - Sapa