Johannesburg- Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has accused Public Protector advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane of coming up with bizarre and incoherent remedial action in her investigation of the so-called SA Revenue Service (Sars) rogue unit.
In written submissions filed at the Constitutional Court recently, Gordhan said there was no need for Mkhwebane to entertain a complaint filed more than two years after an event had taken place.
He told the apex court that all the complaints against him were more than two years old, and that the matter of the Sars rogue unit was more than a decade old.
On the issue that he inadvertently lied to Parliament about - meeting the controversial Gupta family - Gordhan said complaints had been lodged in October and November last year, when the matter dated back to 2016.
He said: “When asked to identify ‘special circumstances’ upon which she based her decision to investigate the complaints, the public protector failed to identify any rational grounds for her decision, evaded the question and, on occasion, contradicted herself.”
“The law enabled, and, indeed required, Sars to establish an investigative unit to investigate economic crime with tax implications. There is no basis, in fact or law, for the public protector’s finding to the contrary,” read Gordhan’s papers filed on October 18.
He said during his tenure as Sars commissioner he authorised the unit’s establishment in 2007 to crack down on crime generally, and on organised crime in particular.
Concourt will hear oral arguments in the matter next month.