Categories: Opinion

What reputation, Moyane?

Tax boss Tom Moyane has no grounds to sue KPMG for reputational damage after the auditing firm withdrew parts of its flawed Sars “rogue unit” report.

Moyane himself is damaging Sars’ reputation. Why sue a company, not for making a mistake, but for admitting the mistake? Moyane’s adherence to the erroneous report is suspicious.

The report was used to nail Moyane’s nemesis, former finance minister Pravin Gordhan. And Moyane wants Gordhan punished.

This column recently showed that Moyane has ties to the Guptas and to Duduzane and Jacob Zuma (“Next: No confidence in taxman”, August 9).

Moyane recently authorised a R70 million payment to the Guptas. He was in Dubai at the same time as the Guptas and Duduzane. An omniscient spider in the Zupta web. The Zupta brand is toxic.

Ask former UK reputation management firm Bell Pottinger. Poisoned by the Guptas, they went belly-up. Just as the ironically named disease Sars (the coronavirus) was once feared in Asia, the Gupta name is contagious to commerce.

No one can be sure KPMG will survive the current scandal. Internationally, KPMG helped absorb former accounting giant Arthur Andersen, which collapsed amid criminal charges in the 2001 Enron debacle.

There is no corporation big enough to survive noxious Gupta-style infestation. We know that South African banks, plus the Bank of China and Baroda Bank of India, want nothing to do with the Guptas. But the stench goes further.

Alec Hogg at Biznews has compiled a catalogue of 71 companies who have turned a blind eye to Gupta state capture. It is an intriguing list. Shareholders should worry about contagion.

There are jitters at US consultancy McKinsey, which could soon face the attentions of the US Department of Justice and the Securities & Exchange Commission. Remember, it was US authorities who toppled Sepp Blatter’s corrupt Fifa empire.

If the US gets serious, it’s game over for the Zuptas. No more sheepish jokes about Shaun Abrahams, the coward who is supposed to be our National Director of Public Prosecutions.

It may be unfair to single out Abrahams. He is but one among scores not bold enough to do the right thing and bring Zupta crooks to justice.

While demise seems ineluctable, the list of casualties brought down by the #GuptaLeaks e-mails remains top heavy with corporate figures, plus a handful of officials, including possibly a director-general. Not good enough.

Justice demands that politicians, too, must be held accountable and jailed. Moyane’s legal threats against KPMG are hollow. The last thing he wants is for any of this to go to court.

Judges and advocates will tear his implausible arguments to shreds.

His safest bet is to keep it within the Zupta circle, which includes Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba and, seemingly, ANC MP Mnyamezeli Booi, whose presence at Monday’s Sars press briefing was inappropriate.

After this, Booi can’t be trusted to exercise Zupta-free oversight. He is tainted by televised support for Dubai pilgrim Moyane.

Moyane should realise that, because of Zupta looting, much tax is paid reluctantly. He risks a tax revolt, and multiple legal challenges, if he wastes public funds to defend the indefensible, false “rogue unit” report.