Shivambu told to put up or shut up by former SARS exec

Former SA Revenue Services executive Johann van Loggerenberg has told Floyd Shivambu to “put up or shut up” after a series of tweets implying he and his then team at the receiver ‘had blood on their hands’.

“We’ve reached a point where it’s just too easy to point fingers and I’m not going to tolerate it,” Van Loggerenberg told The Citizen after he last weekend publicly challenged the EFF’s second-in-charge to put provide details to the accusations within seven days.

By yesterday, he had still not received a response.

Neither did The Citizen after questions to Shivambu were sent via EFF spokesperson Vuyani Pamba0 on Friday.

“I shall be formally lodging a case with the Saps (SA Police Service), asking them to open an enquiry docket for unknown murders and directing them directly to you to obtain your affidavit on oath,” Van Loggerenberg said in an open letter to Shivambu at the weekend.

The first of the tweets came on 12 August in response to a post from the State Capture Commission on an application to postpone testimony from Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan.

A tweet from Shivambu’s official account read: “Jamnandas has no respect for anyone except himself. He must go and answer why he established an illegal intelligence unit to harass and fight against political opponents. People were killed by the rogue unit and we need answers. He must be summoned to appear or face imprisonment.”

In 2014, then Sars Commissioner Tom Moyane appointed KPMG auditors to probe allegations of a covert unit operating within Sars, on the back of a report penned by advocate Muzi Sikhakhane SC.

KPMG’s probe culminated in another report recommending criminal investigations be instituted into the High-Risk Investigations Unit, which Van Loggerenberg was heading.

The Sikhakhane report has since been discredited and KPMG has in the main retracted its report. An Inspector-General of Intelligence report which had found the existence of a “rogue unit” has been set aside and the 2018 criminal charges against Van Loggerenberg – along with Ivan Pillay and Andries Janse van Rensburg were withdrawn earlier this year.

– bernadettew@citizen.co.za

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