We’re happy Moyane is happy, but we don’t know why – presidency

Suspended South African Revenue Services (Sars) commissioner Tom Moyane may be counting his returns before they have hatched, with President Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday downplaying claims by Moyane’s lawyer that he had made Ramaphosa “blink”.

His lawyer may in fact simply be misunderstanding what’s going on.

Moyane yesterday lashed out at “populist blood-letting, personality-driven vendettas and the abuse of power”, injustice, unfairness, verbal insults, wild and unfounded accusations and more.

The extraordinary “poor me” rant, penned and verbalised by his lawyer, Eric Mabuza, painted a picture of a man in a state of wretchedness under attack for simply doing his job.

When pressed for comment, Moyane sat mute.

“For his part, commissioner Moyane will continue to maintain his dignified silence and only communicate via his legal representatives, as currently advised,” Mabuza said.

Speaking on the letter to Ramaphosa, dated July 2, Mabuza said had the president not complied with their demands, they would “surely” have gone to court.

“To put it in colloquial terms, the president blinked,” said Mabuza.

“He really blinked and so our demands were very, very direct and very reasonable.

“Probably he got good legal advice to say they should await the outcome of the Bham [Moyane’s disciplinary hearing] inquiry, and we think it’s a very sensible way to deal with the matter. That’s why we commend the president for the stance that he’s taken.”

Moyane had complained about the “gross unfairness” of facing two proceedings simultaneously, bias in the commission of inquiry and the scope of inquiry of both the Nugent commission of inquiry and Moyane’s disciplinary hearing, to be chaired by advocate Azhar Bham on July 21.

“We have always complained that you can’t have two processes. What has happened is that the president has realised that the two processes are in fact one,” Mabuza said.

“He has consolidated the two processes himself. Remember, the president says he appreciates our concern that there are two processes going on. If the president had not appreciated that concern, he would have told us to go to court.”

That’s according to Mabuza’s analysis.

In reality, the relevant paragraph in the letter from the office of the state attorney reads: “We point out there are no public hearings scheduled in respect of the commission of inquiry until August 2018. Nor are there any hearings scheduled for your client’s disciplinary inquiry, save for that on July 21, 2018. There can therefore be no prejudice to your client if the outcome of the hearing before Advocate Bham SC is awaited in relation to this matter.”

Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Khusela Diko said they were happy Moyane was happy. However, he didn’t quite understand Mabuza’s reasoning.

“The president has not made any decision on this matter nor has he halted any of the proceedings,” Diko said. “The hearings will continue as scheduled. The president will await advocate Bham’s views before considering submission made by Mr Moyane’s lawyers.”

Moyane’s disciplinary hearing covers the deterioration in public confidence in Sars, the handling of the Financial Intelligence Centre report on Jonas Makwakwa, potential mismanagement of refunds “which had brought Sars into serious disrepute and potentially jeopardised the integrity of Sars as collector of revenue and adversely affected tax morality among taxpayers”.

The Nugent inquiry has looked at how Moyane’s leadership of Sars almost collapsed the institution, among other things.

– amandaw@citizen.co.za

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