Sars: This is hard to believe

‘Anti-Gordhan camp’ seen to be up to their eyebrows in the brown stuff as alleged attempt to reclaim e-mail from Sars official — apparently sent to him in error — goes horribly wrong The decision to drop charges against finance minister Pravin Gordhan came three days after a memo came to light proving that a legal opinion had been sought from a senior official at the SA Revenue Service (Sars) regarding the payout of former commissioner Ivan Pillay’s pension fund.Vlok Symington, from the legal & policy division, provided a legal opinion in March 2009 about whether Sars was permitted to pay out Pillay and rehire him on a contract basis. According to Symington’s memo from the time, Pillay’s application for early retirement "should be considered together with his application for the minister [Gordhan] to approve the benefit penalty payment by Sars as well as his request for post-retirement contract employment at Sars ".This week the head of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) , Sha...