Jonas Makwakwa interfered in SARS’s VIP taxpayer unit, with Tom Moyane’s blessing
Former South African Revenue Service (SARS) second in command, Jonas Makwakwa, interfered in the VIP taxpayer unit, until it was shifted to report to him as a result of the restructuring of the tax agency, the commission of inquiry chaired by retired Judge Robert Nugent heard on Thursday. Former group executive for corporate legal affairs Makungu Mthebule described how Makwakwa had an inordinate amount of power in the institution under Moyane, so much so that she complained about his "dictatorship".
Mthebule was appointed to act in former executive Ivan Pillay’s position after his suspension in 2014, a division which also ran the "restricted taxpayer unit", or VIP unit, at SARS. The unit oversaw the taxes of prominent taxpayers, such as politicians, judges, the head of the army, and other prominent persons. She told the commission that Makwakwa would call and SMS her, instructing her to do certain things for certain high-profile and prominent tax payers. The identity of tax pa...
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