ROB ROSE: Makwakwa's return to Sars is as legit as a R9 note ...
This week’s Editor's Note column is free to read. FM has handed Sars an access to information request as the public has a right to know if its second-in-charge got off on a technicality, or how he explains possible corruption
The SA Revenue Service (Sars), which fell R51bn short of its targets this year after axing anyone who dared cast even a sideways glance at its prickly boss Tom Moyane, has welcomed back its second-in-charge Jonas Makwakwa with open arms, after a year’s suspension. Makwakwa is one of the few people with any sort of institutional knowledge left, after Moyane’s purge of Sars staff loyal to Pravin Gordhan in 2014. As one former Sars official puts it: "Moyane needs him at Sars — he’s the only guy left from the old crowd." Moyane evidently wants him around so badly, in fact, that it took him until September last year to even suspend Makwakwa — even though the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) had alerted him four months earlier to R1.3m in "suspicious and unusual cash deposits" into Makwakwa’s account over six years. Pauw’s book also reveals why it was so crucial for President Jacob Zuma to control Sars. Most sensationally, this includes the claim that Zuma was kept on a R1m/month retai...
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