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Pravin Gordhan sucked into Sars saga

Johannesburg - Cooperative Governance Minister Pravin Gordhan will receive a letter this week summoning him to testify at the disciplinary hearing of suspended SA Revenue Service (SARS) deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay, reported City Press.

A senior source within SARS told City Press that if Gordhan declined to appear before the disciplinary panel headed by former chief justice Sandile Ngcobo, then Sars would simply assume he approved of the formation of the tax collector’s allegedly illegal “rogue spy unit”.

The senior source said SARS’ lawyers would write to Gordhan on Tuesday, “demanding a response” to a letter they sent him in March in which they asked him to testify.

Two other senior SARS sources familiar with the matter told City Press the tax collector’s lawyers had been battling to get Gordhan to testify against his former deputy commissioner.

READ: SARS' 'rogue' unit report not given to MPs

A firm date for Pillay’s disciplinary hearing has not yet been set, because nine further charges were added to his disciplinary charge sheet this week.

A charge sheet served on him in early February details 10 charges against him, including corruption, dishonesty and contravening the Sars code of conduct, the Tax Act and the Public Finance Management Act.

In the charge sheet, he is accused of “elevating SARS staff costs with over R106m” and of paying R3m in severance pay to a former head of the so-called rogue spy unit, Andries Janse van Rensburg, to secure his silence.

The determination to drag Gordhan into the SARS mess is an indication of how high the stakes are in this battle.

ALSO READ: Plot to discredit Gordhan with Zuma

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