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Moyane: Team is targeting criminal syndicates in Sars

Cape Town – SA Revenue Service (Sars) Commissioner Tom Moyane said a team has been established to assist in a police case regarding Sars employees involved in alleged criminal activities.

This is according to a letter he wrote to Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan on Tuesday, after the minister requested clarification on the emergence of the team following reports in the media.

The signed letter, a scan of which was published on Daily Maverick on Thursday, explains that a team was constituted on 15 September after a criminal docket had been opened at the Johannesburg Central police station and a request was made that “Sars be involved to assist in as far as tax matter and the involvement of Sars officials in the alleged activities”.

Other entities that are assisting in the investigation include the SAPS, the National Prosecuting Authority and the Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigations “to look at the involvement of SARS officials in criminal activities”, Moyane explained.

Moyane said the Sars team will conduct a criminal investigation into tax evasion and internal investigations will be conducted and “will be dealt with”.

“Disciplinary cases will be proffered against Sars employees at the same time,” he said. “Criminal matters involving staff will be handed over to the law enforcement agencies.”

“The Sars officials’ mandate is only as far as it relates to Sars employees involved in alleged criminal activities and tax matters,” he said.  “The team operates in Sars offices and are known in Sars that they are targeting criminal syndicates in Sars.”

The last sentence seems directed at the ongoing Hawks investigation into the alleged illegal spy unit that operated at Sars when Gordhan was commissioner.

Business Day has a copy of an internal memo dated September 1, which has more detail on the new team.

“The memo, compiled by acting senior manager Yegan Mundie to Sars chief officer for enforcement Hlengani Mathebula, indicates that the new unit would require two vehicles, a safe house and a ‘secret cost centre’ from which it should be funded to protect its members,” it reported on Thursday.

The investigation comes after Twitter user @espionageSA released documentation in August showing that a security company, FSS, contracted by British American Tobacco, was spying on competitors and who allegedly had police, metro police, and Sars officials on their payroll.

The leaks came ahead of the book written by former Sars employees Johann van Loggerenberg and Adrian Lackay called Rogue: The inside story of Sars’s elite crime-busting unit.

They allege in the book that the narrative of the so-called “rogue unit” came about after the investigating unit got too close to organised crime, in particular the tobacco industry. In a way @espionageSA corroborated this, showing just how involved big tobacco was with law enforcement officials who were allegedly on its payroll.

IN-DEPTH: The man behind @espionageSA

The letter by Moyane comes after Treasury announced on Tuesday that it would be “looking into” the matter.

It followed reports in the Sunday Times this past week that Moyane has a new "rogue" unit, similar to the one which targeted Gordhan.

“The department is in the process of looking into the matter and intends to seek clarification from Sars on the alleged unit. Currently there is no so-called investigation on the matter,” the statement read.

Treasury spokesperson Yolisa Tyantsi told Fin24 that the department had learnt about the unit through the media, on Sunday.

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