Ruling expected on Tom Moyane's application to postpone disciplinary hearing

Advocate Azhar Bham, chairperson of the disciplinary inquiry of suspended SARS commissioner Tom Moyane, will this afternoon rule on an application for postponement brought by Moyane.

The hearing resumed today at the Arbitration Foundation of South Africa's offices in Sandton.

Bham heard arguments from counsel for Moyane and President Cyril Ramaphosa for and against the postponement, in light of a Constitutional Court application filed by Moyane this week.

Moyane is asking the ConCourt for direct access so that it may set aside or postpone either the Nugent Commission of Inquiry into governance at SARS during Moyane’s tenure, or the disciplinary inquiry.

Moyane has consistently argued that having both processes run concurrently is prejudicial to his rights.

Moyane was suspended by President Cyril Ramaphosa on 19 March this year. He faces charges relating to his handling of a damning Financial Intelligence Centre report into cash payments to his former second in command at the tax agency Jonas Makwakwa, making unauthorised bonus payments to SARS management, misleading Parliament, and instructing a SARS official not to co-operate with a KPMG investigation into the SARS High Risk Investigations Unit.

Makwakwa resigned in mid-March following revelations that the roughly R600 000 in cash he had received had come via a service provider to SARS.

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Moyane has denied the charges against him in his ConCourt application calling them ‘unsustainable’.

Advocate Dali Mpofu, on behalf of Moyane, argued as he previously did before the Nugent Commission that it was unfair for the two processes to run at the same time.

Advocate Heidi Barnes, for Ramaphosa, argued that Moyane had failed to prove “incurable prejudice” if the disciplinary process was to continue.

Moyane had many avenues of recourse if he was unhappy with the outcome of the inquiry, she said, adding “we are ready to proceed now."

Bham is expected to provide his ruling at 15.30pm.

* This is a developing story.