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AmaBhungane, Financial Mail launch court bid to access Jacob Zuma's tax records

Investigative journalism non-profit amaBhungane and business magazine the Financial Mail have lodged a joint application in the North Gauteng High Court to access to the tax returns of former president Jacob Zuma.

The papers were filed on Tuesday. 

This comes after the Financial Mail in February 2019 unsuccessfully tried to access Zuma's tax records for the years between 2010 and 2018 by filing a Promotion of Access to Information Act, or PAIA application.  

The two organisations, in a joint statement, said the PAIA application and a subsequent appeal were denied by the SA Revenue Service on grounds of taxpayer confidentiality, and the fact that the PAIA excludes tax information from its public interest considerations.

Financial Mail editor, Rob Rose, said in a statement: "We believe the existing legislation to be unconstitutional, as it prevents us from obtaining information on the tax status of senior members of the executive – like former president Jacob Zuma - accused of serious crimes, including being tax delinquent. It restricts our ability to disseminate this vital information to the public."

Warren Thompson, a journalist at the Financial Mail, writes in a founding affidavit that "serious and credible evidence exists that former President Zuma's tax affairs were not in order while he was president".

"It has been alleged that he evaded tax, received income from sources other than his presidential income that he did not disclose, and that he received various fringe benefits that he did not disclose," he said.   

The application references the book The President's Keepers by Jaques Pauw, which alleged that Zuma did not submit tax returns for the first seven years of his presidency, among other allegations.

It also references the findings of Nugent commission of inquiry into the SA Revenue Service, and evidence presented before the ongoing judicial commission of inquiry into state capture

Tax Admin Act 

The SA Revenue Service did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The tax agency has repeatedly said that, according to section 69 of the Tax Admin Act 2011, it does not share or divulge confidential information on taxpayer affairs.

The revenue service launched an urgent court bid to stop Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane from accessing Zuma's tax records as part of a probe, citing taxpayer confidentiality.

Zuma, meanwhile, tweeted from his personal account on November 12 that "if the Public Protector wants to see my SARS records she is free to do so. We should not make the job of the Public Protector difficult. If she wants my records, she must have them."

Karabo Rajuili, advocacy co-ordinator at amaBhungane, said in a statement that the "tax status of presidents and other holders of high office is of manifest public interest".

"The public may rightly ask, if the president does not pay his taxes or fails to disclose all income, why should they?"

Dario Milo, a partner at Webber Wentzel attorneys, who is representing the two organisations, said they were not seeking "blanket access to the tax records of the general public".

"The modification we are seeking to the law will allow an information officer in certain, specific cases, and under the prescripts of PAIA, to grant permission to the public, including the media, to access the tax records of senior government officials accused of wrongdoing, and in turn, will give journalists the freedom to report on it."

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