SARS senior media officials are at each other’s throats as the atmosphere at the revenue collection service seems to deteriorate with each new breaking apparent scandal. With dirty laundry being aired in public almost weekly it is clear that it is growing increasingly difficult for the SARS media team to deploy a suitable and convincing counter-spin cycle.

Daily Maverick has reliably learned that SARS spokesperson Sandile Memela has lodged a complaint against SARS Chief Officer of Strategy, Communications and Enforcement, Hlengani Mathebula. This after Mathebula allegedly called in the media team, including the controversial Luther Lebelo, and accused officials of incompetence.

Mathebula’s tongue-lashing led to Memela’s reporting him to SARS commissioner Tom Moyane who in turn passed the complaint on to HR. Lebelo in turn called in a legal firm to investigate Mathebula.

This latest upset at SARS is taking place in an atmosphere, said one source, of fear and confusion in many departments amid Moyane’s continued restructuring coupled with an exodus of many senior staff members.

On February 1, Moyane sent a memo to SARS staff announcing that the new acting head of legal affairs replacing outgoing Kosie Louw is Advocate Neo Tsholanku. Tsholanku was named in the Public Protector’s State of Capture report as having been part of a team that made a submission to Eskom with regard to awarding a tender to the Gupta-linked company Tegeta. Tegeta is partly owned by the Guptas’ Oakbay Investments, Duduzane Zuma, businessman Salim Essa and a company registered in the UAE.

Tsholanku is the former manger of legal services at Eskom. Moyane’s memo to staff stated that Tsholanku would serve in an acting capacity “while the recruitment process is under way.”

Memela has been tasked with dealing with media enquiries since his appointment in November 1. He formerly worked as spokesperson for the Department of Arts and Culture.

Announcing his appointment at the time, SARS described Memela as “an accomplished journalist who has worked for various media organisations with over 20 years’ experience”.

Approached by Daily Maverick, Memela declined to comment and directed enquiries to SARS media. Mathebula did not respond to an SMS by Daily Maverick. SARS media had not responded to our questions with regard to the allegations at the time of writing.

This is a critical period for SARS. The revenue collection service finds itself at the centre of a tornado ripping through the country’s body politic and linked to allegations of State Capture. The open warfare between Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and SARS Commissioner Tom Moyane erupted soon after Gordhan’s re-appointment in December 2015 and has done nothing to foster any confidence in the revenue service.

Gordhan immediately requested Moyane to halt his extensive restructuring of SARS, a demand the commissioner has chosen to ignore. Gordhan, in several written replies to parliamentary questions, has also hinted at a complete breakdown in communications between Treasury and SARS, telling the DA’s David Maynier that he [Gordhan] could not rely on information given to him by the institution.

SARS has seldom been out of the headlines since the Sunday Times first printed now discredited reports about an alleged covert unit that had been used for various nefarious tasks including the bugging of politicians. The newspaper has since apologised for the reports and they have been withdrawn after the Press Ombudsman found that the paper had violated the press code.

Former spokesperson Adrian Lackay, who had handled media for 11 years before he resigned in 2015, told a recent CCMA constructive dismissal hearing that his working conditions became “intolerable” after the appointment of Moyane.

Lackay explained to commissioner Joyce Nkopane that he believed Moyane had suspected him of being part of the “rogue unit” and had shut him out of all meetings. He had had no option but to resign. Lackay, who won several awards during his time at SARS, is seeking 12 months’ salary in the matter. The matter is continuing.

In September 2016 Moyane’s “right-hand man” and second most senior executive at SARS Jonas Makwakwa was fingered by the Financial Intelligence Centre for moving suspicious amounts of cash (amounting to around R1.2-million) into his private bank account as well as that of his lover and mother of one of his children, Kelly-Anne Elskie.

Corruption Watch SA has lodged a complaint with the Hawks with regard to Moyane’s failure to report Makwakwa’s alleged suspicious activity when he was first alerted to it in May by the FIC. On January 31 Corruption Watch wrote to Hawks head Lieutenant-General Mthandazo Ntlemeza asking about the status of the investigation.

The Hawks have simply ignored Corruption Watch’s original letter sent on October 31, 2016 and the organisation gave Ntlemeza until February 3 to respond.

“If no such information is forthcoming, we will pursue remedies available to complainants in terms of the SAPS Act,” said CW.

The Hawks originally stated that they were not investigating the Makwakwa allegations it was an “internal matter” and SARS had, instead, employed the private firm Hogan Lovells to probe the matter. It has still not released its report.

And as if all of this was not enough, in November last year reports emerged that Moyane had established a new “covert unit” headed by Yegan Mundie and which was ostensibly set up to investigate the tobacco industry while insiders say the unit was meant to “find dirt” on Gordhan et al.

SARS was also caught in a PR nightmare when senior Hawks officials and Brigadier Nyameka Xaba, head of the Hawks’ Crimes Against the State (CATS) unit, held SARS deputy director of law, Vlok Symington, hostage in a boardroom in October last year. This after the Hawks had mistakenly attached an e-mail from SARS own lawyers, David Maphakela, Mashiane, Moodley and Monama, stating that he [Maphakela] could not be involved “for ethical reasons” in a request by Xaba for Symington to provide an affidavit about the circumstances under which he wrote the 2009 memo with regard to former Deputy Commissioner Ivan Pillay’s early retirement.

The Symington memorandum led to NPA head Shaun Abrahams’ withdrawal of charges against Gordhan, Pillay and Magashula, much to the irritation of discredited Hawks head Ntlemeza.

Whereas SARS under the stewardship of Gordhan, Magashula to an extent, and Pillay made headlines for their spectacular successes, not only in collecting revenue but also in chasing tax evaders, SARS at present appears constantly mired in negativity and at loggerheads with the authority to whom it is constitutionally answerable, the Treasury. DM

Photo: SARS Commissioner Tom Moyane (Photo by Financial Mail)