The Johannesburg Bar Council (JBC) is investigating a complaint against a member of the now dissolved Kroon Committee, advocate Rudolf Mastenbroek, who probed allegations around the so-called rogue unit of the South African Revenue Service (SARS).
In an anonymous complaint to the JBC, it is alleged that Mastenbroek was "severely conflicted" in his role as a member of the Kroon Committee.
The complaint also raises the recent court decision against NPA bosses Nomgcobo Jiba and Lawrence Mrwebi, who were struck off the roll when the General Bar Council lodged an application against them.
The complaint also noted that the General Bar Council and the JBC "should not be selective" in dealing with the questionable conduct by advocates and "more so based on race".
While the complaint is anonymous, it lists Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, former SARS deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay, former SARS investigations head Johann van Loggerenberg and former Sunday Times journalist Pearlie Joubert as "persons affected", who could be contacted for documents and evidence in support of the allegations.
The Kroons Committee, headed by retired Judge Frank Kroon, was set up by former Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene to look into the reports of an alleged rogue unit at SARS, among other issues.
In 2015, the committee endorsed the findings of an earlier probe into the unit, headed by advocate Muzi Sikhakhane, and recommended that criminal charges be brought against those implicated.
SARS subsequently lodged a complaint with the Hawks, which led to the current legal woes faced by Gordhan and other former SARS officials. The City Press reported on Sunday that the Hawks were pressing ahead with investigations and that fresh charges would be laid against Gordhan and the other former SARS officials before Christmas.
However, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), in a statement on Monday, said this was "entirely without merit", adding that the investigation was at an advanced stage but that a decision on whether or not to prosecute would only be taken once the probe was concluded.
A letter from the JCB to Mastenbroek dated September 15 indicates that its professional and fees committee had received a complaint of "unprofessional conduct" against him. He was invited to reply to the complaint within two weeks.
The JCB on Monday confirmed that Mastenbroek had responded and that the investigation was still underway.
Mastenbroek said he was "not going to comment at this stage".
The complaint indicates that Mastenbroek, through an affidavit from a former journalist albeit in a separate matter, had allegedly tried to get damaging stories "falsely implicating Gordhan", Pillay and Van Loggerenberg published prior to his appointment to the Kroon Committee.
The journalist, Pearlie Joubert, in the affidavit said Mastenbroek had approached her in 2013 to "advance negative stories about Gordhan, Pillay and Van Loggerenberg in the Sunday Times newspaper", and did so again in 2014.
The complainant says Mastenbroek was a SARS employee until 2013 and that Gordhan, Pillay and Van Loggerenberg were his superiors at the time.
According to Joubert, Mastenbroek had shared taxpayer information about ANC councilors, a former police deputy commissioner, EFF leader Julius Malema and businesswoman Shawn Mpisane, and that he had knowledge of these matters because of his employment at SARS.
The complaint also states that Mastenbroek had "cast negative aspersions on Gordhan, Pillay and Van Loggerenberg, suggesting that they made underhand settlements with taxpayers, protected ANC officials, made files disappear" and that they were "corrupt thieves".
The complaint says Mastenbroek acted unethically by leaking SARS information to the media while an advocate of the High Court, was biased against the former SARS officials but went ahead and "accepted a brief from the ministry of finance and SARS to cast judgment on them" and participated in condemning the officials without giving them the opportunity to be heard during his time on the committee.
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