Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan says the special investigative unit police are investigating him for setting in SARS up acted within its mandate and it was unfair people lost their jobs because of perceptions that the division was illegal.
"I am not rogue, nor was there a rogue unit," he said in a speech late on Tuesday in Johannesburg.
"It’s unfair, it’s unjust and it’s just plain wrong", said Gordhan, a former SARS commissioner.
Tax officials such as Ivan Pillay, Johann van Loggerenberg and Adrian Lackay had lost their jobs because of concern that they were acting outside their mandate, Gordhan said.
The investigation and possible charges against Gordhan knocked the rand and bonds.
National Prosecuting Authority head Shaun Abrahams said on Monday investigation of the unit is at an advanced stage.
Abrahams last week dropped fraud charges against Gordhan, former SARS commissioner Oupa Magashula and former deputy commissioner Pillay over allegedly wasteful spending related to Pillay’s early retirement.
Pillay, Van Loggerenberg, a former group executive for tax and customs, and former spokesman Lackay resigned from the Revenue Service early last year as the agency was probing the allegedly covert unit.
Lackay has since taken SARS to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration for constructive dismissal.
Gordhan, opposition parties and civil-society groups say the investigation is politically motivated and comes amid a tussle between the National Treasury and President Jacob Zuma over the management of state companies and SARS and the affordability of nuclear power plants the president wants to build.
Bloomberg
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.