Hours before Edward Kieswetter was announced as the new SA Revenue Service commissioner, the EFF said it rejected his appointment and would explore legal options to invalidate his “unlawful” appointment.
The appointment was announced on Wednesday evening in a statement by the National Treasury and takes effect on May 1 2019.
Kieswetter, who is a former Sars deputy commissioner, was a senior executive at Eskom as well as group CEO of Alexander Forbes. He is on Transnet’s board.
During his tenure at Sars, Kieswetter established the Large Business Centre and High Net Worth Individual Unit.
He was appointed following a closed interview process after which a shortlist of candidates was presented to President Cyril Ramaphosa. Six candidates were on the list, including acting Sars commissioner Mark Kingon.
The EFF complained about the “secret” interviews for the top Sars post, saying they went against the principle of transparency.
The party was also concerned that Kieswetter was deputy commissioner when public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan was commissioner.
“Kieswetter was at Sars during the time of the illegal intelligence unit established by Pravin Gordhan to hound political opponents and commit corruption,” the EFF said, referring to the High Risk Investigative Unit, which became known as the so-called rogue unit.
The “rogue unit” claim has been discredited and retired judge Robert Nugent found in his report on Sars that the establishment of the unit was not unlawful.
The EFF said it “will immediately write a legal letter to Mr [Cyril] Ramaphosa and Mr [Tito] Mboweni to demand the disclosure of all processes that were followed in the process of selecting a Sars commissioner”.
Sars has had no permanent head since former commissioner Tom Moyane was axed by Ramaphosa in November 2018 following Nugent’s recommendation.
The new commissioner’s appointment also follows Nugent’s recommendation as the Sars commission of inquiry chair.
The EFF had opposed Moyane’s firing, which it said was done without following “due or fair process”. Moyane took his axeing to court, but was dismissed by both the high court and the Constitutional Court.
He was represented by Adv Dali Mpofu, who is the EFF’s national chairman.
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