Judge Dennis Davis says Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba's announcement of a judicial commission of inquiry into the South African Revenue Service came as a surprise.
Gigaba made his announcement after SARS was rocked by revelations about poor governance and a lack of independence, but before the report of the three-year Davis tax committee was released on Monday.
The report contains recommendations about how to strengthen the governance and independence of SARS.
Gigaba's announcement "came out of the blue", says Davis.
"I wasn't sure how he was going to react to these issues."
Davis believes an inquiry into SARS with powers of subpoena, which he never had, is necessary.
"If a proper inquiry takes place, it should be welcome."
Gigaba spoke to him after seeing his report.
"He realises that we have done a lot of this work and has agreed that whoever heads the commission would be well advised to talk to us."
Davis feels that "in some ways" he would be the best person to head the inquiry "because I've done all the work. It wouldn't take more than two months to get to the bottom of everything."
However, Gigaba seems "keen on getting somebody else in", he says.
Does this sound like a cover-up in the making?
"You're presupposing there are a whole lot of judges out there who are so executive-minded they wouldn't do a decent job," says Davis.
"That's not true. The vast majority of judges have been heroic. Judge Jonathan Heher was appointed by Zuma to deal with fees and he seems to have done a fairly good job under very difficult circumstances."
Heher reached the same conclusion as the Davis committee - that free higher education would bankrupt the economy.
Davis says it would be "desperately concerning" if Zuma ignored his and Heher's recommendations. But he's not sure he will.
"I am not yet convinced that what they're going to do is simply say 'R40-billion, here we go and to hell with everything else'."
He says his committee didn't investigate the damage caused to SARS by commissioner Tom Moyane because it wasn't part of its mandate, which was to look at tax policy.
Is there any point making recommendations about tax policy - in other words, ways in which more money can be squeezed out of the taxpayer - without first getting to the bottom of why there is a R50-billion revenue shortfall?
Davis says the shortfall cannot be attributed to SARS alone.
For God's sake, even the Queen has got money in a tax haven
— Dennis Davis, tax committee chairman
"At least half has to be attributed to the [economic] downturn. A considerable amount of that has to be attributed to a decline in tax morality, which is caused by increasing allegations of state capture and corruption."
But he concedes that there is a capacity problem at SARS.
"And you're right: what is the point of dealing with tax policy without knowing about that?"
That is why Gigaba's judicial commission of inquiry should be "expedited and done long before the budget is presented [in February]", he says.
He says the destabilisation of SARS and exodus of key officials under Moyane "has got to be a contributory factor". But noncompliance and the amount of taxes being "deliberately withheld" shouldn't be underestimated.
He agrees that noncompliance is related to perceptions about maladministration.
But a "much bigger problem" is corruption among taxpayers.
The "inability or reluctance" of the NPA to bring tax evaders to book exacerbates this.
His recommendations deal with the potential of voluntary disclosure programmes as a source of revenue.
Isn't this a bit naive when SARS doesn't have the capacity to make them work?
He says he has been told by tax experts and financial advisers that the reason the voluntary disclosure programme has not brought in as much as expected is that clients are saying: "To hell with this. Given the amount of money stolen in this country we are not prepared to disclose."
That can't be blamed on SARS, he says.
He can't say to what degree noncompliance is the result of Moyane "because we haven't had the sort of access I would have liked. But even if we had Pravin Gordhan as the commissioner in this climate, I am telling you that there would be serious difficulty. Look at the Paradise Papers. There are significant numbers of South Africans in those papers."
The Paradise Papers, which expose people around the world using offshore tax havens, show that other tax revenue authorities have problems too, he says.
"For God's sake, even the Queen has got money in a tax haven! This is a hugely challenging time."
He says he regrets not being able to investigate the Moyane factor.
"If Mr Moyane would only allow us in I might be able to give answers.
"I would have preferred to have stronger powers so that I could deal with some of these questions."
He says Gordhan, who established the Davis tax committee when he was finance minister, wanted to extend its mandate to deal with new developments at SARS. But then he was fired.
"Thereafter it was extremely difficult to get the sort of data we wanted out of SARS.
"If tomorrow morning we were allowed into SARS to do a further inquiry, we would do it in a couple of months.
"Of course it's frustrating not to have been able to do that."
He regrets not being able to investigate Moyane "because if he has far less to hide than has been suggested then we need people to find that out".
But he says that even if Gigaba's
inquiry gets to the bottom of the mess at SARS it will not lead to greater revenue collection unless other matters are also addressed.
"If you think that without broader accountability or policy certainty
we'll suddenly collect R50-billion, the answer is no."
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