Former Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) CEO Lucky Montana’s appeal to file an answering affidavit in the R55m tax lawsuit initiated by the SA Revenue Service (Sars) has been dismissed by the Pretoria high court.
The Pretoria high court in July dismissed Montana’s condonation application for the late filing of the answering affidavit. The condonation application did not have the answering affidavit. He failed to file an answering affidavit for more than a year and breached court rules.
After his legal team failed to convince the court to overturn the judgment last week, the hearing will proceed without an affidavit defending Montana in the case initiated by the tax authority for the attachment of his assets.
In its application the tax authority also requests that the MK MP be declared insolvent. Should that occur, it threatens Montana’s job as the law prohibits an unrehabilitated insolvent person from holding public office.
Sars commissioner Edward Kieswetter welcomed the court’s judgment.
“Sars recognises that the vast majority of taxpayers are honest and willing to do the right thing by meeting their registration, filing and payment obligations. Pursuant to Sars’s mandate of collecting all the revenue due to the fiscus, we will do whatever is legally permissible to deliver on that undertaking,” he said.
Montana argued he could not file on time because his lead counsel, Marlini Naidoo, was ill and had to undergo an operation in April 2024. He added that he struggled to obtain certain documents important in the court case.
In dismissing Montana’s initial condonation application, the court said: “Montana’s answering affidavit was due in the sequestration proceedings on April 26 2024. Since then, he has failed to file the answering affidavit or to indicate in papers when it would be filed.
“Either way, the lapse of more than a year since the due date of the answering affidavit is a sufficient indicator that Montana is playing for time.”
It is unclear what Montana’s next legal steps will be.
The legal debacle is pinned on Montana’s debt after Sars conducted an audit of his tax affairs from 2009 to 2019. The audit findings detail income and capital gains he did not declare in the 10 years.
Earlier this month, Sars published Montana’s tax information, citing provisions in the Tax Administration Act that give it a leeway. That was after the MP accused the tax authority of malicious intent in initiating the legal case.
related_articles
