CAPE TOWN, March (ANA) - South African Revenue Services (Sars) Commissioner, Tom Moyane, on Wednesday announced the resignation of senior tax officer Jonas Makwakwa after he was cleared of charges of misconduct.
Makwakwa, who was the chief officer for business and individual tax, resigned with immediate effect after working at Sars for 22 years.
Moyane said he was doing so for personal reasons and would make all his personal tax statements available for scrutiny.
"He regards this as being an opportune moment to exit Sars after being cleared of all the allegations of misconduct through a formal disciplinary hearing," Moyane said.
Makwakwa was suspended and investigated over suspicious payments into his bank account. The payments were red-flagged by the Financial Intelligence Centre in 2016, and Moyane was forced to suspend Makwakwa after this was reported in the media.
In November last year, he was cleared of all charges and given the go-ahead to return to work. Opposition parties objected strongly to his reinstatement.
Recently he faced fresh allegations of conflict of interest after NICS was appointed as debt collectors for the revenue service, and Moyane said it was when he put these to Makwakwa, with the intention of suspending him, that he announced that he had already decided to resign.
Media reports have said that Makwakwa irregularly participated in the tender adjudication process in which NICS clinched the contract, despite an ongoing criminal investigation into alleged money-laundering involving himself and the company in respect of R400,000 paid to him.
- African News Agency (ANA)
