South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan made light of the absence of SARS commissioner Tom Moyane at Wednesday’s Medium Term Budget Policy Statement press conference – where journalists are locked up ahead of the delivery of the speech. It is customary for the SARS commissioner and the SA Reserve Bank to be present. BizNews correspondent and Cape Messenger editor Donwald Pressly reports…
By Donwald Pressly*
Asked by a seasoned journalist why the South African Revenue Service commissioner Tom Moyane was not sitting with the Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan and his team at the lock-up press conference as is customary, Gordhan said simply: “I choose who sits here, why is that of interest to you?”
To a rumbling to those around him, Gordhan added that the SARS staff – apparently which did not include Moyane – were sitting at the back of the Imbizo centre at parliament. “Why don’t you ask where the governor (of the SA Reserve Bank) is?”
Although the governor Lesetja Kganyago – a former director general of the national treasury – had been given a place at the table, he was apparently unavailable. His name plate was taken away ahead of Gordhan’s arrival. But there was no name plate for Moyane.
Gordhan and Moyane have been involved in a spat over the so-called ‘rogue unit’ at the revenue service – a body which Gordhan himself led as commissioner before he became finance minister in 2009 for the first time.
I wonder when Shaun Abrahams is going to charge Tom Moyane for awarding a multi million contract to his nephew?
— Dr Dirk Donkerbal (@dirkdup69) October 19, 2016
It is alleged that Gordhan irregularly allowed a spy unit to operate illegally within SARS. Gordhan, who will appear in court on 2 November 2016 – next Wednesday – facing fraud charges relating to the retiring and rehiring of the deputy commissioner of SARS, Ivan Pillay.
While a range of political parties – including the Democratic Alliance and the Economic Freedom Fighters – have vowed to march on the Pretoria High Court to protest against the charges next week, Gordhan would not comment on that matter. He said his answers to questions on this matter would take him all morning and probably much of the afternoon.
That would mean that he would not be able to present the Medium Term Budget Policy Statement to parliament on Wednesday afternoon. He told journalists to ask the questions about the matter “next week”.
- Donwald Pressly is editor at Cape Messenger.
