Former SARS chief officer resurfaces at BURS
Innocent Selatlhwa | Tuesday March 22, 2022 06:00
Makwakwa resigned from his position as Chief Officer, Business and Individual Tax (BAIT) at SARS just before he could be suspended from his position for the second time in 2018.
He has since been appointed as Advisor to BURS Commissioner-General, Jeanette Makgolo, while his consultancy business is contracted for audit services at the tax agency.
According to sources, employees at the state of the art BURS headquarters are uneasy with Makwakwa’s presence despite the fact that he was never found guilty of any crime.
“The job he is doing could have been offered to Batswana, but he was directly contracted with no explanation as to why him,” a source said.
According to the source, Makwakwa’s company African Tax Academy has been given a consultancy job that local companies could have competed for. Insiders say the company offers consultancy services for the Large Tax Audits department at BURS and it is said the company rakes in over P600,000 from the tax operator monthly.
According to leaked documents, Makwakwa’s monthly rate is P84,800, the highest earner is one Dr Peter Frank Mpinganjira who pockets P91,000, while the lowest earner in the team gets P45,900 per month.
A Google search on Jonas Makwakwa, pops up dozens of corruption allegations against him. In September 2016, the South Africa’s Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) submitted a report to SARS containing serious allegations against Makwakwa.
The then SARS commissioner, Tom Moyane would then suspend Makwakwa pending an independent investigation into the allegations.
Renowned international law firm Hogan Lovells was appointed to probe the matter. Makwakwa was not found guilty and would return to work in November 2017.
Makwakwa would then resign from his position in March 2018. Speculation was rife on why Makwakwa left and Moyane would brief the media about it.
“I wish to announce that Makwakwa has resigned this morning from his employment with the SARS as the Chief Officer: BAIT. Makwakwa’s resignation is effective immediately as of March 14, 2018, at 11am. I would like to briefly explain the chronological sequence of events that has led to Makwakwa’s resignation. Before I do that, it would be prudent to state that in his letter of resignation, Makwakwa has indicated that he is resigning for personal reasons. He regards this as being an opportune moment for him to exit SARS after being cleared of all the allegations of misconduct through a formal disciplinary hearing, and after making the investigation report into allegations of impropriety against him, and his personal tax information available to Parliament for scrutiny and public accountability,” Moyane said.
Moyane went on to share about the 2016 criminal investigation by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) under DPCI inquiry 3/06/2016 against Makwakwa in respect of allegations of corruption, money laundering and racketeering; and recent allegations of impropriety against Makwakwa in respect of the selection and appointment of New Integrated Credit Solution, a debt collection agency.
On the selection and appointment of New Integrated Credit Solutions (NICS), Moyane said: “As I understand the allegations, on March 13 and 14, 2018, the media widely reported that Makwakwa irregularly participated in the tender adjudication and appointment of NICS by SARS, notwithstanding the ongoing criminal investigation by the DPCI into allegations of corruption and money laundering involving Makwakwa and NICS together with other entities in respect of payment of over R400,000, paid to Makwakwa. These allegations are currently being investigated by the DPCI based on the FIC report of May 2016. As I understand the allegations, Makwakwa was conflicted as he failed to declare a potential conflict of interest, acted dishonestly, failed to act fairly and failed to recuse himself from the adjudication as the circumstances duly required,” he said.
In June 2020, Public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane closed a complaint by Makwakwa into alleged abuse of process during a SARS probe of his financial affairs in 2017. The public protector found that the issues he complained about were unsubstantiated.
In his complaint to the public protector Makwakwa charged that the probe by Hogan Lovells and PwC into his tax affairs was irregular and the sharing of his banking and tax information constituted a violation of the Tax Act.
“The reasons for closure [of the complaint] is on the basis that the issues were unsubstantiated,” Mkhwebane said.
In November 2018, President Cyril Ramaphosa fired Moyane who had been suspended. This followed the recommendation made by the SARS Commission chaired by Justice Robert Nugent that immediate action is needed to forestall any further deterioration of the South African tax administration system.
In a letter to Moyane, Ramaphosa said that the interim report of the Nugent Commission “paints a deeply concerning picture of the current state of SARS and the reckless mismanagement, which characterised your tenure as Commissioner of SARS”.
At the time of Moyane’s suspension in March 2018, it was said concerns were about how Moyane handled the matter of Makwakwa’s resignation, “His treatment of the report given to him by the Financial Intelligence Centre, and his failure to immediately report this to the Minister of Finance.”
When contacted for comment, BURS General Manager Communications, Mable Bolele denied knowing any Jonas Makwakwa who was doing business with the tax agency. She would, however, later on, respond to a questionnaire from The Monitor.
“We wish to state that we have engaged a company called Africa Tax Academy of which Makwakwa is one of the directors. We are, however, unable to make any further comments regarding his appointment or the alleged corruption case,” Bolele wrote.
“We wish to state that contracts between BURS and all service providers are treated with the utmost confidentiality. Please note that due process was followed when appointing the company.”