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In 2016, SA Revenue Service top executive Vlok Symington found himself in the midst of efforts to criminally indict then-Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan. He told the State Capture Commission how he unknowingly discovered attempts to hide information from authorities.
On October 18, 2016, senior SARS executive Vlok Symington did not know the importance of the videos he recorded on his phone, but he knew something was wrong.
That same day, his boss said that Hawks officers would visit SARS and that Symington, a legal adviser, needed to write an affidavit in his 2009 memo approving former SARS commissioner Pravin Gordhan’s approval of early retirement. from his deputy Ivan Pillay.
Gordhan was Finance Minister in 2016, but had fallen out of favor with then-President Jacob Zuma, while SARS Commissioner at the time, Tom Moyane, clearly viewed Gordhan as an opponent.
The Hawks and NPA were studying the possibility of filing criminal charges against Gordhan for approving Pillay’s early retirement and for SARS’s so-called “rogue unit” allegedly established during Gordhan’s tenure in the tax authority.
The supposed narrative was clear: Zuma was trying to name an ally to run the Treasury; Gordhan was an obstacle to controlling the public purse; and the accusations against Gordhan related to his time in SARS would be a convenient way to remove the stubborn minister.
On October 18, 2016, the Symington boss gave him a list of questions from the Hawks and NPA, which had been sent to him after the Helen Suzman Foundation learned of their 2009 memorandum on the settlement of the early retirement payment of Pillay.
Hawks officers arrived that morning to collect Symington’s affidavit, but when he returned to request more time at 1 p.m., he found them in Moyane’s boardroom.
A certain Thabo Titi prevented him from leaving. Symington didn’t know it at the time, but Titi was Moyane’s bodyguard. Hawks officers, including Brigadier Nyameko Xaba, wanted to exchange the copy of Symington’s questions for theirs.
They mentioned that the problem was that the Symington copy included multiple emails. Symington, clearly concerned that he was not allowed to leave the boardroom, called 10111, building security, and his secretary for help.
He filmed the saga, including the document’s emails, on his phone. Finally, he saw an opportunity to leave the boardroom, but found the Hawks officers waiting outside.
“Then they physically grabbed my hand, took those documents from me, and left,” Symington told the State Capture Commission on Wednesday, March 24, 2021.
“They were obviously trying to get the emails out of my hands. So they wanted my copy of the letter, which had those emails attached, and they would return the letter to me where the emails were not attached. “
From the videos he recorded, Symington realized that the emails included correspondence from David Maphakela, a partner at the law firm Mashiane, Moodley and Monama, who was advising SARS on the pursuit of criminal charges against Gordhan and his colleagues.
Maphakela had written: “For ethical reasons, I cannot get involved in this as I have a different opinion than the one the NPA and the Hawks are pursuing.”
Symington said: “Not only was my memorandum not officially disclosed by SARS to the Hawks or NPA, but this memo from Mr. Maphakela confirming the legality of Mr. Pillay’s early retirement was also apparently not made available to the Hawks. or NPA or both “.
Essentially, Symington found that SARS had not shared Maphakela’s discomfort in filing the charges against Gordhan with the NPA and Hawks, or that the Hawks and NPA had seen him, but continued to investigate Gordhan independently.
Symington later faced disciplinary action related to the saga, but is still a SARS employee. The NPA’s prosecution of the charges against Gordhan was eventually dropped and the minister and his colleagues have won multiple court cases related to the issue.
Moyane was due to testify Thursday, but his attorneys at Mabuza Attorneys sent a medical note to the commission saying he was ill and unable to appear.
Symington testified after former Bain & Company partner Athol Williams concluded his testimony about the management consulting firm’s role in the restructuring of SARS and former managing partner Vittorio Massone’s plans to benefit from his relationship with former President Jacob Zuma.
Test leader Alistair Franklin SC introduced Williams to an email chain among Bain leaders and stressed that they knew Moyane would be appointed a SARS commissioner months before it happened.
Like several other witnesses who have testified at the commission, Williams asked Zondo to increase support and protection for whistleblowers.
Moyane participated in a Bain management training program before applying for the SARS position, and the company had prepared a plan for his first 100 days in the tax authority.
Shortly after Zuma appointed Moyane in 2014, SARS issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) that was sent to the right companies rather than undergoing an open tender. Bain wrote the SARS RFP, for which he then bid and won. Williams described this as “inappropriate.”
“It is anticompetitive for one of the potential consultants, among others, to be able to effectively write the rules of the game by which they will be judged,” he said.
That contract was supposed to last six weeks, but SARS extended Bain’s contract several times and, according to Williams, he was paid 164 million rand over 27 months.
The commission heard how SARS employees’ concerns about the contract were ignored, while the tax authority allegedly found ways to irregularly extend its deal with Bain.
Bain’s work on SARS allegedly helped justify Moyane’s efforts to weaken the institution’s investigative capacity.
Williams, who resigned months after meeting with Bain in 2019 to help clean up his image, dismissed the company’s explanation of his work with SARS and its emphasis on Massone’s role.
“Bain continually, in the media, internal communications, everywhere, he seems to say to us, to the world, to the public, ‘There was a bad boy, he did his bad things, we didn’t know but don’t worry, we got rid of him. So now everything is fine, there is nothing to see here, ‘”Williams said.
“To say that they came in and are shocked by what happened and were unwitting participants, to me, it just doesn’t match the evidence I’ve seen.”
Like several other witnesses who have testified at the commission, Williams asked Zondo to increase support and protection for whistleblowers.
He said the 18 months since leaving Bain and making the conscious decision to speak up was a “horrible experience.” He went from having a well-paying job as a part-time partner at Bain and Senior Lecturer in Business Ethics at the University of Cape Town, to being unemployed.
“Today as I sit here I am unemployed and as I understand it I am unemployed because it seems to me that corporate South Africa is not interested in people with integrity,” he said.
Williams described an “era of the bully” in South Africa where leaders can get away with it because they are not held accountable.
“Politicians intimidate public officials, public officials intimidate citizens, corporate leaders intimidate their employees and they can do it because there is no responsibility and there are no consequences,” Williams told Zondo.
“We must move from the age of the bully to the age of the brave.”
Earlier in the day, Zondo denied Bain’s request to provide a summary of his affidavits to the commission to counter Williams’ testimony. The company has admitted ethical flaws and has promised to return its fees, but Williams said this was not enough as its global leaders continue to deny knowledge of its work in South Africa, and while the company has not published its research on the matter.
Former Eskom legal director Suzanne Daniels returned to testify Wednesday night, while Symington is due to finish her testimony Thursday. Former SARS executive Johann van Loggerenberg is also scheduled to testify Thursday. DM
