The main players in the SARS hostage drama video

A video clip which emerged this week shows South African Revenue Service employee Vlok Symington being held hostage at the SARS offices in Pretoria.

He is detained against his will as Hawks officials demand that he hand over some documents that were mistakenly forwarded to him.

In the video‚ SARS commissioner Tom Moyane’s bodyguard Thabo Titi appears to block Symington from leaving the boardroom‚ and is also seen to be preventing SARS officials – including Symington’s PA - from entering.

Video posted to YouTube by Sebastien Bogart.

We look at the two main characters featured in the video.

Vlok Symington

Symington is a SARS employee dealing with product oversight‚ legal and policy.

In 2009‚ Symington wrote an opinion in which he stated that there was “no technicality” stopping SARS from reappointing former deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay on a contract basis after an early retirement payout.

That opinion had been used by lobby groups Freedom Under Law and the Helen Suzman Foundation in its application in the Pretoria High Court to set aside the fraud charges against Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan be set aside.

The National Prosecuting Authority announced earlier this month that Gordhan‚ together with Pillay and former SARS commissioner Oupa Magashula will face fraud charges related to the early retirement and reappointment of Pillay.

Last year‚ Symington was in the news when he announced that SARS was investigating names of wealthy South Africans who allegedly stashed millions of rands offshore.

The names came out in a investigation into a tax evasion scheme allegedly operated with the knowledge and encouragement of British multinational bank HSBC via its Swiss subsidiary HSBC Private Bank (Suisse).

Symington said early indications were that the South African account-holders may have utilised their Suisse bank accounts to evade local or international tax obligations.

Earlier this year‚ Symington briefed Parliament on the 1700 South Africans whose names appeared in the Panama Papers‚ the 11.5-million leaked documents that detail financial and attorney-client information for more than 214 488 offshore entities.

The leaked documents came from the Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca‚ with some dating back to the 1970s.

Briefing Parliament‚ Symington said SARS had set up a unit to process the information in what was bound to be a lengthy investigation.

At the time‚ SARS had no idea how much money may have been involved in transactions that could ultimately be linked to South African citizens.

“We are now doing our best to match the rest of the names with the information so that we can start to see what their tax profiles are like‚” he told Parliament.

“It is of course at the moment too early too predict the level of tax avoidance or evasion. You must remember that we do not have amounts‚ or any estimate of the values that are lying in those bank accounts. No-one knows.”

Brigadier Nyameka Xaba

Xaba is the commander of the Crimes Against the State Unit‚ a police unit whose mandate is to investigate cases‚ such as terrorism‚ which could pose a threat to South Africa.

Xaba is the person investigating the alleged existence of the alleged “rogue unit” at SARS.

In August this year‚ the Hawks wrote a letter to Gordhan‚ saying that‚ in 2010‚ he approved the retirement of Pillay with full benefits and also approved Pillay’s reappointment as deputy commissioner at the same cost to SARS as his current package. The Hawks asked Gordhan to meet Xaba for a warning statement on August 25.

Gordhan’s lawyers replied that he would not be able to meet Xaba and that he had no more to say about the matters raised by the Hawks.

Before that‚ Xaba made news when he was tasked with investigating Independent Police Investigative Directorate head Robert McBride in relation to the report he prepared on former Hawks head General Anwa Dramat.

Dramat was accused of involvement in the illegal rendition of Zimbabwean nationals. McBride cleared him.

The case - in March this year‚ Xaba informed McBride that he would be charged with fraud and defeating the ends of justice - against McBride stem from allegations that he altered the report.

Following the screening of the video‚ SARS it would not answer questions concerning members of the Hawks‚ but would conduct a full investigation concerning its employees.

- TMG Digital