Two senior officials at the SA Revenue Service yesterday became the latest high-ranking government officials whose tenures have been cut short by controversy and criminal accusations. Now questions are being asked whether SARS deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay and Peter Richer, the strategic planning risk group executive, will receive golden handshakes despite leaving the organisation in disarray.Pillay, the taxman's former acting commissioner, and Richter were under investigation for allegedly operating a rogue spy unit within SARS and were to face a disciplinary hearing and possibly criminal charges.With their resignation, all charges have been dropped.They quit just weeks after a string of controversial resignations and suspensions:South African Airways CEO Monwabisi Kalawe resigned two weeks ago after reaching an out-of-court settlement to stop a disciplinary hearing against him. He was allegedly given a golden handshake of six months' salary and pay for leave owed to him;The former head of the Hawks, Lieutenant-General Anwa Dramat, allegedly received a resignation package of R13-million - a R3-million severance package and R60000 month salary until he turns 60 - after he quit last month; andDisgraced SABC chairman Ellen Tshabalala resigned last year amid a storm around her fake qualifications. Questions have been raised about whether she has received a golden handshake.The resignation of Dramat, who was being investigated for his alleged role in the rendition of Zimbabwean political dissidents - in which at least one person was murdered - has embroiled the head of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, Robert McBride, in the matter.McBride, charged with misconduct on Wednesday, is currently suspended for allegedly altering reports about Dramat's involvement in the renditions.The scandals have caused political commentators to warn that the country is facing potential "derailment".Political analyst Mzoxolo Mpolase said though golden handshakes were standard practice in business, "it's worrying when they find their way into state employee contracts. What's worrying is that you can be in an organisation such as Ipid or the Hawks and receive a golden handshake for being fired for incompetence."Though you are being fired you are being rewarded, getting your money's worth regardless of whether you have done a good job or not."Mpolase said the scandals pointed to the politicisation of the institutions: "All these institutions, which rely on neutrality and a level of independence to perform their jobs well, can't perform as they operate on the whims of whoever is in power."He said that since President Jacob Zuma had come to power there had been a greater personalisation of state institutions."It seems to have spiralled out of control, with the impact being that vital duties cannot be carried out by state institutions."Mpolase said people were selected despite their inexperience and ineptitude, and the incompetence was spread through state institutions by the recycling of controversial executives.The director of the Helen Suzman Foundation, Francis Antonie, said the controversies at state institutions seemed to be never-ending and widespread."SARS had built up an extraordinary reputation under the previous head. It was reliable and functional. This exit of senior managers and executives is troubling . It affects the capacity of the state to collect taxes, an important function for SARS, and without those taxes, we can't do very much."But the government says it is "satisfied" with how the ministers of the affected state institutions are handling the problems.Government spokesman Phumla Williams said it was committed to ensuring stability of all state institutions.But experts say the investigations involving the heads of the crime, intelligence and revenue collection agencies paint a bleak picture of the country, with South Africa becoming increasingly unsafe and public confidence in the state at an all-time low.Political analyst Shadrack Gutto said the turbulence would have an impact on the economy."Institutions such as Ipid are meant to have constitutionally enshrined independence, but their very independence is being called into question."Instead of the institutions being strengthened, they were being rendered dysfunctional and unable to build institutional capacity."Once you have weak institutions it is difficult for the public to have confidence in them, especially when we have departed from the founding values of the constitution," Gutto said.A policing researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, Johan Burger, said the public had no reason to believe in the criminal justice system because instead of fighting criminals, the police, Hawks, prosecuting authority and Ipid were "fighting criminals within their own ranks"."What is being shown on a daily basis is that these people cannot be trusted ... They are so busy fighting each other and embarking on criminal activities themselves, or at least acts of dishonesty, that they are no longer able to focus their attention on criminals out there," he said.The DA spokesman on police, Dianne Kohler Barnard, said anything would be done to make scandals disappear, especially when tough questions were asked about things such as Nkandla."What's common among a number of these scandals, especially in terms of Dramat and Pillay, is Nkandla. Dramat wanted the Hawks to investigate the Nkandla scandal and SARS was asking how much the president had to pay in terms of taxes."Days after these questions and demands were made, investigations were launched, with the people suspended. Deals are then made where these people are offered handsome golden handshakes to resign, with all the charges evaporating the moment they do [resign]," she said...