SARS 'plot to get rid of me'

Former SARS spokesman Adrian Lackay is expected to detail how he was "sidelined" when he testifies before the CCMA today.

Lackay went to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration seeking maximum compensation for "constructive dismissal" after resigning in 2015.

His resignation followed a probe by SARS into his role in a "rogue" investigative unit set up within the tax collection agency in 2005 by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan when he was its head.

Lackay is expected to contend that his duties had been "systematically taken away", making his continued stay at SARS intolerable.

"Other people were given the responsibility to fulfil the role of spokesman and I was sidelined because I was in some way associated with the 'rogue unit' and [accused of] being a loyalist of Ivan Pillay, Johan van Loggerenberg, Gordhan and others," Lackay told The Times yesterday.

The rand tumbled last year when it became known that the Hawks were investigating Gordhan's involvement in setting up the unit.

Gordhan maintained that the "specialised tax unit" operated within the law and the investigation into his actions was politically motivated.

He said it was unfair that people had lost their jobs because of the perception that the unit was illegal.

Pillay, a former SARS deputy commissioner, and former executive Van Loggerenberg, werepart of the unit. They resigned in 2015.

In November, the head of the National Prosecuting Authority, Shaun Abrahams dropped fraud charges against Lackay, Pillay and former SARS commissioner Oupa Magashula related to allegations of wasteful expenditure in respect of Pillay's early retirement.

Last year SARS applied for a court order that some documents Lackay submitted to the CCMA be declared inadmissible.

SARS lawyer Wisani Sibuyi told the CCMA that Lackay could not prove constructive dismissal as "there was nothing intolerable in the workpl ace to necessitate his resignation ".