No foul play in disciplining Vlok Symington‚ says SARS

The South African Revenue Service denies any foul play in the disciplinary hearing of SARS official Vlok Symington who says he is being targeted for being a whistle blower.

In a lengthy affidavit submitted to court the revenue service has denied or disputed nearly every single paragraph of Symington’s affidavit.

Symington‚ a SARS official of 27 years‚ made headlines in 2016 when it emerged he was “held hostage” in a SARS boardroom by Commissioner Tom Moyane’s bodyguard‚ Thabo Titi‚ and members of the Hawks - who were attempting to take back an email trail that landed up in Symington’s hands through error.

Symington recorded the alleged hostage drama on his cellphone.

The email was written by SARS’ own legal adviser‚ David Maphakela‚ saying he would not get involved in charging former finance minister Pravin Gordhan with fraud for “ethical reasons”.

In August‚ Symington brought an urgent application to stop a disciplinary process against him relating to the boardroom hostage drama.

SARS has denied the disciplinary process is a witch hunt against Symington‚ saying the charges related only to “his conduct” in the boardroom with the Hawks and Titi.

Symington has gone to the High Court in Pretoria to demand the disciplinary case be halted.

On Tuesday the court postponed the matter until Thursday after Symington’s counsel requested more time to draft a replying affidavit.

SARS has responded to allegations through an affidavit by Refiloe Mokoena‚ SARS’ Chief Legal Officer‚ who argues that Symington’s application was not urgent as he had “known” for five weeks what charges he was facing.

Mokoena also says Symington’s assumption that he will be fired or suspended at the conclusion of the disciplinary proceedings is speculation.

“The claims made by the applicant…are baseless and not supported by objective facts. It…constitutes an expression of his personal opinion on what the likely outcome might be.”

Symington was not under any immediate threat of suspension‚ Mokoena submitted.

“The applicant is to be disciplined for insubordination or refusal to comply with a lawful instruction‚ for conduct unbecoming in relation to how he conducted himself during the meeting with the Hawk’s representatives on October 18 [2016]‚ using abusive and insulting language directed at Titi and disclosing a recording of the meeting he made to third parties.”

Symington has denied leaking the video he shot to the media.

But SARS also asks for large parts of Symington’s affidavit to be dismissed for containing "hearsay".

Mokoena argued that these allegations bore no relation to “how the applicant conducted himself at the meeting with Hawks’ representatives”.

“When Titi‚ and later Louw [Symington’s line manager]‚ politely requested the applicant to hand back these documents‚ he became obstinate‚ belligerent and uncooperative.”

Later Mokoena added: “It appears that the applicant’s preoccupation with alleged political conspiracies‚ which were not relevant to his job at the respondent‚ coloured and determined how he responded to lawful instructions.”

SARS also vehemently denies it issued any instructions to the attorneys investigating the debacle to “manipulate the investigation and findings so as to target the applicant or find him culpable”.