EFF rejects Sars boss interview process

The EFF has questioned the interview process for a new South African Revenue Service boss, calling it “nepotistic” and “corrupt”.

In a statement on Wednesday, the party demanded that President Cyril Ramaphosa and finance minister Tito Mboweni disclose the interview process followed.

Last month an interview panel, chaired by former finance minister Trevor Manuel, was appointed to recommend a name for the new Sars boss to Ramaphosa.

In the statement, EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said the interview process went against the spirit of transparency and openness.

“It has now emerged that the reason [for the secrecy] is that one of the candidates who was interviewed, and favoured by the panel, is a dodgy character called Edward Kieswetter, who is not just a relative of Trevor Manuel, but a close business associate and companion,” Ndlozi said in the statement.

He said Kieswetter was earlier unlawfully appointed by Manuel as deputy Sars commissioner during this stint as finance minister.

“The EFF is profusely opposed to the imposition of a secretly assessed candidate by conflicted individuals, and we will do everything in our power to stop and reverse the appointment of Kieswetter as Sars commissioner,” he said.

He said his party wanted a restart of the process in order for it to be done in public.

“The EFF is particularly concerned about Sars because our election manifesto states that part of our immediate plans when we take over government will be capacitation of Sars so that it can maximally collect revenue,” he said.

He said his party wants a Sars that will fight against “illicit financial flows, base erosion and profit shifting”.

“A secretly chosen Sars commissioner with clear connection to the white capitalist establishment will not maximally collect taxes,” he said.