Seasoned investigator among senior officials reappointed as the revenue service rebuilds capacity.
Expert investigator Johann van Loggerenberg has returned to the South African Revenue Service (Sars) almost 10 years after being forced out amid the so-called “rogue unit” saga.
According to News24, two people familiar with the matter confirmed his return, which is part of Sars’s effort to reappoint experienced individuals who left the tax agency during the years of state capture.
Van Loggerenberg declined to confirm or deny his reappointment. He referred Moneyweb to Sars.
Sars spokesperson Siphithi Sibeko said the tax agency would issue a media statement later.
Van Loggerenberg was suspended and later resigned in early 2015 following allegations that he had been part of an illegal intelligence unit within Sars – the so-called “rogue unit”.
Courts and commissions of inquiry have since dismissed “rogue unit” claims as baseless.
Van Loggerenberg had served as group executive for enforcement investigations within Sars’s high-risk investigations unit, which was established to target the illicit trade in liquor, cigarettes and counterfeit goods.
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Rebuilding the institution
News24 quoted Sibeko as saying that many committed and hard-working people who were forced out [during] state capture have returned to Sars, although he did not name individuals.
Sars Commissioner Edward Kieswetter confirmed to parliament’s standing committee on finance that the tax agency had brought back several senior executives after vetting processes. But names were not revealed.
At a senior executive level, five such executives had been reappointed, he told members of parliament.
The Nugent Commission of Inquiry into governance failures at Sars, established in May 2018, found that the then leadership at the tax agency deliberately targeted Van Loggerenberg and other senior staff for removal.
Judge Robert Nugent wrote that the former Sars commissioner Tom Moyane had insisted on a staged photograph with Van Loggerenberg when he resigned so that the exit could be falsely presented as “amicable”.
Later court rulings discredited the “rogue unit” claims, and in 2020 the Gauteng High Court overturned former public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s report, stating that it was without legal or factual basis.
This article was republished from Moneyweb. Read the original here.
