Gordhan must answer to PP on ‘rogue unit’ allegations following Shivambu’s complaint

Reports of a so-called “rogue-unit” set up by Pravin Gordhan first surfaced in The Sunday Times. These reports were found to be “inaccurate, misleading, and unfair” by the press ombudsman and the newspaper was forced to apologise.

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In 2015, the press ombudsman ruled that the Sunday Times must retract all stories on the “rogue unit saga” and to apologise to Pravin Gordhan as well as others implicated after Gordhan, former Sars deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay, and former Sars executive Johann van Loggerenberg lodged a complaint.

Then, last year, the Nugent inquiry into tax administration, which looked at the situation at Sars, found that the establishment of the unit was in fact legal, with former head of compliance at Sars Gene Ravele testifying that the unit did “important work” in busting criminal activities.

Despite this, the EFF has persisted in clinging to the “rogue unit” theory, including in a long rambling blog post by Shivambu, who also tweeted that the Sunday Times reports about the unit were “truthful” and shouldn’t have been withdrawn.

(Compiled by Daniel Friedman)