Vlok, calm down now

Sixty one and a half million reasons to be angry

View this email in your browser October 27,2020   Hi there "Excuse me… excuse me, I'm being held against my will." Four years ago today, Sars employee Vlok Symington made that plea as he was allegedly detained in a boardroom by the Hawks and then South African Revenue Service (Sars) commissioner Tom Moyane's bodyguard. This occurred during the height of the hunt to pin fraud charges on Pravin Gordhan; Symington had supposedly received an email he shouldn't have seen and had refused to give it up. In the remarkable, some might say unsettling, video that emerged, it appears Moyane may have been kept up to date as the "hostage" situation unfolded. It's worth dredging up this incident on its anniversary because it's important to remind ourselves just how brazen malfeasance has been in our institutions and how we are paying for those sins now. To block someone from leaving, force a document from their hands, all the while telling them "Vlok, kalmeer nou [Vlok, calm down now]", is no ordinary workplace drama. At about the same time, give or take a month, VBS Mutual Bank was being robbed into insolvency. One of the people involved in the alleged wholesale thievery is Limpopo businessman Kabelo Matsepe, who "gratuitously" received R35.4-million from the now defunct bank. This figure was made up of millions in cash and loans. The revenue service also accuses Matsepe of having lied about his income tax and VAT from as far back as 2015. He owes Sars R61 531 311 in income tax and VAT, of which the lion's share relates to penalties due to under-declaration and nonpayment. Read that figure again: R61 531 311.  The assessments in relation to Matsepe's income tax were conducted for the years 2016 to 2018, and his VAT for the period ending 2015 until March 2018 — the month VBS was put into curatorship. September 2016 is the first time VBS money is recorded as having entered his accounts.  Sars commissioner Edward Kieswetter recently told Parliament's finance committee that the tax collector was underfunded by some R800-million, at a time it is rebuilding institutional capacity after years of sprinting with its arms tied behind its back. How anyone can remain calm is beyond us. With journalists continually subjected to misinformation campaigns and threats of violence for bringing these acts to light, we can never allow ourselves to become comfortable in apathy.    Yours in solidarity, Kiri Rupiah & Luke Feltham Copyright © 2020 Mail & Guardian Media LTD, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in to receive communications from the Mail & Guardian either at our website or by taking out a print subscription. Our mailing address is: Mail & Guardian Media LTD 25 Owl St Braamfontein Johannesburg, Gauteng 2001 South Africa Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.