Ceasefire between Kieswetter, Mkhwebane over Zuma tax records
South African Revenue Service (Sars) commissioner Edward Kieswetter has managed to temporarily halt the public protector's office from accessing the tax records of former president Jacob Zuma.
Kieswetter launched urgent legal action to block Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane from obtaining Zuma’s tax information after he was accused by the Democratic Alliance (DA) in 2017 of pocketing undeclared money from a security company during his tenure as president.
Last month Mkhwebane issued a subpoena to obtain the former president's tax information, with a deadline set for Wednesday.
After lengthy legal consultations, Kieswetter confirmed during a press briefing in Pretoria that the subpoena was suspended.
"I am encouraged this morning that the parties agreed, endorsed by the courts, that we would not exercise the subpoena as was initially required for me to fulfill tomorrow and that we would both appeal and engage the deputy chief justice.
"The implementation of the subpoena is held in abeyance, which means tomorrow will not take place. I will not have to, as previously required by the subpoena, present myself and present the information as requested and required by the public protector."
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The dispute relates to the Tax Information Act which protects the privacy of all taxpayers.
"The ultimate responsibility for this protection of this info sits with Sars in terms of the authority vested in the act. The essence of the summary of the Tax Administration Act is that it does not allow Sars to provide tax payer information to the public protector.
"If we were to provide the information it would be a fundamental breech of the act," he adds.
The merits of the case is still expected to be argued in court at a later stage.
"In the spirit that this clarity strengthens our democracy the public protector would together with Sars create the space and time for the legal clarity process through the court to indeed take place."
The legal spat intensifies the existing friction between Sars and the public protectors office after a number of public spats relating to the so-called Sars rogue unit.
Soon after the press briefing on Tuesday, Zuma took to Twitter to defend his honour.
