Pillay defends so-called Rogue Unit
Former South African Revenue Service (Sars) deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay has defended the work done by the High-Risk Investigation Unit - better know as the Rogue Unit.
Pillay was testifying at the commission of inquiry into governance issues at Sars.
Pillay said no formal complaint was ever put to him that the unit’s members went rogue.
He added that between 2011 and 2012 the unit made considerable inroads into both the licit and illicit tobacco industry.
"We closed a number of operations down, some of it is due in the way they do their work," said Pillay.
He sid some of the significant achievements of the unit included the investigation into Czech underworld kingpin Radovan Krejcir and the black market for gold.
"They would also do work that a normal auditor or a financial investigation - [when] they come to a point, and they cannot proceed further. We would hand this over to them to look at."
He told the commission that an investigative unit is essential to run a useful revenue service.
Retired Judge Robert Nugent heads up the commission which was established by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The commission will look into various aspects of the revenue service, including the reasons for the R50 billion revenue shortfall and the staff departures since 2014.