Back in February, the Hawks were on Pravin Gordhan‘s case in an effort to undermine him. It was three months into his role as Finance Minister, and he was on a mission to put a stop to Jacob Zuma’s destructive actions as president.

And then it all went quiet.

But now, you may have noticed, your newsfeed is once again filled with headlines containing the two names.

Enter: #SarsWars Round II

It all began on Tuesday evening when The Daily Maverick reported that Gordhan, along with other SARS officials, were ordered to report to the Hawk’s offices on the morning of Thursday 25 August.

Here’s what they reported:

The Hawks are again circling Pravin Gordhan as well as four SARS officials, former Deputy Commissioner Ivan Pillay, Group Executive Johann van Loggerenberg, Pete Richer, former SARS head of strategic planning, and initial head of the investigative unit, Andries van Rensburg, who have all been ordered to report to the Hawks in Pretoria on Thursday for warning statements.

The threats of criminal action relate to allegations of an alleged “rogue unit” located in SARS. Pravin Gordhan has been in the Hawks cross-hairs since accidentally landing back in the hot seat as Minister of Finance in December.

You want the details on the “rogue unit’? Okay – here’s what The Daily Vox lay down:

It began around 2007:

In his role as SARS commissioner, Gordhan set up an investigative unit known as the National Research Group.

The unit reportedly specialised in infiltrating crime syndicates. It is accused however of numerous transgressions, including illegally intercepting e-mails and phone calls of taxpayers, paying agents from a secret cost centre and conducting physical surveillance and house infiltrations to spy on taxpayers.

The Sunday Times reported that it ran a brothel, spied on top cops and eavesdropped on politicians. However, the newspaper later issued an apology for some of its reporting.

Members reportedly posed as bodyguards for top ANC politicians in a bid to infiltrate the organisation, probed non-tax related matters such as taxi violence and were used to fight business battles on behalf of friends and relatives of senior SARS officials. The unit was also allegedly ordered to follow three top SARS officials in order to find information on them and destroy their careers.

So why is this only being brought up now, in 2016? Well, the unit has since been the subject of three separate probes, but the Hawks are the only ones insisting on continuing with it. Pierre de Vos explained why they might be targeting Gordhan:

Given that Gordhan is seen to be holding the line against state capture by politicians and their powerful backers, suspicions are swirling that the move made this week against Gordhan and other former SARS managers may either be related to attempts by big corporate tax dodgers to avoid paying billions of Rand in taxes, or it may be a ham-handed attempt by powerful politicians and their friends to discredit those who stand in their way of looting the Treasury.

But do the Hawks even have a case? Well, according to de Vos, they don’t because most of the “facts” were discredited:

Many of the ‘facts’ leaked to the media about the SARS investigative unit (most of it published in the Sunday Times) turned out to be false. Moreover, the Press Ombudsman ordered the Sunday Times to retract all stories about its SARS ‘rogue unit saga’ and to publicly apologise in writing to former SA Revenue Service commissioner Pravin Gordhan and the others implicated.

This means that there are no prima facie evidence in the public domain that might counter the perception that the Hawks investigation has a political – and not a legal or factual – basis.

Although Section 3 of the National Strategic Intelligence Act prohibits state departments from gathering departmental intelligence ‘within the Republic in a covert manner’ it does not state that it is a criminal offence to do so.

This means a person who acts in breach of section 3 of the National Strategic Intelligence Act is not committing a criminal offence. It is the equivalent of ordering a Streetwise 2 from KFC – maybe not a wise thing to do, but certainly not a criminal offence.

Yet, once again, the Hawks’ demands have caused the rand to plunge, and Gordhan refused to report to the Hawks’ offices. He released a statement saying just that – as last time the Hawks publicly accused him of ignoring their demand.

I confirm that on 22 August 2016, my attorneys received a letter from the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations (‘the Hawks’) requesting that I present myself at their offices on 25 August 2016, at 14h00 in order that a warning statement may be obtained from me. I am advised that I am under no legal obligation to present myself to the Hawks as directed in their letter.

I have decided not to do so.

BOOM. Go, Gordhan.

[source:mg&thedailyvox&ewn]