Wow, Jacob Zuma and Tom Moyane must both be reeling after this spicy takedown.

In a scathing report by The New York Times, reporters Selam Gebrekidan and Norimitsu Onishi went all in on the former president and the South African Revenue Service’s (SARS’) chief.

Specifically, how Zuma and Moyane brought the once lauded SARS into disrepute and betrayed the people who put them into power in the first place.

The whole report sounds like the plot of an elaborate crime novel, detailing SARS’ fall from grace once Zuma and his tax-evading cronies replaced tax commissioner Ivan Pillay with Moyane – an ally of the Zuma family for decades – back in 2014:

Wielding a barrage of fictitious news stories and doctored assertions by one of the world’s biggest auditing firms, KPMG, Mr. Zuma managed to thwart scrutiny into his own taxes, his family’s affairs and his allies’ finances, according Mr. Pillay and three other former senior tax officials who confirmed the account.

Then, the president and his supporters went even further. They used the upheaval at the tax agency to seize greater control over the National Treasury, further enriching themselves at enormous cost to the country, according to government officials now trying to repair the damage.

[SARS], as prosaic as it may sound, had once been an extraordinary triumph, even for the party that helped defeat apartheid. Just a few years after it helped usher in democracy, the ANC switched from liberation to the mundane workings of government and persuaded millions of South Africans to do the unimaginable: pay their taxes …

South Africa’s version of the Internal Revenue Service is perhaps an unlikely setting for a national saga involving spies, spurned lovers, secret brothels, double agents and one of the biggest journalistic scandals of the post-apartheid era.

But the story shows how an increasingly corrupt ANC has undermined its own successes by betraying the very people who brought it to power.

Very scandalous stuff.

And what with all this political drama going on, and President Cyril Ramaphosa “struggling to assert his authority and fulfill his pledge to root out corruption”, South Africans are far, far from happy:

With corruption and political warfare gutting the agency, more and more South Africans have simply stopped paying their taxes, a dangerous turn in a nation where tens of millions depend on government services that are already enfeebled by graft and misrule. In the eyes of many experts, the government’s — and the country’s — ability to right itself is at stake.

The dismantling of the tax agency unfolded in full view of the astonished country, squandering so much of the public’s dwindling trust that officials now wonder how they will be able to restore it.

But wait, it gets juicier.

Ramaphosa has accused the now-suspended Moyane of meddling in the KPMG drama, “misleading Parliament and failing to properly investigate allegations of corruption, money laundering and tax evasion by his own deputy — charges that Moyane is preparing to rebut in court”.

As far as South Africans are concerned, Moyane and Zuma’s antics have tainted SARS to the point that it’s almost impossible to remedy the damage:

“The tragedy is that SARS was a world-class institution,” said Ismail Momoniat, the National Treasury’s deputy director general for tax and financial sector policy. “Tax collection is very critical for nation building, because it’s the kind of underlying foundation for the state.”

Well done, Zuma and Moyane. Thanks for destroying our faith in politics even further.

Now it’s a matter of waiting and seeing if Ramaphosa can hold up to his promise to wipe out corruption, although not everyone is convinced he’ll succeed:

Many are skeptical, contending that [Ramaphosa] did little to prevent his fellow ANC leaders from undermining the tax agency and other institutions during his nearly four years as Zuma’s deputy president.

Okay, that’s sorta understandable.

But our new president doesn’t seem fazed by those people’s doubts:

Yet another inquiry, this one ordered by Ramaphosa, has promised to reveal the real, complete story behind the rise and fall of the tax agency. But it is far from clear whether it will restore the people’s faith in government and persuade them to do what may seem, once again, unimaginable — pay their taxes.

Ja no, that remains to seen, guys.

Let’s just see how this “anti-corruption” gig pans out before we start singing SARS’ praises again.

Read The New York Times’ full piece here.

[source:newyorkytimes]