SARS Rogue Unit – Secret Official Report Revealed

The SARS ‘rogue unit’ trial is scheduled to resume on February 14. Noseweek has uncovered a secret report by the Inspector-General of Intelligence that once more puts the spotlight on that murky affair.

The secret intelligence report into the “rogue unit” at the South African Revenue Ser-vice has been kept under wraps for more than four years. Why, when asked about it, did then Minister of State Security David Mahlobo try to fob off media inquiries with a red herring?

In August 2014 Mahlobo instructed Inspector-General of Intelligence Faith Radebe to probe media allegations that rogue spooks from the Special Operations Unit (SOU) of the State Security Agency (SSA) had attempted to destabilise the Revenue Service. Mahlobo promised to make Radebe’s final report public.

However, the 62-page report has remained classified “Secret”. But Noseweek is finally able to reveal its contents. Up to now, there have only been muted hints: in December 2014 TimesLive ran a brief but intriguing note by Mzilikazi wa Afrika and Piet Rampedi speculating that the Inspector-General had recommended criminal charges “against at least four senior SARS officials”.

The only official indication of advocate Radebe’s findings came on 5 May 2015 when minister Mahlobo told a pre-budget press briefing that the Inspector-General of Intelligence (IGI) had found no wrongdoing on the part of State Security Agency operatives. “There is no issue about (SA Security Service) rogue elements trying to destabilise the South African Revenue Service,” he said.

Mahlobo only came out with this inconclusive snippet because 12 days earlier Adrian Lackay, SARS’s former press spokesperson who had resigned in a fit of pique that February, put out a statement through the DA revealing the opening portion of the testimony of the controversial unit’s leader Johann van Loggerenberg to the secret investigation.