Pillay's Pension Caper

Former SARS deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay’s early retirement on full pension and instant re-employment was arguably not criminal, but it did amount to a devious scamming of state funds and flouted strict rules for state employees

NICO COETZEE, a senior operational specialist in the Human Resources division of the SA Revenue Service, woke early on 9 October 2009 with something on his mind. At 5.57am he sent an email to recently appointed SARS Commissioner Oupa Magashula expressing his misgivings over deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay’s application for early retirement “to provide for his children’s education”. And on top of that, after his retirement Pillay wanted immediate reappointment to his job.

Coetzee, then 61, with 22 years’ service at SARS under his belt, dealt with HR’s most difficult pension cases. He pointed out that in a similar request for early retirement the previous year, Pillay had said “he wished to pursue other interests”. If his children’s education was now sufficient reason to secure approval for his early retirement – and immediate re-employment – “it could be construed that SARS is willing to contribute from its budget an amount of +R340,000 towards the education of his children. [That] may put yourself and the minister in a tight spot,” Coetzee advised Magashula.

The previous day Coetzee had emailed Magashula on the reappointment issue. “It is not unusual that a retired employee is reappointed after retirement in a contract capacity. What may raise some eyebrows in this particular case is that the employee is appointed in the same position he held before his retirement.

“Ordinarily such a reappointment will be to a different and a lower graded position. We had two similar applications for early retirement, both of which were not approved by the minister as he could not find sufficient reason to approve (them).”