The Durban-based tender tycoons get a helping hand from the taxman.
OVER THE PAST EIGHT YEARS, Durban’s infamous bling couple Shauwn and S’bu Mpisane, have tried every conceivable trick to outwit the taxman – from bribing officials and hiding assets, to frivolous court actions – all to stall for time. And it would appear that SARS has been only too keen to help them along.
As previously reported in Noseweek, (noses 103; 125; 150; 195; 204; 205; 208; 209; 211; 213 & 233) SARS has already tried to help the Mpisanes out of trouble by scrapping a criminal investigation and waiving massive tax debt through the swish of a pen in unofficial meetings.
First, in March 2009 Jonas Makwakwa, notorious former Chief Officer at SARS, illegally knocked R13 million off their then R33m tax bill. That was later reversed. Then in 2011/12 Shauwn Mpisane, along with her company Zikhulise Cleaning Maintenance and Transport CC, faced 119 criminal charges including forgery, tax fraud and the under-declaration of VAT where SARS was the complainant. But the taxman made a U-turn in 2013, using what would later be proven as false allegations levelled by the Mpisanes against the lead State prosecutor in the case, Meera Naidu, as a reason to no longer support the prosecution.
The man who took that decision was none other than former SARS head of tax and customs investigations, Gene Ravele (nose233) who told then head of the NPA Nomgcobo Jiba, KwaZulu-Natal's Director of Prosecutions Moipone Noko and the national director of the Specialised Commercial Crime Unit, Lawrence Mrwebi, that “the trial has been rendered unfair”; that “justice will best be served to stop the prosecution” and that “there is no hope of a successful prosecution”.
Denne historien er fra April 2019-utgaven av Noseweek.
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Denne historien er fra April 2019-utgaven av Noseweek.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Lennie The Liquidator Faces R500,000 Defamation Suit
After losing his cool when his fees were questioned
Panel Beater De Luxe
Danmar Autobody and its erstwhile directors get a serious panel beating in court papers. Corruption and theft are said to have destroyed the firm chaired by Nelson Mandela’s eldest daughter, leaving 200 workers destitute and threatening to kill.
Meet Covid Diarist Ronald Wohlman
Ronald Wohlman – EX SOUTH African copywriter, author, and actor – never dreamt that his lockdown diaries, written on Facebook and followed by people all over the world – would become his “life’s work”.
A Picture Of Peace?
Beware: Appearances can be deceptive
Flogging A (Battery-Driven) Dead Horse
Why plug-in vehicles are not all they’re cracked up to be– and, likely, never will be
Everybody Drinks Corona
I am hesitant to go Into the pub today. Not because it’s illegal, but there is a crème colored 1985 Mercedes 300D parked behind the pine tree. This means the devil is inside; that’s what we call Dr. De Villiers. You don’t know whether you will encounter the good doctor with the charming bedside manner or the violent, bipolar bully. The problem is, most of the time, you can never be sure which it is, so it’s best to always keep a social distance.
Never Take A Hypochondriac To A Pandemic
From Ronald Wohlman’s New York Corona Diary
The money train
Transnet in court battle with liquidators of Gupta-linked audit firm over R57m in ‘corrupt’ payments and invoices
‘He's no pharmaceutical genius, he's a vulture'
Pharma con seeks prison release to ‘help find Covid cure’
Bush school – A memoir
OUR SCHOOL WAS IN THE MIDDLE of the bush, ten miles from the nearest town in the harsh beauty of the Zimbabwean highveld. It started life in World War II as No 26 EFTS Guinea Fowl, a Royal Air Force elementary flying training school and I arrived there in 1954, just seven years after it became an all-white co-ed state boarding school.