Fat bonus cheque for SARS' Makwakwa

Jonas Makwakwa, recently re-instated as SARS Commissioner Tom Moyane’s right-hand man, received a bonus of R930 000 in the 2016/2017 financial year, SARS’ annual financial statements reveal. In that period, according to a Scorpio report on the Daily Maverick site, he worked for only six months before getting suspended on allegations of corruption and money laundering. The report claims that not only did Moyane sign off on Makwakwa’s bonus, he also did so unilaterally in an act pitting SARS against the Auditor-General. The Auditor-General labelled the move unlawful and indicative of a ‘serious internal control deficiency’ at SARS. The report claims Makwakwa is the highest paid official in SARS with almost R5m in earnings for the financial year 2016/2017. The report says Moyane unlawfully signed off on a R3m bonus to his executive, of which Makwakwa’s was a sizeable portion.