By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has welcomed the seven-year prison sentence handed down to one of its employees by the Palm Ridge Magistrates Court – after being found guilty of corruption.
This stems from an incident in which the accused Malatse Kolokoto assisted a traveller to leave the country with goods without proper declaration.
Unbeknown to the officer, the CCTV Footage caught him accepting a bribe to assist the traveller to circumvent the declaration process, which is contrary to the provisions of Section 15 and Rule 15 of the Customs Act.
The traveller was apprehended by a customs official as he was about to leave on an international flight.
He was requested to declare all goods at his disposal whereupon he produced six Rolex wrist watches from his backpack without any declaration form.
He was arrested, which later led to the arrest of the accused.
SARS Commissioner, Edward Kieswetter, commended the honest and courageous customs officer for not only his vigilance but for also facilitating the arrest of Kolokoto.
“True to SARS values of honesty, integrity and acting without fear, favour or prejudice, the SARS Customs Officer resisted to collaborate with criminality or look the other way when one of his fellow officers acted contrary to these values.
“SARS is placed in a position of trust to ensure that the laws we administer are laws scrupulously and diligently implemented, and anyone who abuses this position of trust, deserves the heaviest sentence,” he said.
The embattled tax agency, which has been attempting to turn itself around after years of state capture, has been working to improve revenue collection. Among other things, it has been in an aggressive drive to clean up the service internally and clamp down on smuggling.