The South African Revenue Service (Sars) on Thursday denied the resignation of one of its top-executives, Franz Tomasek.
HuffPost SA reported on Tuesday that Tomasek, group executive for policy and research, and Vusi Ngquluna, group executive for debt collection, had both handed in their resignations. All tax collection offices in the country report to Ngquluna, while Tomasek is considered Sars' foremost expert on international tax treaties, policy and systems.
Sars has since confirmed Ngquluna's resignation but denied that of Tomasek's.
The Huffington Post SA apologises for the error.
HuffPost SA also reported about the resignations of Elle-Sarah Rossato, who was in charge of a specialised legal and debt management team within the enforcement unit, Vusi Ngcobo, who was posted in Beijing and has left to take up a position with Afghan customs, as well as one of the institution's top investigators, Asham Khan.
When contacted for comment Tomasek did not confirm or deny his resignation but referred all queries to Sars.
Sandile Memela, Sars spokesperson, said in a statement several days after comment was requested that the reports were "unfair, factually incorrect, inaccurate and untruthful".
He denied Tomasek's resignation, confirmed that of Ngquluna and added Sars could not comment on resignations because of the organization's human resources policy.
"The factually incorrect information contained in the article has caused much embarrassment, distress and alarm for both Mr Tomasek, his colleagues, SARS staff and SARS.
"Also, the story creates a misleading impression that the resignations of Mr Vusi Ngqulana will undermine the attainment of revenue targets for 2016/17. This is inaccurate as revenue collection is an enterprise-wide drive.
"As for your request for comment on the purported resignations, kindly note that SARS is prohibited by its HR practises from divulging employee information in the public domain as these are matters between the employer and the employee," Memela said.
He did not comment on the other resignations.