In an affidavit, public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan says former Sars boss Tom Moyane displayed a "profound lack of judgment" and is guilty of "gross dereliction of duty", Daily Maverick reported.
In a surprise move, Gordhan is the reported deponent of the affidavit, instead of President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has instituted disciplinary charges against Moyane.
According to Daily Maverick, Gordhan wrote the affidavit because, he said, he was finance minister at the time of Moyane's alleged transgressions and therefore had first-hand knowledge of the subject.
In the 69-page affidavit, Moyane is reportedly accused of charges ranging from lying to Parliament to paying his executives unauthorised bonuses. But the most serious charge against him, according to insiders who spoke to Daily Maverick, is his handling of the Jonas Makwakwa debacle.
Makwakwa, Moyane's number two at the time, was reportedly fingered in a report by the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC) for receiving R600,000 in payments into his bank account.
Gordhan reportedly said in his affidavit that Makwakwa was a "senior member of the Sars executive and Mr Moyane's second-in-command. His position as chief officer business and individual taxes tasked him with controlling Sars' biggest revenue streams. In these circumstances, the allegations made in the FIC report were extremely serious with the potential, if not handled correctly, to damage the credibility of Sars, tax morality and the collection of tax revenue."
Makwakwa reportedly shared the report with Makwakwa but not with the Hawks or Gordhan.
According to TimesLive, Moyane is also accused of only signing off on an investigation into the issue once the allegations had been made public in the media.
Gordhan reportedly accuses Moyane of the "gross mishandling of the report" and said he "brought Sars into disrepute and caused serious damage to the credibility and legitimacy of the institution".
Gordhan also said Moyane's disclosure of the report to Makwakwa was an offence in terms of the FIC Act, according to IOL.
"Furthermore, the FIC Act prohibits the disclosure of suspicious and unusual transactions to persons implicated in such transactions," Gordhan reportedly wrote.
Moyane is also accused of unquestioningly accepting the outcomes of investigations by law firm Hogan Lovells and PriceWaterhouseCoopers that were inadequate.
But Moyane, through his lawyer Eric Mabuza, reportedly expressed concern that the affidavit was deposed by Gordhan and not Ramaphosa.
According to TimesLive, Mabuza said Gordhan was someone who was "totally irrelevant to this process" and "has a well-documented history of conflict with Mr Moyane".
"It's shocking that the affidavit came from Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan and not the president‚ Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene or anyone at Sars‚" Moyane's lawyer‚ Eric Mabuza‚ told TimesLIVE.