SARS WITHDRAWAL OF PROVISIONAL SEQUESTRATION ORDER AGAINST MR. MALEMA

2 June 2015

Pretoria, 2 June 2015 - The South African Revenue Service confirms that it withdrew its application to have the provisional sequestration order against Mr. Julius Malema be made final.

SARS based its decision to withdraw its sequestration request after weighing up the issues raised by the Judge with the SARS legal Counsel. The most significant being that SARS had several legal instruments available to it to recover outstanding tax debt owed to it by Mr. Malema.

SARS also considered that the Julius Sello Malema Trust had started complying with its tax obligations including partially paying its outstanding tax debt which was one of the key reasons on which the sequestration application was based on.

A further consideration by SARS was that Mr Malema withdrew his application for the declaratory and interdictory relief. This meant that SARS was not bound by the previous compromise agreement and as such will be able to take steps to recover outstanding taxes.

This was agreed to by the legal team of Mr. Malema. The court was informed accordingly, and the court discharged the provisional order for sequestration, without making any order as to costs.

It is important to note that the Court made no finding that SARS is bound by the compromise agreement with Mr. Malema that it entered into in May 2014. SARS retains its position   that the compromise agreement is not binding. Hence no concession has been made by SARS, with respect to the recovery of the current and future outstanding taxes. 

SARS will continue to take the necessary steps available to it in terms of the Tax Administration Act to recover all tax debts that might be due. This will be done without SARS compromising its impartiality and its independence, which is a key aspect of its dealings with all taxpayers.

Statement issued by SARS, June 2 2015