Stefaans Brmmer
A week ago the taxman raided Irvin Khoza, alleging tax delinquency worth millions. Then the cops moved in, nabbing him over an allegedly stolen rifle. At midweek, a relative was arrested with allegedly stolen cars. And this may only be the beginning …
It is an open secret that authorities from the Scorpions to National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi’s office to the South African Revenue Service (Sars) have been interested in Khoza’s affairs far more than just a few months ago. Some of the man’s personal associations, like questions over the sources of his vast wealth, have not failed to attract attention.
But Khoza is no easy prey. After he made his name as a Soweto entrepreneur in the 1970s, Khoza spent much of the 1980s moving in African National Congress circles in the frontline states, where he made good friends among South Africa’s present political elite. Friends are said to include Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi, former Gauteng premier Tokyo Sexwale and Deputy President Jacob Zuma.
But Khoza’s power derives from more than just political friendships his greatest source of it must be Orlando Pirates, the football club he rescued in the early 1990s. Committed fans the so-called “ghost” probably outnumber the signed-up following of any political party in the country and they are near fanatical in their support of their beloved Buccaneers.
Cabinet, clearly aware of this dimension, discussed the matter at its regular Wednesday meeting this week. Government spokesperson Joel Netshitenzhe assured fans: “This should not be seen as a matter relating to the sport as such … It is important [to] differentiate between individuals and institutions.”
Last Friday morning Sars officials awaited Khoza at Johannesburg International airport when he returned from a trip to Europe. A search warrant for his financial records, earlier obtained from a judge in chambers, was served on Khoza, who could do little more than stand by as officials raided his home in Diepkloof, Soweto, the Orlando Pirates headquarters in Parktown, Johannesburg, and several more premises. The next day, Sars registered a docket with Johannesburg police, claiming that Khoza owed a staggering R66-million in back taxes, interest and penalties.
But during the tax raid, another event showed that the knives were out for Khoza. When Sars officials found what they thought to be classified documents and a state-issue .303 rifle in his house, they called the police. While prosecuting authorities privately questioned the wisdom of arresting Khoza before an investigation, the police, with orders from above, pressed ahead and hauled Khoza off to court, where he was released on R3 000 bail.
On Wednesday evening, police organised crime unit members swooped on the Dube, Soweto home of a man called Gregory Banana Mahlangu, a relative and associate of Khoza. They had a warrant of arrest against Mahlangu for the theft of a motor vehicle in 1993, but found five vehicles at his premises that they confiscated.
Late this week, authorities were privately hinting that more surprises were in store. Khoza’s lawyer, Danil Erasmus, complained that his client’s rights had been ignored by Sars, whom he claimed had overstepped the mark both in allowing detail of the tax charges to leak to the press, and by calling in the police when they found the rifle no more than “an ornament” during the raid.
Referring to the strict duty of confidentiality imposed on Sars officials by the Income Tax Act, he said: “You could be a drug smuggler … You could be an assassin … All Sars may do is take documents.”