Due process: Ivan Pillay
An urgent application brought by three former South African Revenue Service (SARS) executives to stay prosecution against them on charges of corruption, has been dropped after they reached an agreement with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
According to a report by The Citizen, the application was removed from the urgent court roll in the High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday, following an agreement with National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) Shaun Abrahams.
Jacaranda FM reported that the NPA agreed to allow them to make representations at a date yet to be determined.
The three former executives – Ivan Pillay, Johann van Loggerenberg and Andries Janse van Rensburg – were accused of alleged involvement in the so-called SARS ‘rogue unit’.
The trio was summonsed to appear in court on charges of corruption and the contravention of the RICA Act, but questioned why warning statements were not obtained from them, and launched an urgent application to halt the criminal proceedings.
News24 previously reported that they had asked to be given an opportunity to submit representations to the NPA for consideration.
In the letter, which is dated March 12, they also questioned why warning statements had not been obtained prior to the NPA’s decision to prosecute, which they said was a procedural prerequisite.
They also asked why prosecutors had not insisted on obtaining the statements and wanted to know if the NPA and the NDPP were aware that they hadn’t done so.
They had been summonsed to appear in the Pretoria Regional Court on April 9.