The South African Revenue Service (Sars) said it will appeal a judgment to have two executives reinstated at the tax authority.
The executives were fired during global consultancy Bain & Company's controversial restructuring of the revenue service.
In a statement, Sars said it has noted the Labour Court judgement of 22 August 2022 on the matter between Mashilo and Seremane v the Commissioner of Sars.
“The matter relates to an incident that dates back to 2015 during the tenure of the former Commissioner. After studying the judgement, Sars, on the advice of counsel, has opted to note an appeal against the above judgment. Sars believes that the court made a material error in arriving at its conclusion. In this regard, Sars believes that another court will come to a different conclusion given what is at issue,” Sars said in a statement.
Johannesburg Labour Court acting Judge Smanga Sethene ruled that the dismissals of Hope Mashilo and Tshebeletso Seremane were unfair.
Sethene found that Mashilo had been a whistle-blower who spoke up about the hiring of Bain & Company by the previous Sars commissioner Tom Moyane.
Mashilo and Seremane were dismissed by Sars after the restructuring left them in redundant positions.
The two were initially offered positions as "domain specialists" without being briefed about the job specifications of their roles.
Mashilo emailed then finance minister Malusi Gigaba and Yunus Carrim, then chairperson of the Standing Committee on Finance, explaining what was happening after Bain & Company was appointed, which led to her axing.
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