Record revenue collection a fitting tribute to Kieswetter

SA Revenue Service commissioner Edward Kieswetter delivered his final revenue collection report yesterday, and it made for some good reading.

The Sars boss is retiring after spending seven years on the job and decades more in the service of the republic in different roles.

According to the taxman, Sars surpassed R2-trillion in net revenue collection for the first time in 30 years this financial year, a fitting tribute to a man who turned around the ship just when all believed it was about to hit the iceberg.

It now seems like many light years ago when Sars had been hollowed out of its best talent, and its capacity to collect revenue seemed compromised due to having been turned into a key target for those who were on a mission to capture the state and line their pockets.

When the state capture project finally came crumbling down after the fall off then president Jacob Zuma, his successor — President Cyril Ramaphosa — knew that among his immediate tasks would be to rebuild Sars.

His choice of Kieswetter as the commissioner proved a master stroke.

Kieswetter inherited a broken organisation but managed to build it back to its former glory by recruiting back some of the past talent, reviving its internal centres of excellence and winning back the trust of the general public.

For all of that, he was rewarded with seven years of consistent growth in revenue collection.

This financial year’s collection, for instance, is R24.7bn higher than previously projected.

Under his watch, Sars has successfully implemented most of the recommendations made by judge Robert Nugent following a commission of inquiry appointed to investigate how the organisation nearly collapsed under Kieswetter’s predecessor, Tom Moyane.

As a country we are grateful that Kieswetter agreed to heed the president’s challenge “to step forward” and help in rebuilding institutions that had been broken by state capture.

In an era where so many of our senior civil servants are entangled in corruption and other forms of wrongdoing, it is reassuring to know that the public sector still has leaders of Kieswetter’s calibre.