Ex-SARS man before CCMA today

Former SA Revenue Services spokesman Adrian Lackay is expected to detail how he was sidelined when he testifies before the CCMA today.

Lackay went to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration seeking maximum compensation for constructive dismissal after resigning in 2015.

His resignation followed a probe by SARS into his role in an alleged rogue investigative unit set up by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan when he was the commissioner of SARS in 2007.

Lackay plans to argue at the hearing that it became intolerable for him to remain at SARS as his duties had systematically been taken away.

“Other people were given the responsibility to fulfil the role of spokesperson, and I was sidelined because I was in some way associated with the ‘rogue unit’ and [accused of] being a loyalist of Ivan Pillay, Johan van Loggerenberg, Pravin Gordhan and others,” Lackay said yesterday.

The rand tumbled last year when the Hawks started probing Gordhan for setting up the specialised tax unit against a backdrop of a perceived power struggle within SARS.

Gordhan maintained that the investigation was politically motivated.