Sars finds no record of $580 000 Phala Phala proceeds

South Africa’s tax agency has confirmed it found no record of a cash declaration by “certain traveller”- or Sudanese businessman Hazim Mustafa, who reportedly said he paid $580 000 in December 2019 for cattle at President Cyril Ramaphosa Phala Phala farm.

In December, Mustafa told Sky News that he complied with South Africa’s tax requirements, saying he had documents marking his arrival at OR Tambo international airport on 23 December 2019, showing an additional declaration of $600 000 in cash.

He further said he was cooperating with the South African authorities.

But, following an “extensive search”, South African Revenue Service’s (Sars’s) information officer could not find any records relating to the funds in question, the tax agency said in a statement on Monday.

“The Sars information officer, after an extensive search for the record in various Sars passenger processing systems, and engagements with the relevant business units within Sars which he believed may be in custody of and/ or be in possession of and/or have knowledge of the records requested, was advised that the record could not be found and /or may not be in existence,” the tax authority said.

Sars was responding to a Promotion of Access to Information Act (Paia) request brought to it by the leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA), John Steenhuisen. See its response to Steenhuisen below.

On 7 December, Steenhuisen filed a Paia request to verify whether Mustafa had declared the cash he claimed to have brought into the country.

Sars’s response to Steenhuisen was accompanied by an affidavit from Siyabonga Nkabinde, a Sars legal specialist in the tax authority’s legal services department, which confirms the search yielded no relevant records.

“If the record in question is found after 5 March 2023, Mr Steenhuisen will be given access to the record unless access is refused on a ground for refusal contemplated in Chapter 4 of Paia,” Sars said.

According to Sars’s customs policy, every person with excess foreign currency must declare it upon entering South Africa.