Page 8 - Service Delivery Review

News in Brief

SARS welcomes prison sentence of employee

The traveller was apprehended by a customs official
as he was about to leave on an international flight.

He was requested to declare all goods at his disposal
whereupon he produced six Rolex wrist watches
from his backpack without any declaration form. The
traveller was arrested, which later led to the arrest of
the accused SARS official.

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has SARS Commissioner, Edward Kieswetter,
welcomed the seven-year prison sentence handed commended the honest and courageous customs
down to one of its employees by the Palm Ridge officer for not only his vigilance, but for also facilitating
Magistrates Court – after being found guilty of the arrest of Kolokoto.
corruption.
“True to SARS values of honesty, integrity and acting
The sentencing stems from an incident in which the without fear, favour or prejudice, the SARS Customs
accused Malatse Kolokoto assisted a traveller to leave Officer resisted to collaborate with criminality or look
the country with goods without proper declaration. the other way when one of his fellow officers acted
contrary to these values.
Unbeknown to the officer, the CCTV footage caught
him accepting a bribe to assist the traveller to “SARS is placed in a position of trust to ensure that
circumvent the declaration process, which is contrary the laws we administer are laws scrupulously and
to the provisions of Section 15 and Rule 15 of the diligently implemented, and anyone who abuses this
Customs Act. position of trust, deserves the heaviest sentence,” he
said.

SAnews.gov.za

School of Government and City of Tshwane Metropolitan
Municipality sign Memorandum of Agreement

In mid-November 2022, the National School of members of the public who desire an improved
Government (NSG) and the City of Tshwane signed delivery of basic services from the public sector,
a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) to contribute especially municipalities,” he said.
to the training and skilling of municipal officials in a
range of areas. The MoA was signed by the Principal The City Manager, Mr. Mettler said: “We welcome
of the NSG, Professor Busani Ngcaweni, and the City this important Agreement as we believe that it is vital
Manager of the Metropolitan Municipality, Mr. Johann for Government partners to create and hold spaces
Mettler at the City’s headquarters, Tshwane House, for reflection, learning, and joint problem-solving.
Pretoria. This will indeed capacitate our workforce to execute
the City’s development agenda and solve stubborn
The identified areas of cooperation include amongst service delivery challenges.”
others, governance and leadership programmes,
learning and development interventions, knowledge Both institutions already enjoy longstanding
and information management, joint research on areas cooperation with officials from the City having
of mutual interest, impact assessments for training participated in various NSG conferences and training
programmes as well as innovation programmes. programmes. The NSG has also assisted the City
by assessing its knowledge management capability.
Professor Ngcaweni said that the NSG is pleased to These collaborative activities resulted in the intent to
conclude the Agreement with the City of Tshwane. formalise the relationship for greater impact.
“We look forward to a stronger relationship with the
City and closer cooperation in building a professional, www.thensg.gov.za
ethical, and efficient public service. This will benefit

8 SERVICE DELIVERY REVIEW | Volume 15 • No. 2 of 2022/2023