Supporters of ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma have slammed the Revenue Service for allegedly leaking his tax affairs to the media.

Kaizer Mohau, spokesman for the Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust in Gauteng told The Citizen a meeting would be convened today to discuss what action to take.

SARS has served the sacked Deputy President with a summons after he failed to submit his tax return.

SARS is also understood to have questioned the completeness of the ANC deputy president’s disclosure of his income.

The summons was collected from the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Zuma’s behalf by his attorney, Michael Hulley, last week.

The move is thought to be linked to the 2005 corruption charges against Zuma when tax evasion charges were added to the indictment.

This was thought to have been based on allegations that Zuma failed to declare the money allegedly received from convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik.

The corruption charges were later struck off the roll, but it has been speculated the National Prosecuting Authority will charge Zuma again.

A fuming Mohau said it was wrong of SARS to leak confidential tax matters to the media.

Mohau said: “This raises questions on what SARS stands to gain by revealing Zuma’s tax affairs as well as the nature of a relationship it has with journalists.

“We view this as a conspiracy against Zuma involving SARS, the media and the NPA.”

Mohau said unless there was a logical explanation of how private information on Zuma’s tax affairs reached the public, the trust condemned what SARS did.

He said most South Africans have had tax problems that were never publicised.

“This is a private affair between Zuma and SARS,” Mohau said. “Everyone, including Zuma, deserves some privacy and we feel SARS has violated Zuma’s rights.

“Making tax affairs public also contravenes the constitution and the very same democracy that South Africans lost their lives fighting for.”

SARS spokesman Adrian Lackay would not comment.

Lackay said: “Even if I go as far as confirming or denying the matter, I will be contravening the Income Tax Act, which prevents any SARS staffer from disclosing information regarding tax matters of a taxpayer.”

kennedym@citizen.co.za

With acknowledgement to Kennedy Mudzuli and The Citizen.