The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has handed more than 100 cases involving people named at commissions of inquiry, including the Madlanga Commission, to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) this year, SARS commissioner Johnstone Makhubu said yesterday.

The Madlanga Commission was set up after KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi alleged in July 2025 that politicians had obstructed police investigations and that politicians, judges, and businesspeople were involved with a criminal syndicate.

Makhubu, speaking at a business breakfast yesterday, said he had twice met NPA head Andy Mothibi to urge faster investigations. He said tax investigators, who sometimes work at risk to their lives, become frustrated when cases do not end in prosecutions, and suggested the NPA could have a backlog of about 1 000 tax-related cases. “If you’ve got 1 000-plus cases that are sitting in a backlog with [the] prosecution, it does not mean that the tax administration has not done its work,” he said.

SARS is also targeting the illicit trade in goods such as cigarettes and alcohol sold without paying excise duty. By the end of the year, it plans to issue a tender for technology to track goods that carry excise duty, and it is working with the South African Bank Note Company on a marker similar to those that protect banknotes.

He added that artificial intelligence had helped SARS stop incorrect VAT refunds worth R61 billion.