Minister of Finance Enoch Godongwana has appointed Yanga Mputa (pictured) as the Tax Ombud, effective from 1 July. Her appointment is for five years.
Mputa takes over from Professor Thabo Legwaila, who has been acting in the role since October 2022, after the term of the first Tax Ombud, Judge Bernard Ngoepe, ended on 30 September 2022.
Read: Judge Bernard Ngoepe ends his nine-year tenure as Tax Ombud
Legwaila will return to his position as chief executive of the Office of the Tax Ombud.
Mputa, an admitted attorney of the High Court, joined National Treasury in 2014 as chief director: legal tax design. Before that, she was a tax specialist at the South African Revenue Service (Sars) from 2009.
In a statement on Friday, the Ministry of Finance said that while she was at National Treasury, Mputa oversaw the design and drafting of all tax legislation, including the negotiation of tax treaties.
Together with her colleagues from Treasury and Sars, she worked closely with Parliament’s two finance committees to finalise tax legislation.
Since January 2017, she has been South Africa’s representative on the Steering Group of the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS). BEPS refers to tax-planning strategies used by multinational enterprises to avoid paying tax by exploiting gaps and mismatches in tax legislation.
Mputa has BProc and LLB degrees from the former University of Transkei, an LLM from the University of the Witwatersrand, an MCom in International Tax from North-West University, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Tax Law from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Godongwana encouraged Mputa to act in the public interest and to ensure that Sars treats all taxpayers fairly.
The Tax Ombud was a crucial mechanism for ensuring fairness, accountability, and transparency in the tax system by acting as an independent and impartial arbitrator between taxpayers and the tax authority, the statement said.
“By providing a readily accessible avenue for recourse to both individuals and businesses, the Tax Ombud contributes greatly to maintaining public trust in the tax system, something we cannot take for granted. The Office of the Tax Ombud also promotes compliance, while safeguarding the rights of taxpayers, aiding our goal as the government of an equitable and efficient tax administration,” Godongwana said.
“I have full faith in Ms Mputa’s ability to take up this challenge and continue the good work the Tax Ombud has already achieved, even though she will be greatly missed at the National Treasury,” he said.
