Chair, I move without notice: That the Council -
1) takes note of the week-long strike by SARS employees that ran from Monday, 7 September 2009 to Friday, 11 September 2009;
2) while noting the right of workers to take industrial action, given that the deadline for manual tax returns by taxpayers is this Friday, 18 September 2009, notes that there is evidence that submission of returns was badly hampered by delays at SARS offices last week;
3) notes that in addition, several complaints have been received from businesses regarding equipment manufactured in South African plants which could not be loaded and that other exports were stuck at borders and ports of exit, due to the strike action; and
4) calls on SARS to extend the deadline for manual submission of tax returns by one week to allow for the burden of the delays on taxpayers, and that the tax authority prioritises its efforts to get SARS operations registered as "essential services" to prevent industrial action from negatively affecting business and taxpayers in future.
Motion agreed to in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.