Government

End of an era for SARS and Edward Kieswetter

Staff Writer

 ·25 Mar 2026

The National Treasury has confirmed that the recruitment process for the appointment of the next SARS Commissioner has been completed, and that an announcement on the next lead is imminent.

Responding to a parliamentary Q&A this past week, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana said that the hunt for the outgoing commissioner Edward Kieswetter’s replacement is over.

“The recommendations have been submitted to President Cyril Ramaphosa for his consideration. The President may make the announcement by the end of March 2026,” he said.

Kieswetter will be leaving SARS after serving for 7 years as commissioner.

He previously worked at SARS as Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Commissioner between 2004 and 2009.

During this time, he worked under the late Pravin Gordhan, who had been the Commissioner at the time. He left the revenue service to join Alexander Forbes as Group Chief Executive between 2010 and 2016.

He returned to SARS and took up the top position in 2019, with his original contract set to end in April 2024. However, President Cyril Ramaphosa extended his contract for two more years.

Bloomberg reported in 2025 that Kieswetter asked to be released from his contract early, with his exit from the role expected in April 2026.

However, the publication said he is expected to remain until December 2026 to oversee the handover to his successor.

Contenders for the top tax job in the country were never publicly announced, with job adverts for the position reportedly going out in September 2025.

However, Bloomberg previously reported that SARS Deputy Commissioner Johnstone Makhubu had been favoured for the role, citing unnamed insiders.

Makhubu has been the deputy commissioner of taxpayer engagement at SARS since 2023, when he was appointed along with two other deputies.

Rebuilding SARS

Kieswetter has been widely lauded as a highly successful SARS Commissioner and credited with rebuilding the service from the ashes of the previous administration.

Upon returning to SARS, Kieswetter had the unenviable task of re-equipping the tax service to be the efficient and effective powerhouse it once was.

To do this, he emphasised technology as the driving force behind SARS’s tax collection efforts, while adopting the philosophy of making tax “user-friendly”.

A clear goal throughout his tenure was to make paying taxes really easy and to make dodging taxes very expensive.

Using rapidly evolving technologies like machine learning, AI, and high-level data analysis, SARS under Kieswetter rolled out auto-assessments in 2021, which took much of the legwork out of manual filings.

The system automatically pulls in third-party data to complete taxpayer returns. Taxpayers then have three days to approve or reject the assessment and finalise their returns.

In 2025, auto-assessments reached around 6 million taxpayers, with the number expected to grow as more people qualify, including provisional taxpayers.

Kieswetter also saw the return of the High Net Worth Unit and the development of other specialised teams, such as the crypto unit, which targets emerging crypto tax issues.

While the SARS commissioner has been incredibly successful in rebuilding SARS, it hasn’t been without its challenges.

Kieswetter oversaw operations during one of the most economically turbulent times in history, maintaining service levels during the COVID-19 pandemic while collecting revenue from a narrowing tax base.

Taxpayers, particularly wealthy ones, have been emigrating and ending tax residency in their thousands, while wider economic strain on individuals has forced SARS to draw water from a shallow pool.

Nevertheless, the service has managed to rake in record revenue over the years, with a projected R2 trillion in 2025/26.

SARS Commissioners