Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana has appointed Yanga Mputa as the new ombud, effective from 1 July 2023.
She succeeds Professor Thabo Legwaila, who has held the position, in an acting role, since October 2022. Before him, retired judge Bernard Ngoepe held the reins as South Africa’s first tax ombud for three terms between 2013 to September 2022.
Her term is for five years.
Mputa, who joined National Treasury in 2014 as chief director for the department’s legal tax design unit, has been instrumental in developing the department’s annual tax legislation and oversaw various processes, including designing and drafting all tax legislation and negotiating tax treaties.
Mputa is also an admitted attorney of the High Court of South Africa and previously served as a tax specialist at the South African Revenue Service (Sars) from 2019 before joining Treasury.
As part of her service, she worked closely with the two finance committees of Parliament to finalise tax legislation with other National Treasury and Sars counterparts.
Mputa has served as the South African representative on the G20 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development OECD/G20 steering group of the Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (Beps) since 2017.
Godongwana encouraged the incoming tax ombud to act in the public interest and to ensure that [Sars] treats all taxpayers fairly:
“By providing a readily accessible avenue for recourse to 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 taxpayers’ rights, aiding our goal as the government of an equitable and efficient tax administration,” Minister Godongwana said.
He expressed full faith in Mputa’s ability to excel in the role.
Mputa holds BProc and LLB degrees from the former University of Transkei, an LLM degree from the University of the Witwatersrand, an MCom in International Tax from North-West University (Potchefstroom), and a Postgraduate Diploma in Tax Law from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
