FITA slams SARS bid to overturn interdict barring it from installing CCTV cameras at tobacco-manufacturing warehouses
SARS is challenging the ruling and has brought an application for leave to appeal which was argued on Monday.
Picture: pixabay.com
JOHANNESBURG - The Fair-Trade Independent Tobacco Association (FITA) has slammed a bid by the SA Revenue Service (SARS) to overturn an interdict barring it from installing CCTV cameras at tobacco-manufacturing warehouses, arguing the ruling isn’t appealable.
The High Court in Pretoria issued the interdict in May this year.
It effectively puts on ice the implementation of a newly introduced rule allowing for this kind of surveillance in an effort to curb illicit activity in the industry, pending a review thereof.
SARS is now challenging the ruling, though, and has brought an application for leave to appeal which was argued on Monday.
Interim interdicts, like the one in question, are generally not considered appealable, unless there are exceptional circumstances at play and the interest of justice warrants it.
And in court on Monday, counsel for FITA argued that this was not the case in the current matter and that the application for leave to appeal should be dismissed on this basis.
FITA also argued against the revenue service's submissions that the court erred by interdicting the new rule when it hadn’t yet been declared invalid, labelling this "simply not correct" and "a fundamentally bad point on the law".
Judgment has been reserved.