The South African Revenue Service (Sars) is taking its former spokesperson to court for alleged defamation, Netwerk24 reported.
This is the latest in an ongoing drama since Adrian Lackay submitted a letter titled "Sars: This is the inside story" to two parliamentary committees in which he alleged that Sars boss Tom Moyane had wilfully misled the country and Parliament.
Lackay strongly denied the existence of a "rogue investigation unit" with a secret account that spied on taxpayers. This put him on a bad footing with Moyane, who has already suspended a number of prominent officials for their "involvement" with the unit.
Lackay was served with the summons last month. It alleges that he defamed Sars and Moyane, released information protected by the Tax Administration Act and the Customs and Excise Act unlawfully to Parliament and that he breached his oath of confidentiality, according to two sources.
Lackay has confirmed that he received the summons, and that he has ten days to respond.
"I will defend myself in court and submit a formal response to Parliament concerning the latest development at Sars," he said.
He resigned from Sars in February, after 11 years of service.
Sars spokesperson Luther Lebelo could not be reached for comment.
In his letter to Parliament's standing committee for finance and the joint standing committee on intelligence, Lackay claimed Moyane had instructed him to disseminate "lies" to the media.
Since Moyane's appointment in September 2014, key roleplayers were allegedly bullied, threatened, muzzled and suspended to "drive a specific narrative to the public".
This "narrative" was allegedly a combination of a "little facts and a lot of fiction" and was linked to allegations of a "covert" investigation unit that would allegedly spy on President Jacob Zuma and other politicians.