Axed South African Revenue Service (Sars) Commissioner Tom Moyane is filing an urgent application with the North Gauteng High Court for relief following his dismissal by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Moyane wants the court to temporarily set aside Ramaphosa's decision and to interdict him from implementing any other recommendations from the Nugent Commission's interim report.

He also wants Ramaphosa to be barred from advertising or filling his former post.

Moyane further wants the disciplinary inquiry instituted by Ramaphosa and chaired by Advocate Azhar Bham to remain in place, and is seeking costs, including punitive and personal costs. 

The notice of motion was filed on Monday November 13. The total number of pages in the application - when it is filed - will exceed 1 000, it promises. The Constitutional Court application is already over 850 pages long.

The respondents - including Ramaphosa, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan, retired judge Robert Nugent, Bham, Professor Michael Katz, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni, Vuyo Kahla and Advocate Mabongi Masilo - have until noon on Monday to file their answering affidavit.  

Moyane's founding affidavit names him as "currently employed as the Commissioner for the South African Revenue Services (Sars)".

It also outlines his main arguments, including doubts over whether the Sars Commission is properly and lawfully constituted; whether two inquiries may run concurrently; whether the Nugent Commission may recommend that he be fired; and whether former finance minister Gordhan should have been involved in one or both inquiries. 

The president cannot terminate the Sars commissioner's contract without a hearing and must stick to the applicable disciplinary code, it argues.

It further says that Ramaphosa should not have accepted "interim" recommendations, though Nugent at the time said there was "nothing provisional" about the interim report.

"It is not envisaged that the urgency of this application will be seriously contested," the affidavit adds.