Eric Mkhawane

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Eric Mkhawane

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Areas of practice

Languages

English

Admission to Society of Advocates:

2010

Qualifications

BProc, LLB, LLM (Tax law) Higher Diploma in Company Law Higher Diploma in Labour Law (all from the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS) Senior Management Development Program from Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)

The Bridge Group of Advocates

Eric Mkhawane

Hanyana Eric Mkhawane was admitted as an Attorney in July 1996. He practised as such until June 1998 when he was appointed as a Regional Legal Manager of the Gauteng Region of the South African Revenue Service (SARS). During this period, he managed 22 legal advisers and litigation that came out of the various offices (SARS offices) in Gauteng.

Some of his major achievements in this role included the establishment of the Criminal Tax Courts in Johannesburg, Roodepoort and Pretoria to prosecute statutory tax crimes of non-rendition of tax returns, non-payment of VAT and PAYE; establishment of the Tax Court sitting at Megawatt Park; and playing a major role in the “pay now and argue later” principle in the Constitutional matter Metcash v Commissioner for SARS.

In 2005 he was promoted to a Regional Manager – Enforcement in the Eastern Cape and later Gauteng. In this role, he headed or managed the audit division, estates division, criminal investigation division, legal division and collection division. He held this position until 2010 when he joined the bar.

2010 to November 2013

He practiced as an advocate at the Johannesburg Bar. His areas of practice included, Tax Law, Customs and Excise, Labour Law, Administrative Law, General Commercial Litigation, Contract, Delict, Human Rights, Insurance and Personal Injury. In December 2013, he was recruited by the then Minister of Finance, Honourable Minister Pravin Gordhan to be the Chief Executive Officer/Deputy Tax Ombud along with the former Judge President Bernard M Ngoepe to establish the Office of the Tax Ombud, a role he played with distinction until 30 April 2019.

In this role, he spearheaded the establishment of the Office of the Tax Ombud, an office that operates as a watchdog over SARS.

In May 2019 he returned to the bar where he practises again as an advocate and in the fields stated above.

He was invited by the Judge President of the Gauteng High courts to act and accordingly acted as a Judge in both South and North Gauteng High Courts for period of six weeks, thus from 29 July 2019 to 6 September 2019.

He was also invited by the Judge President of the Mpumalanga High Court to act and acted as a Judge from 22 August 2022 to 16 September 2022.