South African Revenue Service commissioner Pravin Gordhan has done a great job, says embattled tycoon Dave King - of making him look like the biggest crook South Africa has ever seen.
King, in an exclusive interview with Pretoria News Weekend, described himself as "a businessman first, then a husband and father who loves playing and reading, especially older books" about ancient Rome. And he's making it his business to fight the taxman to the bitter end.
We first met in court, where he is facing 322 counts of tax fraud, racketeering and foreign exchange control contraventions. For a person facing so many charges, one would expect him to hate journalists. However, he agreed to an interview "once I am out of court" - but it took a little perseverance.
King does not own a cellphone, has never sent an SMS in his life and does not have an email address. "I don't have any of those. When I go for a month overseas for a holiday, you cannot get hold of me. I am on holiday for a month," he said later.
I left two messages after calling his landline, and the woman who answered the phone assured me "he will definitely call you back". Five days after I started, King returned my call and agreed to meet at his house.
As expected, he lives in a palatial house in one of the most affluent suburbs of Johannesburg - he does not particularly want it known where - and by his own admission, does not know how many people work on the massive property. Upon arrival we were welcomed by cameras and security guards.
In the five-car garage are a Ferrari, a Mercedes-Benz SL 500, a Golf Cabriolet (with a learner plate) and another Mercedes-Benz CL 500. King himself welcomed us into the house.
I first asked him who he is outside of the court case, but he threw back the question and asked me what I thought of him. I tell him "I think you make Brett Kebble look like the small boy who stole a sweet from the Portuguese shop."
King smiled. "You think I am a crook? That's fair enough, because that is what the State wants people to think. The State has done a successful job in making me out as a crook who made a lot of money, hidden it and now doesn't want to pay tax.
"In a nutshell, the State is saying I didn't make the money honestly, and I say that is absolute nonsense because I have never denied that the money was made."
It appeared the case had become personal for King because he did not refer to it as being with Sars, but with the commissioner, Pravin Gordhan.
"The media is being used by the commissioner to paint this picture of me and I think that he wants to make me an example for other people. Well-done to him, he has done a good job and I give him 100 percent for that," says King.
He said he did not understand why he had been made out to be a criminal because even before he made his money, his company Specialised Outsourcing Ltd (SOL) had made full disclosure of its affairs "and it appeared on the listing prospectus of the Reserve Bank that Dave King was the CEO of the company and the beneficiary of the trust".
The trust to which he referred was an offshore entity that controlled Ben Nevis Holdings Ltd (BNHL), which in turn held a controlling interest in the JSE-listed SOL. SOL was sold in 1997, and King allegedly made R1-billion profit - leading to his fight with Sars.
"Look at my house, I have never hidden it. The house in Plettenberg Bay was never hidden; it was in the media from the first day."
He said he thought the case against him was initiated because a Sars investigator got hold of a press report about him and his wealth, and then decided to all the charges against him.
"They forget that in the press, they always get it wrong (regarding individual and company assets). There is always confusion when it is an individual or a company."
He believes the commissioner has seized all his assets to force him to negotiate. "The commissioner is a bully and he is using me to terrorise other taxpayers to comply. He knows that everything is owned by the trust and I get the benefits."
King wants his day in court and said if he owed any tax, he would pay it.
"I offered to pay him R290-million in cash four years ago and his legal team accepted, but he refused and you know, if he had taken that money and invested it, he would have made R400-million by now. He hasn't told the public that he turned down an offer of R290-million cash."
He said he lived with the case by being philosophical and most of the time laughed when he read articles about himself - and he knew that once it was all over, he would make even more money.
"I am a businessman and I am going to be successful once this case is over and the case has not had any negative bearing on my business and my family. My kids know what is going on, so there is no reason for them to panic, and they trust me to win in the end."
King said the trust has the money, "huge amounts of money", and they can fight this case for another 50 years - but he said he was not sure what more the commissioner could do to him.
"I think he's run out of options, he has arrested me, frozen my assets - now he must unfreeze them. They have done everything to try to force me to settle and I am not sure what more he can do to me."
He said he lives a very comfortable life because he makes money: "That's what I do best, and I am not embarrassed by that. I came to this country to make money."