Underwear model Candice van der Merwe (26) has given notice to the Minister of Finance of a summons for R1bn for constitutional damages, according to Rapport report. The model says in her notice to the Minister that she was taunted for years by SARS regarding a $15.3m donation received from her ‘companion’ at a luxury resort on the Seychelles.

She alleges that SARS wilfully withheld information from the courts when it obtained orders to freeze her assets and conduct a full-scale tax inquiry into the affairs of her and her father, Gary van der Merwe, who was in a tax dispute at the time.

SARS suspected that the funds may have belonged to her father.

In her court papers papers, Candice van der Merwe identifies her benefactor as a ‘Mr Saad Hariri’. A source close to the case claimed he is the current Lebanese Prime Minister, but Van der Merwe’s attorney declined to comment, saying this will be revealed in discovery.

Van der Merwe has since settled her tax dispute with SARS by paying R44m in income tax. As donations from foreign nationals is not taxed in SA, the amount she was taxed on was classified as ‘other income’. Van der Merwe says she suffered damages as her relationship with Hariri was damaged and she was deprived of further financial benefits.

The court cases and publicity prevented her from following her chosen career as a fashion model and it was ‘severely demeaning and humiliating’ to request permission to use her own funds for personal expenses while a curator was in control of her estate. Treasury spokesperson Jabulani Sikhakhane confirmed receipt of the notice.

Full report in Rapport (subscription needed)