Sars says those identified include shareholders, directors and beneficiaries of offshore companies.

CAPE TOWN - The South African Revenue Service(Sars) says it has identified about 1,700 South African residents named in information contained in the Panama Papers.

Briefing a joint meeting of three parliamentary oversight committees earlier today, Sars official Vlok Symington told Members of Parliament (MP) Sars downloaded data made available two weeks ago by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

The Consortium (ICIJ) was involved in the leak of millions of the Panama law firm's internal files.

The revenue service's Symington says those identified include shareholders, directors and beneficiaries of offshore companies that Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca helped set up.

"We've identified roughly 1,700 individual South African residents' names. That's after we removed the duplicates. Their roles vary from shareholders, directors, beneficiaries. We've identified 56 South African intermediaries"

Symington says running the data against Sars' database has so far allowed them to identify 79 out of a total of 560 offshore companies - to which 81 South African residents have now been linked.