Spy agency poised to act on Zuma book

The row over Jacques Pauw’s book The President’s Keepers is set to escalate this week, with the State Security Agency (SSA) giving Pauw and his publisher until Wednesday to remove copies from book shops and retract parts of it.

It remains to be seen what the South African Revenue Service will do after aspects of the president’s tax affairs were exposed in the book.

Investigative journalist Pauw’s book has led the intelligence agency to serve its first cease-and-desist letter in democratic SA on an author or a publisher. However, the publisher and Pauw remain adamant that the book will remain in book shops and that more copies of it will be printed.

The ANC will convene a special meeting of its national executive committee this weekend, in which Zuma’s backers will seek to have the outcome of the Eastern Cape’s elective conference nullified. Oscar Mabuyane and his supporters, who back Cyril Ramaphosa, took over from Zuma ally Phumulo Masualle in the October elections.

In Parliament, a deadline looms for the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) and the South African Post Office (Sapo). The Treasury has until Tuesday to facilitate a meeting between Sassa and Sapo to find a way forward in the social grants provision deadlock. They are expected to forward a report on the meeting to the interministerial committee chaired by Zuma.

In the meantime, a joint sitting of the standing committee on public accounts and the portfolio committee on social development will be held to draft a report to forward to the house for debate and adoption on the matter.

There are fewer than 100 days left to map the way forward for grant provision in 2018, after a crisis had already loomed in March, risking the payment of millions of grants.