Author reviled at book launch
DEMANDS APOLOGY FROM HOFSTATTER Protesters outside book store accuse journalist of being ‘state capture crony’.
The attempts of journalist Stephan Hofstatter to launch his new book, License to Loot, on Thursday night were disrupted by protesters taking him to task over his role in documenting an alleged Sars “rogue unit”.
They claimed his reporting was inaccurate and some felt he sided with those allegedly responsible for state capture.
The “rogue unit” allegations are believed to have been used as a pretext to appoint Tom Moyane at Sars and resulted in many valued members of staff resigning.
Hofstatter was one of several journalists to document the alleged unit in 2014 and 2015.
He was met at Love Books in Melville by protesters holding placards with slogans, such as, “State capture crony” and “Profits from helping capture the state”.
Hofstatter was also confronted by a former Sars executive who demanded an apology.
Pete Richer, who resigned from Sars in 2015, told Hofstatter that he had done massive damage to the lives, careers and families of those implicated in the “rogue unit” saga through his reporting in the Sunday Times .
Richer said the newspaper did not ask him for comment and alleged the journalists relied on information from a rhino horn smuggler.
“I lost my job at Sars. You set up scurrilous unethical journalists to set up a fiction to get rid of hard-working civil servants,” Richer told Hofstatter.
“I apologise if anything I did hurt you personally. That was never my intention. I always tried to stand up for the downtrodden and expose corruption,” Hofstatter responded.
Journalist and author Jacques Pauw tweeted that he must be made to “reveal who was behind the nonsense that was fed to him and the Sunday Times”.
Reports regarding the “rogue unit”, several of which were co-authored by Hofstatter, were found to be “inaccurate, misleading, and unfair” by the press ombudsman and the newspaper was forced to apologise.
In 2015, the ombudsman ruled the Sunday Times must retract all stories on the “rogue unit saga” and apologise to Pravin Gordhan, as well as others implicated, when former Sars deputy commissioner Ivan Pillay and executive Johann van Loggerenberg lodged a complaint. –