Shut up: Zuma spies
Book sells out as Sars, spooks tackle author
JACOB Zuma’s having a particularly bad week in the bookshops of this country – and it’s just getting worse.
Things took a dramatic turn when the SA Revenue Service and the State Security Agency (SSA) threatened legal action against an author over revelations about Zuma’s tax status and the alleged use of spies against his foes.
On Sunday, investigative journalist Jacques Pauw’s book The President’s Keepers was released, and has been making headlines and flying off the shelves ever since.
This as the author said he would defend his book in court after he and his publisher received a cease and desist letter from the SSA and threats of legal action by Sars over a “breach of confidential taxpayer information”.
On Thursday, former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils – and Zuma’s comrade-in-arms in the ANC’s armed wing – launched his book, A Simple Man, Kasrils and the Zuma Enigma, further damning the president.
Pauw’s book claims, among other things, that the president has been on the payroll of criminal networks. Kasrils’ book claims that the highest echelons of the ANC and the South African Communist Party overlooked the real misgivings they had about Zuma – dating back to his days in exile – out of expediency.
“I wrote this book because people in the movement often come up to me and say didn’t you see these flaws or was he a great guy who fell from grace,” Kasrils told journalists at his publishers’ offices in Johannesburg. “Those of us who worked closely with him in Mozambique and in Zambia saw the clues,” he said.
The book, written in seven parts, starts with Kasrils’ sense of betrayal when he overhears Zuma referring to him in isiZulu as a useless white man after they both fail to infiltrate Swaziland from Mozambique in 1982.
It then fast forwards to Zuma’s trial for the rape of Fezekile “Khwezi” Khuzwayo, the daughter of a fellow comrade of Zuma and Kasrils.
She phoned Kasrils immediately after the incident.
“It’s still a shock for me, I can hear it like a recording every time I think of it: ‘Uncle Ronnie, Jacob Zuma has raped me’.
Zuma was acquitted of rape in the highly public trial.
“A month before she died,” Kasrils said, “I took her and her mom to lunch. As she left, she looked me in the eye and said: ‘Uncle Ronnie, he raped me’. I believe her, Jacob Zuma is a predatory monster.”
The book goes on to deal with the conspiracy theories that followed after Zuma became president: the email saga, the spy tape scandal, the Browse Mole report.
“I’m trying to explain to our people who that man is and how we got to where we are today. We are in a deep dark hole, we’re speeding to the edge of the precipice, this country is in dire straits.
“I write about Zuma and the charlatans around him, the toadies who have grabbed power and are ripping off our country to fill their pockets. What motivates Zuma is to keep out of jail.
“It’s about his own self-preservation and safeguarding his ill-gotten gains. The funds that he has are part of a network in which he is totally integrated with a whole mafioso group which we call, thanks to (cartoonist) Zapiro, the Zuptas.”
South Africa, Kasrils said, was heading for economic implosion, with a third of the country depending on grants that the treasury could ill afford. He feared bread riots in the streets and a possible imposition of martial law by the president or perhaps even a coup by the “massive and highly militarised” police force.
“I wish I had been more honest about the problems in the ANC when I wrote Armed and Dangerous (his memoir) in 1993, but we weren’t in power yet, we were still under attack by (the apartheid regime). This time, this book deals with the warts in the ANC, where the time wasn’t appropriate before.” His book, he said, would complement Pauw’s.
“I’ve taken care to look where we have come from and how people became rotten, whereas Jacques is looking at the rot right now.”
Yesterday, Pauw, speaking to eNCA, accused Sars and SSA of being contradictory.
“If my book is replete with inaccuracies why are they then taking me to court, why do they want to charge me with the Intelligence Act? If my information is false then I haven’t breached the law and I have written a piece of fiction.”
In the cease and desist letter sent by Kgoroeadira Mudau Inc, it was claimed that the book was “replete with inaccuracies” and contained “fake information” for which Pauw and his publisher would be held accountable.
“We will argue that we are legally in possession of materials and we have not broken any laws,” said Pauw.
On Zuma’s tax affairs, and his comments in the National Assembly on Thursday, Pauw said: “It’s very interesting what he said, he hasn’t received any payments without declaring it.
“Up to 2014 Zuma has not declared his tax returns.
“It needs to be investigated, it’s not the first time that Zuma has lied in Parliament,” said Pauw.
Yesterday the Right2Know campaign and opposition parties slammed threats against Pauw and his publisher by the SSA and Sars.
They all described the letter from SSA as a threat against Pauw and the media in general.
R2K said it also noted another threat by Sars to take the author to court.
“R2K views these as crude acts of censorship, aimed to intimidate investigative journalists and protect the corrupt and powerful,” said R2K.
The DA, IFP and ACDP also warned of threats against journalists.
DA director of communications, Mabine Seabe, said it was clear Zuma had been shaken by the book.
“It’s quite clear that this book has shaken Zuma and his inner circle. Where in a democracy have you heard securocrats say what must be published and not published?”.
Publishers have ordered 40 000 books to meet demand.
Last night, Exclusive Books chief executive Benjamin Trisk said: “It has been brought to our attention that at least two government organisations, the South African Revenue Service and the State Security Agency, are displeased with the book written by Jacques Pauw, The President’s Keepers.
“We also understand that the publisher has been given a five-day notice period to withdraw the book from circulation. As South Africa’s leading bookseller, we wish to advise all South Africans that we do not believe our sale and distribution of the book is against the law and we will continue to stand squarely behind Pauw and the publisher.
“Part of our task is to sell books that demonstrate and put forward different arguments about matters of importance to the South African public. We believe that The President’s Keepers is just such a book.”
CLEARLY investigative reporter Jacques Pauw’s book on President Jacob Zuma has touched a nerve. Titled The President’s Keepers it claims, among other issues, the president has been on the payroll of criminal networks.
Other claims are that Zuma, for the first few years of his presidency, did not file tax returns and that he received a R1 million salary for several months in 2009 from a Durban security company without declaring this to tax authorities.
The Presidency responded by saying he had declared all income to the relevant authorities and the report was part of a smear campaign. His tax affairs were in order.
Yesterday, the state apparatus backing Zuma kicked into life, with Sars threatening to take legal action over a “breach of confidential taxpayer information”. Sars Commissioner Tom Moyane is also in a huff over the book, which claims he aided Zuma to avoid paying all his taxes.
Pauw’s allegations come at a time when Moyane is in trouble. He has to carry the can for the R50-billion revenue shortfall revealed in the medium-term budget last week.
And the spooks stepped in, adding to the drama. The State Security Agency (SSA) sent Pauw and his publishers a cease-and-desist letter, demanding the book be withdrawn. The SSA has threatened to get an interdict and claims parts of the book are in contravention of security laws.
Among Pauw’s claims is that disgraced former acting national director of public prosecutions Nomgcobo Jiba was a secret agent, trying to protect disgraced top cop Richard Mdluli, an alleged Zuma henchman.
Pauw claims there is a cabal around Zuma whose job it is to help Zuma stay in power and out of prison. They target honest senior police officers, Sars officials and prosecutors who pose a risk to their enterprise.
Pauw and his publishers are ready to defend the book in court. If he is wrong, or has broken the law, the SSA and Sars should produce evidence showing this. Perhaps finally we will see if Zuma is tax compliant and when this happened.