Jacques Pauw: behind the new bombshell book
Former journalist Jacques Pauw explains why he simply had to write his bombshell book on Jacob Zuma
HE DIDN’T want to dig up any more dirt about politicians or write another hard-hitting investigative story. As far as Jacques Pauw was concerned his days as a journalist were over – that’s why three years ago he decided to pack it all in and start a new life in the countryside with his wife, Sam.
“I’m good at three things – writing, cooking and gardening. I didn’t feel up to starting a nursery so I decided to become a chef,” he tells us with a wry chuckle. “Don’t we all think we’re Gordon Ramsey when we’re standing in the kitchen?”
But his customers definitely appreciate his cooking because Red Tin Roof, his restaurant in Riebeek-Kasteel, about 80km from Cape Town, was doing well when he received a call out of the blue in November last year. The call was to open a can of worms for him and a string of other people, including President Jacob Zuma.
On the line was a source from his past, telling him about someone with information about wholesale corruption within the state security agency. He wanted Jacques to see the man.
There were two snags. Jacques (57) was no longer a journalist and the potential source was based far away in Russia. But old habits die hard.
Jacques – who during his award-winning career was known for his exposés in print and his work on investigative TV show Special Assignment – started mulling over these tantalising morsels of information and began wondering whether he was really enjoying slaving over a hot stove every day.
Also at the back of his mind were the many chats he’d had with his good friend Max du Preez – the well-known political analyst also lives in Riebeek-Kasteel. Like Jacques, Max is fed up with the quality of political leadership in South Africa and the nonstop allegations of corruption.
But it’s one thing to sit around and moan and quite another to get up and do something about a problem.
Deep down Jacques knew he couldn’t ignore the phone call – so it wasn’t long before he was on his way to Moscow.
“I was making everyone crazy and my wife was livid. There we were with a restaurant full of people and I was getting on a plane to Russia. In the heart of their snowy and stormy winter I was trying to track down a former employee of the state security agency.”
Jacques’ conversation with advocate Paul Engelke, who lives and lectures in
Moscow these days, sparked a quest that would consume him for the better part of 10 months. At home in his office with the large windows that let in the morning sun, Jacques got stuck into writing the book that was to get South Africa talking*.
JACQUES’ phone is ringing for the umpteenth time today. He stares at it, then moves it aside. “I’d actually like to go and hide somewhere in the Tankwa Karoo [National Park],” he says. It’s a balmy Monday morning, the day after the bombshell hit. An extract from The President’s Keepers was published in a Sunday paper, telling a tale of, among other things, a dodgy assortment of people who keep Zuma in power and allegations that the president avoided submitting tax returns during his first term in office.
The book chronicles how government agencies such as the SA Revenue Service, the Hawks, the police, state security and the national prosecuting authority have been destroyed by Zuma, Jacques explains. “In each of these agencies he appointed his cronies to promote and protect himself and his friends and family.”
Although the book has been causing major waves, here in the courtyard of his restaurant Jacques, dressed casually, looks relaxed. The restaurant is closed on Mondays but Sam (50) is hard at work inside.
The book was written in absolute secrecy because it breaks laws, including ones under the Tax Administration Act and National Strategic Intelligence Act. But after weighing it all up, Jacques decided it was worth the risk.
Only a small group of people knew about the book but they were sworn to secrecy and up until the launch the manuscript was kept under lock and key.
It was a long and arduous process piecing together information for the book. Jacques first had to find and persuade sources in each of the agencies to share information with him. “Remember, those people are subject to legislation. They’re not allowed to talk to me and all of them committed a criminal offence by doing so. That’s why it’s so important to protect their identities.”
Just days before the book’s existence was announced, Jacques was still in touch with some of his sources – but now all contact with them has ceased.
“It’s also not just a matter of not mentioning someone’s name. These days state security and crime intelligence have devices that can easily gain access to your computer and cellphone. I had to convince these people that by the time the book was published there’d be nothing left on my computer, nothing on my cellphone and that the documents they gave me would be gone.
“They can confiscate this laptop now,” he says, picking up his computer. “There’s nothing left on this.”
ALTHOUGH there’s a chance he might face criminal prosecution for writing the book, Jacques isn’t worried. “I have a lot of confidence in our courts. If they want to lay a criminal charge they should go ahead. But I very much doubt that it will come to that.”
The presidency has denied the tax allegations but Jacques doesn’t expect a substantial reaction from the Zuma camp. “It’s almost as if there’s a campaign of silence under way. Even with the #GuptaLeaks, everyone who’s been implicated has just kept silent.”
In his career of about 30 years as a crack investigative journalist he’s received death threats but he’s seldom let it rattle him. “I always say if someone really wants to kill you they won’t send you a death threat – they won’t warn you about it.”
While he was writing the book he often wondered if he was doing the right thing by getting involved in a situation like this again.
But a conversation with Max put things into perspective for him.
“He told me: ‘You’ve done national service twice in your life. First when you were in the defence force in the early ’80s. The second time was in the late ’80s when we established Vrye Weekblad and exposed Eugene de Kock’s death squads. Now you have to do national service for the third time.’
“I really believe in that . . . if we all do our bit we’ll be fine. We’re already seeing how ordinary people on the streets fight back against what’s going on in the country. Those are ordinary people doing their share. We can’t disappoint.”
‘There we were with a restaurant full of people and I was getting on a plane to Russia’
*THE PRESIDENT’S KEEPERS: THOSE KEEPING ZUMA IN POWER AND OUT OF PRISON, BY JACQUES PAUW (TAFELBERG). R280 FROM TAKEALOT.COM. PRICE CORREC AT THE TIME OF GOING TO PRINT AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE.