Controversial Zuma book author gets death threat
“IF you don’t stop writing about Jacob Zuma‚ you are going to be dead.”
That is the message investigative journalist and The President’s Keepers author Jacques Pauw says he received from an anonymous caller on Monday evening.
“I received [the] call from a private number while I was speaking to Ronnie Kasrils about his book,” Pauw told SABC2’s Morning Live viewers yesterday.
He said the threat was the third he had received since his book was published‚ but he was not “overly” concerned.
“I suppose it comes with a book like this. There are a lot of unhappy people out there. If someone threatens you‚ they are not going to do it.”
He said his book‚ which exposes Zuma’s alleged corrupt activities‚ shows how the country is becoming a gangster state.
“We see it every day . . . the rise in crime. We are at the verge of becoming a gangster state.”
Despite the threats and a demand from the State Security Agency to stop distributing the book‚ he is not backing down.
“I knew the book would cause a lot of discomfort in government and law-enforcement agencies. I knew there was a going to be a legal challenge to it.”
He said he was not surprised when the SSA demanded that he and NB Publishers remove the book within five days‚ a deadline that expired on Monday.
“It’s too late to go to court after so many copies have been distributed. Instead of removing the book‚ we are printing more.”
He called on South Africans to speak out and act against corruption.
“We cannot sit back and feel there is nothing we can do. We have to protest and let the government know how we feel.”
Meanwhile, the SSA was considering its next move after Pauw refused to withdraw the book, agency spokesman Brian Dube said.
The agency had threatened criminal prosecution and court action to take the book out of circulation.