Hawks raid shocks author Pauw
AUTHOR and investigative journalist Jacques Pauw is stunned that a Hawks raid on his home yesterday has taken place under Cyril Ramaphosa’s presidency.
Speaking to journalists shortly after the Hawks swoop on his Riebeek-Kasteel guest house in the Western Cape, Pauw said he would have expected it to happen during former president Jacob Zuma’s time.
The Hawks were said to have been looking for “confidential information and secret documentation” used in Pauw’s best-selling book The President’s Keepers.
Hawks spokesperson Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi told Independent Media that the matter was referred to the corruption and organised crime-fighting unit by the State Security Agency (SSA).
”The search and seizure relates to the book,” Mulaudzi said.
He insisted the Hawks needed to satisfy themselves that Pauw did not have the confidential information and secret documentation used in the book.
According to Mulaudzi, the operation was legitimate and had been authorised by a magistrate in the Western Cape. ”It’s very difficult to obtain a warrant for a search-and-seizure operation,” he said.
Mulaudzi said they were not there to arrest Pauw.
The author said he was “surprised they’ve only arrived now”.
He said the search was requested specifically by SSA directorgeneral Arthur Fraser, who Pauw implicated in corruption in The President’s Keepers.
Pauw said a colonel and two captains came late yesterday afternoon to search for any “confidential information” that was in his possession.
He said he contacted his lawyer in Joburg: “It will be a long search, it’s a big place.”
Pauw and his wife, former journalist Sam Rogers, run a guest house, The Red Tin Roof, in Riebeek-Kasteel, about an hour outside Cape Town.
Since his book was published late last year he has been investigated by the police and had court applications against him.
In December, the SA Revenue Service (Sars) filed papers in the Western Cape High Court accusing Pauw of transgressing the Tax Administrations Act by disclosing confidential information about taxpayers.
At the time, Pauw said he was astonished but felt it was an admission that the revelations contained in his book were true.
“It is not an attack on the credibility of the book but is confirmation of the credibility of the book,” he said.
An affidavit attached to the motion by Sars boss Tom Moyane quoted from about 15 pages of the book that allegedly contravened the act.
These included payments made to Zuma and his son Edward.
It also included Pauw’s revelations about Cape gangster Mark Liffman and others owing Sars hundreds of millions of rand.
Also in December, a criminal probe was instituted against Pauw in Durban.
Colonel Reuben Govender, who reportedly has a reputation for intimidating suspects, was the investigating officer. The case was subsequently removed from him and placed with the provincial head office.
I am surprised they’ve only arrived now