The Democratic Alliance (DA) says it is watching with keen interest the saga surrounding the book titled “The President’s Keepers” by Jacques Pauw. The State Security Agency is demanding that the book be withdrawn while South African Revenue Service (SARS) has also threatened legal action against Pauw.
The book alleges among other things that President Jacob Zuma failed to declare a so-called “salary” he received during the early part of his Presidency from a businessman. The DA’s Federal Chairperson James Selfe says depending on how things pan out, they will take the Department of State Security to court. He says the relevant state institutions must rather investigate whether the book is truthful.
“Depending on what they do from here on we would very seriously consider whether we should take action against intelligence services because there is a constitutional right in SA to freedom of speech and freedom of expression and it seems to us that what is happening here is that the messenger is being shot rather than getting to the bottom of whether this is a truthful account, whether it happened.”
