Civil society says South Africans must take a stand against any attempt to censor investigative journalist Jacques Pauw and his new book ‘The President’s Keepers”. Both Revenue Services and the State Security Agency (SSA) have threatened to take legal action against Pauw for allegedly disclosing confidential tax payer’s information and for contravening sections of the Intelligence Service Act.
“Quite simply Right2Know views this as a crude act of censorship. It’s clearly designed by the SSA to intimidate the investigative journalist behind the book and to provide political coverage to the president and the people who are implicated with him. We don’t view any merit in this and I think it’s clear that South Africans won’t allow for any attempt at this kind of secrecy and will continue to push back against this sort of censorship,” said Right2Know spokesperson, Murray Hunter.
SARS says publication of confidential taxpayer information is in contravention of the Tax Administration Act.
