Karyn Maughan on her battles with Zuma and why she wrote a book about it

Former president Jacob Zuma is like a thousand-piece puzzle that can leave you confused.

Understanding the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party leader can be a complex task and like the puzzle, if you look from a distance it’s just a jumbled mess. But when you look closer and start putting the pieces together, a picture starts to emerge.

Building the Zuma puzzle

This is exactly what News24 journalist Karyn Maughan has done in her new book I Will Not Be Silenced.

Maughan has pieced together the Zuma puzzle to enlighten the reader about the former president who, like the puzzle, is multifaceted.

I Will Not Be Silenced is easy to read and not filled with legal jargon. Once you pick it up, it’s hard to put down as I found out, completing the read in one day.

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‘Don’t give up’

Maughan told The Citizen she hopes that her book will make a difference to people who have been facing adversity in their lives.

“I hope people will look at this story and be encouraged by it, to know that even when you do suffer legal abuses by a powerful person, as I had did and as Billy Dower (state prosecutor in Zuma’s arms deal trial) did, the justice system will ultimately protect you and I am extremely grateful for that.

“So, don’t give up. Keep fighting. This democracy is birthed in the blood of so many people who fought and died for it and we can never be in a place where we relinquish it to bullies, cowards and despots,” Maughan said.

Maughan on attacks by Zuma supporters

In an extract from the book, Maughan shares her elation after a court examined Zuma’s case against her and Downer and declared it for what it was: an abusive attempt to prevent them from doing their jobs.

In their ruling, the judges also referred to how social media harassment was being used as part of Zuma’s campaign to silence Maughan.

“I need to acknowledge that the level of vicious dishonesty I experienced, and continue to experience, did come at a price. I do not believe anyone should have to pay – not least of all because my only ‘sin’ was that I kept doing my job and reporting on Zuma when he and his supporters were desperate to keep me quiet.

“Rather than engaging with the facts of my journalism, they chose to attack me as a human being, with dishonest and often deeply sexist accusations that portrayed me as an alcoholic (as mentioned, I don’t drink alcohol because of my diabetes), mentally unwell (a claim I won’t engage with because I don’t want to legitimise the stigmatisation of mental illness) and a spy, ‘witch’ or Satan,” Maughan writes in her book.

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“I Will Not Be Silenced”

As a young journalist, roped into court reporting to cover Zuma’s rape trial in 2006, Maughan could not have known that she would be reporting on Zuma’s legal woes for the next two decades – and would herself become one of his targets.

The book is deeply personal with Maughan candidly speaking about being a type one diabetic and her battle with a potentially life-threatening hypoglycaemic coma as a result of low blood sugar levels.

It takes a razor-sharp look at how powerful men like Zuma use attacks on individuals who try to hold them accountable, as well as on the media and the courts, to undermine democracy.

There are several interesting chapters, including one on Zuma’s daughter Duduzile-Sambudla, Advocate Dali Mofu and ‘The Nazi’ which makes for intriguing reading.

ALSO READ: Court throws out Zuma’s private prosecution, rules it’s part of ‘Stalingrad strategy’