SACP’s Solly Mapaila says citizens must give support to Jacques Pauw

The first deputy general secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP), Solly Mapaila, has encouraged South Africans to support Jacques Pauw, the author of the biggest political exposè to hit the country, The President’s Keepers – Those keeping Zuma in power and out of prison.

Speaking to Popcru delegates at the police union’s Central Executive Committee meeting in Pretoria on Saturday, Mapaila said citizens should “give support to Pauw for standing up to wrongdoing and to the abuse of our intelligence service”, News24 reported.

“It might have crossed the line they say but I agree with the book. Go and find it. Go and get it before it is taken, read it,” Mapaila said.

According to the report, Mapaila commended Pauw for his courage in writing his book, saying that the state services were attempting to protect a “morally rotten president”.

The South African State Security Agency (SSA) on Friday issued Pauw and his publisher with a “cease and desist” order from publishing his controversial book about President Jacob Zuma’s alleged tax evasion.

In the book, Pauw exposes, among others, an alleged plot by Zuma to quash his massive R63-million tax bill, his failure to submit his tax returns during at least the first five years of his presidency, and how Zuma kept receiving secret monthly pay cheques from a friend despite being paid by the State as president.

The South African Revenue Service (Sars) has also threatened legal action against Pauw.

Mapaila said the SSA had virtually collapsed.

“What we have is just a structure. The system internally is rotten,” he said.

“They have fears to confront the president when he was doing wrong. They should have put their foot down. When they could not do so, they compromised themselves. We think a deep review of the current intelligence system must be undertaken …That is why the intelligence service is not able to deal with massive crime in our country,” Mapaila added.

– Additional reporting African News Agency 

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