Two prominent South African journalists launched their book, Enemy of the People, at Exclusive Books at Hyde Park Corner.
The book largely focuses on President Jacob Zuma.
Adriaan Basson, the editor of New24, and Pieter du Toit, the editor in chief of the Huffington Post SA, gathered at the bookstore on 15 November to discuss their book with talk show host Redi Thlabi.
The book focuses on Zuma and his alleged corruption since his early days as president.
Jeremy Boraine, the publishing director of Jonathan Ball Publishers, who published the book said, “This book is the first definitive account of Jacob Zuma’s misrule, it takes you blow by blow from the start of Zuma’s rule.”
Basson highlighted that the book focuses not only on Zuma but also the African National Congress (ANC).
“We’re working journalists so we are there every day and for me, it was important to stand back from the plethora of breaking news every day and try to anthologise the past 10 years. We started with the ANC because I do believe the ANC has taken responsibility for him and they cannot disown him,” said Basson.
Basson and Du Toit also aim to highlight the charm of Zuma and his ability to read a situation and use it to his advantage as well as his deep knowledge about those within the political party.
Basson said, “People in the ANC have told me that he has files on them and he will unleash that when the time is right. He has threatened to write books about [them], but I think he really understands the culture of respect for seniority and not speaking out against anyone.”
Du Toit added that in the past 18 months, Zuma has survived scandal after scandal, including the firing of former finance minister Nhlanhla Nene, the Constitutional Court ruling that he had unduly benefited from Nkandla upgrades and former Public Prosecutor Thuli Madonsela’s report on state capture.
The two, however, remain optimistic that social justice organisations can hold people accountable and called on people to continue to support organisations such as Section 27, Organisation for Undoing Tax Abuse and investigative journalists.
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*Matter of fact: The previous version of this story stated that Zuma has survived scandal after scandal, including the firing of former higher education minister Nhlanhla Nene. In fact, Nene was the former minister of finance.
