SACP expresses deep concern about the raid on the home of Jacques Pauw, condemns injustice against Ronnie Kasrils, Pieter-Louis Myburgh and Patrick Craven  

1 March 2018

The South African Communist Party calls for law enforcement to be carried out without fear, favour, or prejudice. It is in this context that the SACP expresses its deep concern about the raid carried out on Wednesday, 28 February by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) on the home of journalist and author Jacques Pauw – and a string of other actions apparently designed to silence state capture critics.

Law enforcement authorities should be pursuing those involved or complicit in the corporate and criminal capture of our state and other forms of corruption and wrongdoing exposed in Pauw’s book, ‘The President’s Keepers’.

Actions by authorities that make them come across as frivolous, intimidating or seeking to silence whistleblowers and state capture critics demonstrate how deeply the rot entrenched prior to the election of President Cyril Ramaphosa last week. This and similar actions reminiscent of operations by a parallel state and its rogue elements call for urgent measures to reclaim all institutions of the state on behalf of the people of South Africa.

It is impossible to believe that it is a coincidence that three raids, one official, two obviously rogue, were carried out simultaneously in different parts of the country. This suggests the existence of a possible campaign against state capture critics.

The official Hawks raid on Pauw’s home at Riebeek-Kasteel outside Cape Town was, according to the search warrant, reportedly ordered to seek confidential documents “illegally” in Pauw’s possession.

At precisely the same time:

- “Burglars” broke into the Johannesburg home of investigative journalist Pieter-Louis Myburgh, stealing his personal computer and electronic items; and

- Men claiming to be from the South African Revenue Service (Sars), and implying they were conducting a lifestyle audit, raided the Edenvale home of Patrick Craven, Spokesperson for the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), seizing his cell phone and laptop.

Pauw and Myburgh have both published books dealing with state capture. Since its publication last November, Pauw’s book has become the second-most widely read non-fiction book, after Nelson Mandela’s ‘A Long Walk to Freedom’. Pauw and Myburgh have been threatened with prosecution under the Protection of Information and the Intelligence Service Acts.

A third anti-state capture author, former Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils (his book, ‘A Simple Man’ was published at the same time as Pauw’s) was warned in writing to “desist from ventilating matters in media in a manner that may transgress the relevant intelligence statutes or any other legislation”.  He has heard nothing since his lawyers responded to ask what he had said or written transgressed “the relevant intelligence statutes or any other legislation”.

Kasrils is considering legal action against the head of the State Security Agency (SSA), Arthur Fraser, for allegedly forging his signature to authorise a massive covert operation from which billions of rands were looted. Pauw revealed the forgery in his book.

These are just the most recent examples of harassment of state capture critics. There have been many others.

Although the new ANC-led administration under the leadership of President Ramaphosa has only been in office for a matter of days, it is vital that it moves rapidly to smash the state capture project and its corrupt enablers in the state’s security cluster, state owned enterprises and elsewhere, inside and outside of the state.

The SACP therefore welcomes incoming Police Minister Bheki Cele’s commitment to query the Hawks’ raid on Pauw.

The SACP calls for more decisive action against corrupt officials:

- In the national intelligence sector, where senior officials were sacked from investigating the Gupta threat to the national interest.

- In the police service, where police officers with integrity have suffered for performing their duties;

- In the prosecuting authority, currently immobilised by tit-for-tat court actions when it should be acting against the architects and implementers of state capture and theft of public money; and

-n Sars, where an investigation must be carried out as a matter of urgency.  

The SACP reiterates and broadens its call:

South Africa needs to break the back of corporate state capture networks that have done so much for so long to damage our country and its government.

And we need to do it right now!

Issued by Alex Mohubetswane Mashilo, National Spokesperson, 1 March 2018