SAFTU condemns attempts to censor The President’s Keepers
The South African Federation of Trade Unions strongly condemns the attempts by the SA Revenue Service (SARS) and the State Security Agency (SSA) to force Jacques Pauw, his publishers and booksellers, to withdraw his book, The President’s Keepers, from sale or to take legal action to force him to retract certain parts of his book which they have labelled as “lies”.
Pauw has said that he stands by his book, that his information is credible and that he's not broken any law. Exclusive Books is standing behind him and says it will continue to sell his book, sales of which so far are “unimaginable".
To use legal means to censor the book would be a serious assault on the right to free speech, all the more so since the book raises serious allegations against President Jacob Zuma relating to corruption and irregularities with his tax affairs. SAFTU believes these allegations are an important contribution to the national debate on ‘state capture’, corruption and other crimes and they must not be suppressed.
Those accused have the right to contest the allegations but not to censor them. The only way to establish whether the allegations are lies or true is to hold the public inquiry into ‘state capture’ called for by the former Public Protector, which so far the President has refused to set up.
The federation demands that this public inquiry be set up as quickly as possible, so that there can be a thorough discussion of all allegations, not only Pauw’s, but the Guptaleaks emails, allegations about Eskom, Trillian, KPMG, Bell Pottinger, McKinsey, SAP, Peter Hain’s revelations about HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank and any others which people should be encouraged to submit.