First the book: dramatic and damning revelations about our rulers, especially President Jacob Zuma and the cronies who keep him in power (and in the money). Now for the sequel: long-dormant agents of the law spring to life, like desert flowers savouring an unexpected flood.
Forget about the Guptas, their nefarious activities outlined in such lurid detail that Mr Plod himself would be hard-pressed not to obtain a conviction. Forget about the criminalconspiracy to infiltrate our state-owned enterprises, and the theft of billions of rands,outlined in former public protector Thuli Madonsela’s State of Capture report.
Amid all of this, from the NPA, the Hawks, the State Security Agency and the police,there is nothing but silence. Oh yes, the Hawks did stir briefly, to tell us they wereinvestigating the source of the e-mail leaks.So it is hard not to be cynical about the threats being made against investigative journalist Jacques Pauw, whose book The President’s Keepers, first brought to you by theSunday Times, has become a publishing sensation and is flying off the shelves faster thanit takes the Guptas to secure payment for a coal consignment to Eskom they may not have even delivered yet.
Perhaps we’re missing something here: is it possible that the assembled might of ourlaw enforcement agencies is there to protect just one man? And that man is Zuma, a manwho potentially faces 783 counts of fraud and who luxuriates in his ill-gotten gains whilepetty criminals languish in our jails, punished for a fraction of the offences Zuma wouldface if only the criminal justice system developed enough vertebrae to do its job...