Allegations about President Jacob Zuma’s criminal network, his connections to alleged cigarette smugglers and his “salary” of R1 million from a Durban security company for a number of months after he was sworn in as president, are merely the “tip of the iceberg”.

Jacques Pauw, whose recently released book, The President’s Keepers – Those Keeping Zuma in Power and out of Prison, makes these explosive revelations.

Extracts published in the Sunday Times yesterday detailed several allegations linking controversial tobacco mogul Adriano Mazzotti to Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s presidential campaign. It also alleges that Zuma and his son, Edward, received millions of rands in bribes and payments from Mazzotti, who allegedly dodged a R600 million tax bill from the SA Revenue Service (Sars).

Senior people at Sars and the police were prepared to talk to me as their way of fighting back against what is happening

The Presidency issued a denial yesterday, claiming the allegations were clearly a part of the “smear campaigns” his office has referred to in the past.

“President Zuma has declared to the relevant authorities all income received and allegations contained in the report are misleading and are clearly part of the ongoing smear campaigns.

“The tax matters of the president are in order. The president has also not received any information related to taxes linked to the Nkandla upgrades, as alleged by the media.”

Pauw said the book details how the law enforcement agencies, “Sars, Crime Intelligence, the police, they have basically all been destroyed. There is nothing left and it’s been destroyed in order to protect the president”.

He said while Zuma seemed unaffected by several scandals, including state capture allegations and the leaked Gupta e-mails, his book was testament to the fact that many high-level officials in state institutions wanted to expose the rot in the system.

“Senior people at Sars and the police were prepared to talk to me as their way of fighting back against what is happening. That, together with the independence of the judiciary, shows the incredible resilience of South Africans who are fighting back. People are prepared to take a risk and leak information.

“In Sars, for example, there is incredible unhappiness about what [commissioner Tom] Moyane has done to Sars, with criminals like Mark Lifman and the like getting away with multibillion-rand tax bills, but officials are fighting back.”

People are prepared to take a risk and leak information

Private investigator Paul O’Sullivan said he was investigating several of those named in the article, including alleged tobacco smuggler Yusuf Kajee – who, according to Pauw’s sources, had been bankrolling Edward Zuma – and notorious underworld figure Lloyd Hill.

“There have always been links between Zuma and these guys, it’s not recent. As far back as three years ago, I had a docket opened on Kajee and the dealings between him and Edward Zuma.”

O’Sullivan predicted the ANC would likely rig the December elections in favour of Dlamini-Zuma. He based that on information he recently received: the ANC was trying to push the Independent Electoral Commission to change its software in a bid, he alleged, to allow them to hack the system.

The ANC could not be reached yesterday to respond to the claim.

– simnikiweh@citizen.co.za

https://citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/1707726/ndzs-own-branch-says-no-thanks-to-her-bid-for-anc-presidency/

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