Malema and EFF leadership demand Jacques Pauw’s new book be removed from shelves

EFF leader Julius Malema has demanded that copies of Jacques Pauw’s latest book, Our Poisoned Land, be removed from shelves.

According to The South African, Malema’s legal team have submitted a lawyer’s letter to Pauw and NB Publishers in an attempt to ban sales of the new book.
The book contains damning allegations against the EEF leader, including details about Malema’s relationship with tobacco trader Adriano Mazzotti.

In a letter submitted by Malema’s legal team, they want a full apology as well as a retraction of the book itself and they have accused the publishers of distributing “untrue and defamatory” content.

“We demand the immediate withdrawal of ‘Our Poisoned Land’. Both Mr Jacques Pauw and NB Publishers must unconditionally apologise to Julius Malema, Floyd Shivambu, Mbuyiseni Ndlozi and the EFF as a whole, for their untrue and defamatory allegations,” the letter further reads.

Pauw, who refers to the book as “the book Julius Malema does not want you to see” accused the EFF of “using threats” to try and stop his book from being published.

“This is the book Julius Malema does not want you to see. The EFF’s demands are reminiscent of similar attempts, almost exactly five years ago, when the spy boss Arthur Fraser threatened to use intelligence legislation to remove ‘The President’s Keepers’ from the shelves,” Pauw said.

Meanwhile, NB Publishers has confirmed that it has received an urgent letter of demand on Monday from lawyers representing Julius Malema, Floyd Shivambu, and Mbuyiseni Ndlozi, asking them to withdraw the book.
The publisher said: “We stand by our author and the book and the information in the book was properly sourced, and lawfully published and demands for removal and apologies have been rejected.”

In 2017, Pauw released The President’s Keepers which alleged former president Jacob Zuma, for the first four years of his presidency had not filed his tax returns to Sars and that he had also received R1m monthly salary for several months in 2009 without declaring this to tax authorities.

The book also claimed that SARS commissioner Tom Moyane was shielding Zuma from his tax obligations over the fringe benefits he had accrued when public money was used to renovate his private homestead at Nkandla.