Pauw alert to ominous silence on legal front

Author and investigative journalist Jacques Pauw says the days of silence by some of those who have threatened legal action against him is because they are coming up with new strategies on how next to confront him. ‘They've been very quiet... (State Security Agency DG) Arthur Fraser is sitting back and trying to devise another strategy,’ he said, in reference to the State Security Agency's (SSA) attempts to have him retract certain parts of his book and the agency's threats of legal action against him. Pauw said attempts to clamp down on his acclaimed book, The President's Keepers, at this stage were ‘laughable’. A News24 report notes he was speaking on Friday as part of a panel on state capture at the 10th Global Investigative Journalism Conference being held at Wits University. More than 1 000 investigative reporters from around the world have gathered there. Earlier, Pauw said he had heard that on Monday morning last week a police officer tried to secure a warrant for his arrest in Pietermaritzburg. However, the officer had failed as a magistrate did not authorise it. Pauw said the warrant related to five charges including fraud and crimen injuria, and relating to the contravention of the Tax Administration Act. He was unsure about whether police would again try to get the warrant authorised via another magistrate. Pauw said the Organised Crime Unit of the Hawks was investigating him. The Hawks have confirmed they were investigating a leak of classified information that was published in Pauw's book. However they said they were not investigating Pauw himself, but the source of the leak.