Being an investigative journalist in South Africa could be one of the most exciting, albeit dangerous, professions right now, and it’s pretty spectacular what Jacques Pauw’s The President’s Keepers has done for investigative journalists in the country.

Of course, he’s not the only one making waves.

Another well-known name in the field is that of Mandy Wiener. Wiener is one of the country’s most credible journalists, having reported on crime in South Africa for the past decade and releasing books on Brett Kebble and Oscar Pistorius.

She aslo wrote a review on Pauw’s book for HuffPost – and it’s quite enjoyable:

When Jacques Pauw hung up his pen in 2014 and embarked on his new career as a chef-restaurateur in Riebeek-Kasteel, I and no doubt many other journalists breathed a selfish sigh of relief. In the competitive game of investigative journalism, scoops and sources are highly valued commodities and Pauw was a relentless breaker of sensational stories.

So when he dropped his explosive book “The President’s Keepers”, we knew we were going to be rocked. And we were. The entire country was and as his co-founder at the Vrye Weekblad exclaims on the cover, this is indeed dynamite.

…

He knows how to sex up a story and the narrative is thick with descriptive anecdote and his own cynical commentary.

You feel as though you are sitting at the bar with this veteran hack, over brandy and Cokes. It is his descriptions of how the Zuma presidency is ‘oozing Gupta puss from virtually every state orifice’ and how JZ has “unleashed a pack of Rottweilers” that paints the picture for the reader of the reality of the country. This is not a book you have to slog through like running across a desert with a sandbag over your head.

Having said that, though, it is dense and brimming with facts. It is not always an easy read as the cast of characters is full and diverse, the relationships are complex and the details intricate. This is not a book you should be keeping for the beach in Umhlanga over December. It’s far too depressing and draining. Many of the events Pauw writes about I have personally covered during my career, from the Jiba/Mrwebi/Breytenbach debacle at the NPA, the Mdluli/Killer/KGB mess at Crime Intelligence, the Sars rogue unit saga and the dirty world of Liffman, Agliotti and Mazzotti.

…

He has a remarkable ability to get spooks and spies to spill their guts. After all, he is the guy that exposed Vlakplaas and got Dirk Coetzee to come clean. He has been into the heart of the whore and now he is taking us back again with him.

And there you have it, the best parts, at least.

You can read Mandy’s full review over here on HuffPost.

[source:huffpost]