Pauw said Govender’s removal came at a time when he and Myburgh were preparing an urgent court application to the Durban High Court to prevent him from arresting them.
Brigadier AW Holby‚ the head of the provincial detective services in KwaZulu-Natal‚ confirmed the dockets had been removed from the police station.
He said he would handle the investigation himself.
Pauw said Holby informed him and Myburgh that it was not necessary for them to report to the Durban North police station on Wednesday.
“He said he had not even had a chance to look at the dockets because everything literally happened today (Tuesday) … We are just very relieved that [Govender] has been removed from the case‚” Pauw said.
He added that he hoped this marked the beginning of an “era of more transparency” by the authorities.
“Now we call on the prosecuting authorities and police to investigate the substance of the allegations in books such as mine and Myburgh’s and the #GuptaLeaks stories rather than … [shooting] the messenger.”
Durban cop removed from the Jacques Pauw probe
The investigating officer in the case against The President’s Keepers author Jacques Pauw and fellow investigative journalist Pieter-Louis Myburgh has been removed from the investigation.
The removal of Colonel Reuben Govender from the case was communicated to the two journalists’ lawyer‚ Willem de Klerk‚ by the KwaZulu-Natal provincial police authorities on Tuesday.
Govender had asked Pauw and Myburgh to report to the Durban North police station on Wednesday.
Pauw said he and Myburgh had been in negotiations with Govender for the past two weeks.
“He did not want to say if he had a warrant for our arrest‚” Pauw said.
Pauw said Govender’s removal came at a time when he and Myburgh were preparing an urgent court application to the Durban High Court to prevent him from arresting them.
Brigadier AW Holby‚ the head of the provincial detective services in KwaZulu-Natal‚ confirmed the dockets had been removed from the police station.
He said he would handle the investigation himself.
Pauw said Holby informed him and Myburgh that it was not necessary for them to report to the Durban North police station on Wednesday.
“He said he had not even had a chance to look at the dockets because everything literally happened today (Tuesday) … We are just very relieved that [Govender] has been removed from the case‚” Pauw said.
He added that he hoped this marked the beginning of an “era of more transparency” by the authorities.
“Now we call on the prosecuting authorities and police to investigate the substance of the allegations in books such as mine and Myburgh’s and the #GuptaLeaks stories rather than … [shooting] the messenger.”