title: Our Poisoned Land
text: # Our Poisoned Land
  
  * This article is part of a series about Jacob Zuma
  
  Political career
  
  African National Congress
  
  President (2009–2018)
  
  President of the African National Congress (2007–2017)
  
  Deputy President (1999–2005)
  
  Presidency
  
  Mandela Day
  
  Marikana strike
  
  Domestic policy
  
  Infrastructure and nuclear deal
  
  HIV/AIDS in South Africa
  
  Zuma Must Fall campaign
  
  Governments
  
  First Cabinet
  
  Second Cabinet
  
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  2009
  
  2014
  
  Post-presidency
  
  2021 South African unrest
  
  Books about Zuma
  
  Enemy of the People
  
  Khwezi
  
  The President's Keepers
  
  The Republic of Gupta
  
  A Simple Man
  
  Our Poisoned Land
  
  Controversy, trials and arrests
  
  Schabir Shaik trial
  
  Rape trial
  
  Corruption trial
  
  Nkandla compound firepool controversy
  
  Rape of Lady Justice cartoon
  
  The Spear
  
  Media gallery :
  
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  Our Poisoned Land: Living in the Shadows of Zuma's Keepers a 2022 book by Jacques Pauw, a South African investigative journalist, about the allegedly corrupt power networks between the South African government and the country's political elite, most notably the African National Congress (ANC). The book follows on from Pauw's 2017 book The President's Keepers but with greater focus on government institutions not looked at in the previous book and the State Security Agency (SSA). It is updated to include findings from government committees and investigations such as the Zondo Commission. It asks why, after 5 years since the end of the Zuma administration, have most people implicated in state corruption still not been prosecuted and examines efforts to fight corruption in the post-Jacob Zuma ANC government under Cyril Ramaphosa.
  
  ## Synopsis
  
  A particular focus of the book is on the SSA and its head, appointed by President Jacob Zuma, Arthur Fraser. It examines a number of issues ranging from the allegedly corrupt systematic funneling of large sums of public money from the SSA to fund the ANC, and internal ANC power battles in support of former president Zuma, to alleged links between the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Julius Malema, and suspected illicit tobacco trader Adriano Mazzotti. The book alleges that a number of corrupt senior police officials and prosecutors in the SAPS, crime intelligence, Hawks, and the National Prosecuting Authority are still in positions of power thereby preventing investigations and prosecutions for state corruption.
  
  ## Reception
  
  Allegations in the book by Pauw connecting the Malema and other senior EFF members to organised crime resulted in the EFF trying to block the sale of the book through legal action. It was speculated in the media that, similar to the Zuma's efforts to ban the Presidents Keepers, these efforts resulted in a Streisand effect that helped boost sales of the book. Jeremy Gordin, in a review for the South African political news aggregator PoliticsWeb, described the book as being more about the "life and “adventures”" of the author than as a sequel to the Presidents Keepers whilst also being a "thorough, proficient (and sometimes entertaining) compilation" of the state corruption it examines.
  
  The book was the number one Christmas best selling book in South Africa in 2022.
  
  