I Will Not Be Silenced

'I witnessed, again and again, how Zuma and his supporters viciously targeted anyone who sought to hold him accountable for his conduct . . . This is not only my story, and the reason I'm writing it is not just personal; it is also to honour all those who were targeted for speaking up long before I was.'

As a young journalist, roped into court reporting to cover Jacob Zuma's 2006 rape trial, Karyn Maughan could not have known that she would be reporting on Zuma's legal woes for the next two decades. She would become an expert, the only journalist who covered his corruption case from the start still reporting on him - and the first journalist who herself would become his target.

In September 2022, Zuma would privately instigate an unjustified prosecution against Karyn and Billy Downer, the state prosecutor in his corruption trial. Forced to sit in the dock and to endure social media vilification and traumatic threats of violence, Karyn had to travel with armed bodyguards.

This book tells the story of a respected journalist baselessly prosecuted by a former president, a first in South Africa and the world. Disarmingly honest and deeply personal, it also takes a razor-sharp look at how powerful men use attacks on individuals who try to hold them accountable, as well as on the media and the courts, to undermine democracy.

'Brave and brilliant. Jacob Zuma found his match in Karyn Maughan.'

- Adriaan Basson