The Young Lions in ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule’s home province, the Free State, have labelled Pieter-Louis Myburgh’s book Gangster State: unravelling Ace Magashule’s web of capture, which was released last week, as “puke”.

They are planning to burn the books at Mangaung’s dumping site on Monday, according to ANCYL Free State spokesperson Sello Pietersen.

The threat comes as the Johannesburg launch of Myburgh’s book was disrupted by protesters who ripped copies of the book and threw pages around before security at Sandton Exclusive Books escorted them out.

Singing and chanting continues. #AceMagashule #GangsterState @PLMyburgh. Copies of the book being rippied and pages thrown around. Security escorts protestors out of @ExclusiveBooks Sandton City. pic.twitter.com/JPfn4jv1GK

— Penguin Books SA (@PenguinBooksSA) April 9, 2019

Last week, Magashule accused Myburgh of being a “blatant liar”, suggesting Magashule had never received any questions about his alleged involvement in kickbacks and corruption in the Free State during his tenure as premier.

“The ANCYL in the Free State Province would like to notify and invite society to a session where Pieter-Louis Myburgh’s puke disguised as a book about the secretary-general of the ANC will be burned. We have arrived at this sober decision driven by our deepest sense of a need to maintain a clean environment free of garbage such as this one produced by this strat-com product,” said Pietersen.

The party continued that it has become a matter of common knowledge that “this rubbish” is not only badly written but poorly researched as well, with the sole intention of casting aspersions on the character and the person of the secretary-general of the ANC.

“We wish to state it categorically that we are unapologetic about our support to the secretary-general of the ANC, Ace Magashule, who is a tried and tested product of the African National Congress, nurtured, grilled and baptised in the traditions and values of our movement. We, therefore, do not need any endorsement from white monopoly capital agents regarding his struggle credentials, we know them and shall defend him.

“We, therefore, urge society to bring along as many copies of this puke as possible, as well as any material that reflects the barbaric past such as the old apartheid flag, along to our fireplace,” Pietersen said.

Myburgh responded that the call to burn his book was sad and unfortunate.

“It is unfortunate and sad that leaders would encourage people to do such a thing. If the allegations contained in the book are untrue, they must challenge them instead of instigating people to burn their copies. On the other hand, buying the book in large numbers will be a support in disguise,” he said.

In the book, Myburgh alleges that Magashule tried to force one of his MECs, Mxolisi Dukwana, to work with the Guptas, directing spending of R2-billion in housing contracts to politically connected business people and demanding kickbacks for the awarding of provincial government tenders, earning him the nickname “Mr 10 percent” in some circles.

“The man must appear before the court of law and tell the court how I was running the Free State. I was one of the most democratic leaders, I can tell you, this book is talking about my struggle credentials, fortunately, some of the people are still alive… In South Africa, I am not fake, in the history of the struggle I am not fake. Things will be exposed in a court of law. These are simple lies,” Magashule told eNCA recently. DM