NATIONAL NEWS - In response to a scathing review on Thursday of her book with Mark Minnie, The Lost Boys of Bird Island, co-author Chris Steyn unravelled much of the criticism investigative journalist Jacques Pauw had initially levelled at her.
Writing on News24, Steyn denied that she had never declared her marriage to a Civil Cooperation Bureau commander, but that it was not mentioned in the book since it was not relevant. Her publishers had known, though, and she’d mentioned it in interviews.
She pointed out that Pauw appeared guilty of not reading her book “carefully enough”, since he got important names of individuals and institutions wrong, and made certain assumptions that were never stated in the book, such as that they had written about “army helicopters”.
Steyn said: “Pauw calls the late Mark Minnie a ‘sloppy’ cop. Yet, he himself makes crucial mistakes in his comments on the book. If he was still alive, Minnie would have returned the compliment and charged Pauw with ‘sloppy’ journalism.”
Minnie committed suicide last month shortly after the book became a bestselling sensation.
She told Pauw he’d apparently confused two stories about alleged paedophile victims, while also getting wrong the details of how ARVs were offered to one of them.
Steyn also maintained that Minnie had been pulled off the investigation by the then president, PW Botha, and that Minnie had indeed tried to help the boys, contrary to Pauw’s allegations.
