Publishers withdraw apartheid ‘paedophile ring’ book

Publishers in South Africa have withdrawn a controversial book that accused ministers in the country’s white-minority regime of being part of a paedophile ring. 

NB Publishers decided to pull ‘The Lost Boys of Bird Island’ following legal pressure on behalf of former finance minister Barend du Plessis. 

Although Mr Du Plessis was not named in the book, the publishers accepted there was enough information to identify him as “an involved party”.

The ex-minister described the allegations in the book as “a web of lies”. 

NB Publishers issued a statement apologising “unreservedly” for the implications regarding Mr Du Plessis, however they refused to extend this apology to “any other person identified in the book”. 

Two other ministers mentioned in the book - Magnus Malan and John Wiley - are both dead. 

Mr Du Plessis’ legal representatives issued a statement to local media saying it was an “inescapable fact” that “32 years since the alleged acts would have occurred, there has been no evidence whatsoever from any of many investigations, that implicates any of the ministers in the despicable crimes alleged in the book”.

The book was initially published in August 2018, gaining mass media attention in South Africa at the time. Shortly after its release one of the authors, Mark Minnie, was found dead in his home from an apparent suicide. 

Photo: NB Publishers