THE UNLIKELY MR ROGUE, a life with Ivan Pillay

423pp., paperback, Johannesburg, 2020

Dutch investigative journalist Evelyn Groenink is married to anti-apartheid activist Ivan Pillay. Pillay was born in 1953 in Merebank, KwaZulu-Natal. In 1977 he went into exile in Swaziland and joined Umkhonto we Sizwe. Later, from Lusaka, he co-ordinated Operation Vula. It was in Lusaka that he met Groenink. They returned to South Africa in 1992 and in 1999 he joined the South African Revenue Service, later becoming Deputy Commissioner, and ultimately Acting Commissioner. A smear campaign was conducted against him and he was forced to resign in 2015. He was vindicated when the Press Ombudsman ruled that stories published in the Sunday Times with regards to a "rogue unit" at SARS were "inaccurate, misleading and unfair". He now works as a private consultant for companies and state enterprises interested in improving governance and rooting out corruption.

"Pillay's rollercoaster journey from the trenches in exile to heading SARS to becoming Mr Rogue...captivating, unmissable and a prescribed read" Jacques Pauw, author of The President's Keepers

"The complex tale of a freedom fighter whose values would be severely tested across two epochs... For the Unlikely Mr Rogue, who will defy friend and foe in the fight for principle and ethics, his vindication is simply the correct outcome." Redi Tlhabi, author of Khwezi

Evelyn Groenink is the author of Incorruptible: the story of the murders of Dulcie September, Anton Lubowski and Chris Hani.