Defend Truth
Pieter-Louis Myburgh
What I cover
Prominent people doing bad things. My work primarily focuses on high-level corruption in the public sector, examining the illicit cash flows linking politicians and senior officials to dubious government contracts. Think Prasa’s “tall trains” scandal, the Free State’s R255-million asbestos debacle and former health minister Zweli Mkhize’s Digital Vibes mess... I’m drawn to topics and stories that, if properly investigated, may yield the biggest impact.
My background
I got my honours degree in journalism from Stellenbosch University. I worked at Beeld, Rapport and News24 before joining Daily Maverick in 2019. I’ve been fortunate to receive numerous awards for my investigative work, including three Taco Kuiper Awards, the country’s top accolade for investigative journalism. My books, The Republic of Gupta and Gangster State, were published in 2017 and 2019 respectively. I’ve had a brick thrown at my work car by Prasa’s former CEO – I guess it taught me to expect extreme belligerence from those impacted by our work, even those in the most senior positions.
Journalistic ethics
Ethics in journalism is more important than ever. Globally, trust in the media has been declining at a frightening rate, so it is our duty to continue doing our work in an ethical manner. My work largely relies on the forensic evidence I’m able to collect for my investigative exposés. It is impossible to produce impactful investigative journalism without these pieces of evidence, so in a way the craft of investigative journalism by necessity requires strong ethics. I could fabricate evidence for the sake of producing huge scoops, but the lie would eventually catch up with me. I’d be sued and exposed as a fraud.
