12 July 2023 – The South African Football Association (SAFA) has noted journalist Pauli van Wyk’s relentless attempt to smear the reputations of several individuals at the Association, and enough is enough.
We will not engage her and employers Daily Maverick any further going forward. This is not the first time that she is running such a campaign as her modus operandi is to run a series of malicious, accusatory and defamatory stories, with little regard to journalistic principles and ethics.
She announced to us that she would run a series of stories on SAFA before even writing a single word, or with the benefit of interrogating our responses. Her mind was already made up and anything we said was secondary to her objective.
Her actions over the past few days have confirmed that this was never about a pursuit of unbiased journalism or even informing the readers – this is about regime change in South African football. However,
FIFA does not allow for the removal of democratically elected officials through undemocratic means by third parties.
So regrettably, we have decided that we will not engage her any further as an independent, objective and unbiased reporter, and neither will we entertain Daily Maverick.
In any event, these issues have been dealt with and answered on numerous previous occasions, over a period of more than a decade. All of these have been proved to be false and malicious, and we have been advised that the same will be dealt with at the appropriate time, in the appropriate forum should and when the need arise.
