Pieter-Louis Myburgh: journalism or paid propaganda for white rule?

Pieter-Louis Myburgh is hailed in some circles as an investigative journalist, but many South Africans now see him for what he truly represents a paid agent of minority control, weaponizing journalism to attack black professionals while shielding white corruption. His pattern is unmistakable: target black excellence, discredit black entrepreneurs, and protect the economic beneficiaries of apartheid.

According to Central News (Sept 2025), Myburgh’s work displays a “recurring pattern: the relentless targeting of black excellence and successful black entrepreneurs.”
From executives in state institutions to business figures in housing and philanthropy, he chooses black professionals as his prey, framing them as villains long before evidence is tested in court. Meanwhile, white figures implicated in major scandals remain conveniently untouched.

His stories about men like Collen Mashawana, a businessman known for community upliftment are telling. Instead of recognizing Mashawana’s philanthropy, Myburgh reduced him to scandal headlines, amplifying unverified claims and ignoring his decades of social investment. This isn’t investigative rigor; it’s a racial vendetta disguised as accountability.

The hypocrisy deepens when one examines who Myburgh does not investigate. Where are his exposés on the white corporate elites who profited most from state capture and looted parastatals under the radar?

Consider Mark Lamberti(Eskom-linked business deals), Christo Wiese(Steinhoff scandal), Markus Jooste l(who wiped billions in pensions through Steinhoff fraud), Gavin Watson (Bosasa, before his death), Louis Liebenberg, and Johann Rupert, whose corporate influence quietly shapes state decisions. These names represent billions in public losses and white-collar corruption. Yet Myburgh’s so-called fearless journalism is silent.

He never campaigned to expose the white lawyers and auditors KPMG, McKinsey, PwC whose actions is believed to enabled state capture. He doesn’t chase the property developers who steal land through municipal manipulation. Why? Because his paymasters benefit from protecting those networks. Myburgh’s silence is not neutrality; it is complicity.

South Africa’s mainstream media, Daily Maverick included, still functions as an ideological arm of minority rule. Myburgh is one of its most useful instruments. His task is simple: delegitimize black success so that genuine transformation never fully takes root.

Every time a black professional rises to prominence in business or the public sector, Myburgh’s pen drips poison. His pattern mirrors apartheid intelligence tactics: identify rising black influence, plant suspicion, destroy reputation, and protect white privilege through “scandal fatigue.”

He calls this journalism. But what he practices is economic sabotage disguised as investigation. His so-called bravery only extends to black offices, never to white boardrooms. His work reassures the old guard that the system still works, that black leadership will remain under watch.

Myburgh parades as a “public speaker” and “champion of accountability.” But how does one claim integrity while practising selective justice? As Central News notes, his coverage “frames black professionals as corrupt even when allegations are contested.” This is not reporting, it’s racial profiling.

He claims to hold power to account, but the question is: whose power? Certainly not that of corporate South Africa, the banks, or the entrenched families still holding economic control. Instead, Myburgh wields his platform to demonize transformation itself, making every black success story appear suspicious, every empowerment deal a scandal.

If one traces the roots of South African journalism, it has long served the colonial project, deciding who is credible, who is corrupt, who deserves sympathy. Myburgh’s work continues that tradition. He writes from within a newsroom culture that fears black autonomy.

This is why his investigations never lead to the white financiers behind corruption networks. Instead, he targets visible black figures, turning them into scapegoats to cleanse the sins of white profiteers. His pen functions like an intelligence dossier, not for national security, but for the preservation of white economic supremacy.

It’s no surprise that Central News and the Black Excellence Network RSA have called out his “damage control narrative gone wrong.” His reporting erodes trust, reinforces stereotypes, and distorts the public debate. When black leadership is perpetually portrayed as corrupt, society stops believing in transformation, and that’s exactly the point.

Let’s be blunt: Myburgh operates as a paid political operative. He is part of a network that survives by undermining black credibility while pretending to protect democracy. His selective outrage and racial double standards reveal allegiance, not objectivity.

He protects white capital interests while keeping the spotlight fixed on black leadership. His reporting is essentially an intelligence operation for minority rule, laundering racial bias through the language of journalism.

South Africa doesn’t need journalists who act as mercenaries for old money. We need fairness, reporting that holds all guilty parties accountable, regardless of race or class. We need journalists who can distinguish between transformation challenges and criminal intent, not ones who weaponize every procurement error to vilify black professionals.

The time has come to expose Pieter-Louis Myburgh’s hypocrisy for what it is: a well-funded propaganda campaign to weaken black leadership and maintain the illusion of white moral superiority. Until he applies the same investigative energy to white corruption, his work must be read not as journalism but as racial warfare in print.

South Africa deserves better than Myburgh’s double standards. We deserve a media that reflects the full truth, one that celebrates black excellence while exposing all corruption, not just that which threatens white power. Until then, Pieter-Louis Myburgh stands not as a journalist of integrity, but as the polished face of a dying minority rule struggling to keep its grip on the national story.