'Daily Maverick' Admits Error in Collen Mashawana Story but Rejects Claims of Defamation in Court Response

The legal showdown between businessman Collen Mashawana and Daily Maverick has intensified, with the publication filing a supplementary affidavit in response to Mashawana’s urgent application to block further reporting about him.

The matter, now before the High Court, revolves around a reporting error, claims of reputational damage, and deeper allegations involving a controversial luxury property.

Mashawana is seeking an urgent interdict against Daily Maverick and two of its journalists, arguing they have engaged in “a campaign of publishing false and defamatory statements” against him. His latest court filing highlights a Daily Maverick article, published on 25 August 2025, which incorrectly stated that Mashawana had claimed in his court papers that payments made to suspended IDT CEO Tebogo Malaka were loans.

“Daily Maverick's article was published on Monday night, 25 August 2025, at around 20H52. It was written by one of our senior reporters, Rebecca Davis. Unfortunately, Ms Davis committed an error in her reportage. In the 8th paragraph of the article, it was stated that Mr Mashawana claimed in his court papers that ‘the payments made to (Ms) Malaka were loans.’”

Daily Maverick has admitted the error but says it was corrected within 25 minutes by investigative journalist Pieter Louis Myburgh. The corrected version clarified that Mashawana had in fact denied making any payments towards Malaka’s property.

In their affidavit, the respondents emphasise that the article had only 255 views before the correction and had not yet been shared on social media. They argue that Mashawana’s claims of reputational harm are overstated and unsupported by the article’s limited reach.

“The applicant’s attempt to exploit a short lived, corrected mistake to secure an interdict is without merit,” the affidavit states. “This was an honest reporting error made under deadline pressure while working through voluminous legal documents.”

Daily Maverick says it acted in good faith and only published the article after other media outlets had reported on the matter in ways it considered incomplete. Davis and Myburgh have submitted affidavits confirming the error was not deliberate and was promptly corrected.

But the current legal dispute stems from an earlier investigative piece titled Malaka’s Mansion, published on 11 August 2025. That report linked Mashawana to a R16 million luxury home reportedly under construction for Malaka. It alleged that Mashawana, through his Collen Mashawana Foundation, made at least two payments towards the property while benefiting from a R60 million IDT contract tied to the Expanded Public Works Programme.

Mashawana has strongly denied all the allegations.

“I categorically deny any involvement in the financing or construction of the property. The claims are entirely false and misleading,” he states in his affidavit.

“The article falsely portrays me as a corrupt and dishonest individual engaged in the misappropriation of public funds. These allegations are defamatory and have caused irreparable harm to my name, my businesses, and the work of my foundation.”