Firstly, the Kaizer Chiefs response is not an intention to stoop to a level of mud-slinging but to at least attempt to let the reading public know the full account of what exactly transpired on Friday 20th January 2006.

The response also seeks to demonstrate your presentation of illogical contradictions that are capable of confusing the consumer of mediated messages.

On Friday at 11:00 you reported to the Kaizer Chiefs reception to request an interview with Mr. Emile Baron. In courtesy and by normal practice, you were personally ushered into the office of the Communications Manager (Yours Truly) without being asked if you had arranged any prior appointment with Mr. Baron or the Manager.

Upon arriving in the office of the Communications Manager, you introduced yourself as Nthuthuko Maphumulo, a student of Journalism that is on an internship programme with the Sowetan Sunday World who had been assigned to follow-up on the Emile Baron story by your Sports Editor.

You requested an immediate contact with the player and mentioned that you were pressed for some deadline since you were writing for a weekend publication.

The Communications Manager temporarily left his office to consult with both the Coach and the Team Manager to check if Mr. Baron was scheduled to train in the morning so that your request and deadline could be met.

On his return, the Manager reported that Mr. Baron was not in the team that was training at the time but would report for duty in the afternoon of the same day where the team would be conducting soccer clinics with local youth from neighbouring schools at the Soccer City.

The Manager generously gave you his business card and humbly invited your presence at the Soccer City whereat you could have all the time to interact with Mr. Baron without any fear since the clinics were also open to the media and you in particular.

The reading public should know that you Mr. Maphumulo did not show up or call to explain that you will not be present at the clinic.

You may have contacted both the Team Manager and the Coach for a response but in my case, there was no such contact.

I do not think that your request for Mr. Baron and my response that he was not present in the premises constituted a formal interview that later gave a statement like the one you presented in your article.

It was a simple request from an otherwise “deadline-pressed-would-be-journalist” who just appeared without any formalities and granted access to a business premises to interview his targeted source of news, a certain Mr. Emile Baron.

On the other hand, my extended invitation for your presence at the Soccer City was intended to grant you an opportunity to complete your task.

In short, there was no formal interview between yourself and the Communications Manager although you had your little green book wherein you hardly recorded any notes or official statement from him for that matter.

The only evidence of your presence at the Kaizer Chiefs village is a business card that was humbly presented to you to contact the Manager any time when you needed information on the player and upon your arrival at the stadium since it was so agreed.

The public must know that you did not call the Communications Manager for an official statement and neither did you arrive at the stadium since it was so arranged.

Now Sir, I ask you to explain to the public how on earth you quote me as having said “I do not know where Baron is” thus creating an impression of dereliction of duties on my part? How could you also sarcastically qualify such by stating that this response came from a Communications Manager who is supposed to know about happenings at the club and be able to give such relevant information to the media?

Maybe I should ask you to declare if a request for an interview with Mr. Baron and a subsequent attempt to get him to respond indeed constitutes a formal statement like “Ï don’t know where Baron is”.

If indeed in the context of your article it so does, it certainly would not have been a true reflection of what transpired since there was no such question posed as part of an interview with me.

The reading public should know that you had come looking for an interview with Baron and not with the communications Manager.

Secondly and with due respect Sir, how could Mr. Baron have mysteriously disappeared when two high-ranking officials stated that he was laid off because of his injuries.

Logic obviously dictates that Kaizer Chiefs knew that Mr. Baron was off sick for you to create such sensational and distorted headlines.

Essentially, and in the interest of the reading public, a sick player or an injured player may not be adjudged to have disappereared particularly when the technical team through consultation with the palyer and management agrees to lay him off!

Now I ask how could the Kaizer Chiefs Management have contradicted itself if two officials gave the same response on Mr. Baron’s whereabouts.

I may not be tempted to go further, rather I share some few lessons that I gathered as an avid consumer of mediated information. A seasoned Journalist Max Du Preez (2003) (I pray you know hi), once lamented that;

“Young journalists are still taught silly little dictums such as dog bites man is not news but man bites dog is. Reporters still get herograms from their editors for exposes, scoops, for beating competition, for getting the story first and rarely doing insightful, informative, balanced and well-written pieces” (2003)

If you surely fall into this category, may I suggest that you learn from Du Preez that it is not about cracking a news story or poking detrimental fun at the very subjects who may be your future source of news that makes you a crackerjack Journalist.

Your studies (Journalism) are about building professional and sustainable relationships with whoever is charged with the responsibility of giving you news anytime you humbly request for such. There is thus a difference between requesting for an interview and recording comments that are essentially statements after such an interview is granted.

Your studies are about Ethics (pardon if you haven’t reached that part of the curriculum) and how they impact on your profession and those whom you identify as your sources of news.

Your studies are no longer about sensationalism or fabrications rather they are about nation building and truth telling with integrity, transparency and consideration.

As for our story, yes I told you that Mr. Baron was not at the premises at the time of your request.

This was relevant and the most accurate information that I passed onto you in the context of your request for an interview with him (Baron) and not me.

Had you stated that our brief two-minute encounter was as official an interview, I would honestly not bother to respond because many public figures and innocent unsuspecting people have fallen victim to misquotes in print media.

I am used to that and so is Kaizer Chiefs thus I may not have been this concerned but concluded that the misquotation happens all the time. Yours was therefore not a misquote, but a misrepresentation of the profession you are pursuing.

For the record, Mr. Baron is still awaiting your interview and similarly, I am waiting too to give you a full low-down of his whereabouts, his challenges, injuries and many others that would indeed give your scoop, if only you ask!

NB: The opinions expressed in this articles may not be necessary be representative of Kaizer Chiefs.