UPDATE: Journalist Oliver Meth found, to give police statement

Journalist Oliver Meth has been found safe.

The 34-year-old said he was fine and that he had been taken to a healthcare facility to receive medical attention.

“From here I’ll report to the Florida SAPS to make a statement and will be resting then after,” he said.

His friends and family had taken to social media desperately seeking help to locate him after they last heard from him more than a week ago.

According to Florida SAPS missing persons circulation, he had last been seen at the Bree Street taxi rank on 8 April, where he was to get a taxi to his house in Parkview from Horizon View.

The 34-year-old was last seen wearing light blue denim jeans, black takkies and a multicolour jersey with the words ‘Kasie Certified’.

The SAPS has identified his distinguishing marks as a scar across the bridge of his nose and an indented cut-like scar on his outer right hand.

https://twitter.com/aissatoux/status/1250910579134529538

If you have any information about the whereabouts of our colleague #OliverMeth, please help us find him. You can contact the police in Florida, Johannesburg on 011 837 7000. pic.twitter.com/Dar3DpvWNY

— Nontobeko Magala (@OkaElohim) April 16, 2020

Please share and help find our colleague @oliver_meth. This is so worrying 💔 https://t.co/BJuvNwdhRf

— Cathy Mohlahlana (@CathyMohlahlana) April 16, 2020

Meth recently opened up to The Citizen about the backlash he faced after allegations made on social media regarding his involvement in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s successful CR17 campaign for the ANC presidency.

“The constant abuse is too much,” he said.

“On a daily basis, I am called ‘anti-black, defender of white monopoly capital, rented journalist, a spy and part of a media cabal’ – all because of the misconception created over the CR17 saga.”

Meth was revealed as one of those who received money from CR17 in a report on leaked campaign emails, but he had been transparent about his involvement in CR17 before the emails began circulating and said he was not a journalist but a student at the time he functioned as a freelance campaign consultant in 2017.

He said that the abuse on Twitter had affected his day-to-day life, with people screaming at him at public gatherings and social spaces. He said he now constantly feared being recognised.

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