History of the Press in South Africa

History of the press in South Africa
During the apartheid era, newspapers had to apply for registration if they published more than 11 times a year. An arbitrary amount was also required before registration was approved.
The government also enforced regulations controlling what newspapers could or could not publish, especially relating to articles and comment on activities against the apartheid system. Newspapers were, for instance, not allowed to quote banned organisations and their spokesmen, or report on conditions inside prisons or the activities of the security forces.
At the height of the anti-apartheid struggle in the 1980s, when two states of emergency were declared, censorship regulations were tightened. Newspapers were barred from reporting on any demonstrations or activity against the apartheid government or any of its laws.
The threat of closure forced newspaper editors to apply a self-censorship policy, while other papers printed blank pages or whole paragraphs blacked out as a sign of protest.

The English press
The history of the South African English newspaper industry is linked to the mining industry, as mining tycoons established or acquired newspapers through Johannesburg Consolidated Investments, a subsidiary of mining giant Anglo American.
Independent Newspapers, South Africa's largest newspaper group, traces its history back to 1889 when Francis Dormer established the Argus Printing Company, which had close links with mining magnate Cecil Rhodes.
The Argus Printing Company was renamed Argus Newspapers Ltd after it was taken over by Anglo American. Anglo American ended its ties with Argus Newspapers in 1994 when it sold 31% of its stake to Tony O’Reilly, the owner of Independent Newspapers and Media of Ireland.
Johnnic Publishing, formerly Times Media Ltd, also had its roots in mining. Abe Bailey, a mining tycoon, bought the Rand Daily Mail in 1902 and the Sunday Times in 1906. In 1937, Bailey added the Sunday Express to his stable, and out of these publications the South African Associated Newspapers was formed in 1965.
Anglo further reduced its involvement in newspapers when it sold 35% of its shareholding in Times Media Ltd - which it owned through Omni Media Corporation - to the National Empowerment Consortium, a grouping of black businesses and trade unions.
But as mining interests were curtailed in newspaper ownership, foreign ownership became a factor. Independent Newspapers is a wholly foreign-owned company after O'Reilly's company bought the rest of Argus Newspapers' shares in the 1990s.

The Afrikaans press
The Afrikaans press, on the other hand, was established mainly as a reaction to the liberal views expressed in some of the English papers, particularly relating to issues such as slavery, the tensions between the Dutch farmers and the Xhosas, and the work of the missionaries in the Cape.
The editors of earlier Afrikaans newspapers were, in most cases, ministers of religion who were committed to strict Calvinistic ethics. The papers were also more concerned with the Afrikaner cause against British domination than with being commercial ventures.
The press was seen as a cultural and political weapon for the promotion of the Afrikaans language and political independence, as well as for drumming up support against the perceived threat of black nationalism.
The first newspaper to propagate the interests of Afrikaners and the Dutch, De Zuid-Afrikaan, was started in 1830 by Christoffel Joseph Brand, an advocate who was unpopular with the British colonial authorities. In its third year its subscription base rose to 3 000 when Afrikaners from the other British-annexed parts of South Africa embraced it. It folded in 1904, however, after losing its influential backers following its editor's support for Cecil Rhodes in the clash against the Afrikaner leader Paul Kruger.
The present-day Afrikaner press, which has its roots in the political split among Afrikaners over participation in World War 1, has extensive interests outside of the newspaper industry. These include stakes in the telecommunications, information technology, entertainment and publishing industries.

The black press
The origins of the black press in South Africa is linked to the establishment of mission stations in the Eastern Cape and the work between missionaries and indigenous people. The missionaries taught literacy to black people and in the process transferred the skills and resources necessary for publishing.
The first newspaper intended for black readers, Umshumayeli Wendaba (Publisher of the News), was printed at the Wesleyan Mission Society in Grahamstown from 1837 to 1841. Many others followed, the most significant being Imvo Zabantsundu (African Opinion), started by John Tengo Jabavu in King William’s Town in 1884.
Jabavu had resigned his editorship of a missionary-owned paper, Isigidimi samaXhosa, after convincing himself of the need to publish newspapers independent of missionary control. His paper was the first to be written, owned and controlled by black people.
Other black-owned newspapers that followed were associated with the establishment of political movements for blacks, with editors more radical than Jabavu. The papers included Izwi laBantu, started in 1897 by AK Soga; Ilanga lase Natal (The Natal Sun), started by John Dube in 1903; the ANC’s Abantu-Batho, formed in 1912; and the Indian Opinion, established in 1903 by Mahatma Gandhi, the founder of the Indian National Congress.
But lack of capital, equipment, skilled workers and a reliable distribution network saw the entry of white capital into the ownership and control of the black press.
This started in 1932 with the establishment of Bantu Press Ltd by an ex-farmer who saw the potential of profits to be made in the black market. Bertram Paver inaugurated a national newspaper, Bantu World, a tabloid modelled on the British Daily Mirror, which represented a move away from a local to a national black press.
Bantu Press was, 14 months after its establishment, taken over by the Argus Newspaper company, which controlled it until 1952. The Argus company soon became the first monopoly in the black press, with 10 weekly papers in the southern African region, and handled advertising for 12 publications in 11 languages.
Jim Bailey, the son of mining tycoon Abe Bailey, started Drum in 1951 and then Golden City Post in 1955, which were both aimed at black readers. Both publications were run by white editors brought to South Africa from Fleet Street newspapers.
The next phase in the development of the black press came in the 1990s when Anglo American, through Johannesburg Consolidated Investments, sold some of its publication and newspaper companies, such as Sowetan and Times Media Ltd, to black business groups in empowerment deals facilitated by the advent of democracy in 1994.

The protest press
South Africa had a huge number of opposition newspapers during the apartheid years; some lasted for only a few issues, while others are still in publication.
The more mainstream newspapers to specifically provide news and opinion in opposition to the Nationalist government policies included the Weekly Mail - founded after the liberal Rand Daily Mail was closed down - Vrye Weekblad, New Nation and South.
These had a wider national readership and were able to secure advertising and distribution. The state nevertheless attempted to shut them down by banning and seizing specific issues, with serious financial consequences for the papers.
The anti-apartheid press was also made up of smaller newspapers, produced by organisations and educational institutions. One of these was Sash, originally known as the Black Sash, produced by the Black Sash organisation from 1956 to 1994.
The organisation, largely made up of middle-class white women, mounted petitions, protests, marches and vigils to oppose apartheid, all of which were detailed in the newspaper. It brought issues such as pass laws, migrant labour, the Group Areas and Bantu Education Acts, forced removals, detention without trial and land reform to the attention of white South Africans.
Grassroots was started in 1980, the first of a series of anti-apartheid community newspapers, with a circulation that grew up to 20 000. The paper struggled financially, but was helped by small donations and advertising sold to small Cape Town traders. Eight months after Grassroots began its first organiser, Johnny Issel, was banned. The newspaper managed to survive until 1990.
Work in Progress was a trade union publication, produced from 1977 to 1994 and founded by University of Witwatersrand postgraduate students. It both challenged a number of bannings and made inroads into Publications Act committees declaring its material undesirable. In July 1994 Work in Progress was incorporated into Southern Africa Report.
The African Communist was first produced by the South African Communist Party in 1959. Produced in London, it was moved to South Africa in 1990. Jeremy Cronin is the current editor.
Critical Health focused on health issues in the context of the prevailing socioeconomic climate of unequal provision of health care in apartheid South Africa. It was published from 1979 to 1994.
Contact was the official publication of the Liberal Party, published monthly from 1954 to 1967. The Liberal Party was the only legal multiracial party in South Africa during this period, but was dissolved in 1968, when legislation made multiracial parties illegal in South Africa.

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