''The Sowetan'' is an English-language

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

n daily newspaper that started in 1981 as a

liberation struggle Wars of national liberation, also called wars of independence or wars of liberation, are conflicts fought by nations to gain independence. The term is used in conjunction with wars against foreign powers (or at least those perceived as foreign) ...

newspaper and was freely distributed to households in the then apartheid-segregated

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

Soweto Soweto () is a Township (South Africa), township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western T ...

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

Gauteng Gauteng ( , ; Sotho-Tswana languages, Sotho-Tswana for 'place of gold'; or ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts f ...

Province. It is one of the largest national newspapers in South Africa. Regarded as having a left-leaning editorial tone, it carried a readership of almost 2 million and a circulation of 124,000 in 2006. The newspaper is the property of a South African media company Arena Holdings (formerly Tiso Blackstar Group, Avusa, and Times Media Group). Before that, it belonged to Dr.

Nthato Motlana Dr. Nthato Harrison Motlana Order for Meritorious Service, OMSG (16 February 1925 – 1 December 2008) was a prominent South African businessman, physician and anti-apartheid activist. Early life He was born in Marapyane close to Pretoria. He ...

(1925–30 November 2008), a prominent South African businessman, physician and

anti-apartheid activist Several independent sectors of South African society opposed apartheid through various means, including social movements, passive resistance, and guerrilla warfare. Mass action against the ruling National Party (NP) government, coupled with So ...

, who took a leading role in the formation of the New African Investments Limited (NAIL), which purchased ''The Sowetan'' following the

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

.Colin Sparks, "South African Media in Transition"
'' Journal of African Media Studies'', vol. 2, number 2, 2009, p. 201

History

''The Sowetan'' was founded in 1981 as a replacement of the ''Post Transvaal'' newspaper, which itself consisted of editorial staff that migrated from another newspaper, ''

The World The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk of a "plu ...

''. At the time, there was a total strike at the ''Post'' (for better increases). The strike lasted so long that the ''Post'', which was financially independent from the Argus printing and publishing, nearly went bankrupt, resulting in the property and printing presses being sold to Caxtons. Caxtons then got the contract to print the ''Post'' and another building was found in Industria. Two days before publishing the ''Post,'' the government decided to ban it again. The ''Post'' had more newspaper names registered, and after some deliberation, it was decided to go with ''The Sowetan''. This was a weekly, Saturday and Sunday paper. The latter was later closed as it was never financially viable. ''The Sowetan'' never was a free sheet as it was never published before this date. The name was registered at the time with the intention to publish at a rather huge cost. It was one of more titles registered as a backup at the time. Initial sales were slow because people wrongly assumed that ''The Sowetan'' had only news from Soweto. It was in fact a countrywide newspaper from the beginning and was distributed in the

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name ''Transvaal''. * South African Republic (1856–1902; ...

Natal NATAL or Natal may refer to: Places * Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, a city in Brazil * Natal, South Africa (disambiguation), a region in South Africa ** Natalia Republic, a former country (1839–1843) ** Colony of Natal, a former British colony ( ...

Orange Free State The Orange Free State ( ; ) was an independent Boer-ruled sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeated and surrendered to the British Em ...

, with copies also going to

Port Elizabeth Gqeberha ( , ), formerly named Port Elizabeth, and colloquially referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipal ...

and

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

. Due to the poor sales and high costs, the Port Elizabeth and Cape Town distribution was stopped after a few years. It took nearly two years before it was accepted and sales started soaring.

Percy Qoboza Percy Peter Tshidiso Qoboza (17 January 1938 – 17 January 1988) was an influential black South African journalist, author, and outspoken critic of the apartheid government in South Africa during the early periods of world recognition of the pr ...

was the editor at the time but was soon replaced by

Joe Latakgomo Joe or JOE may refer to: Arts Film and television * ''Joe'' (1970 film), starring Peter Boyle * ''Joe'' (2013 film), starring Nicolas Cage, based on the novel ''Joe'' (1991) by Larry Brown * Joe (2023 film), an Indian film * ''Joe'' (TV ser ...

. Latagomo started as a sports editor in 1967. Later Latakgomo left and joined '' The Star'', after receiving death threats, and was replaced by

Aggrey Klaaste Aggrey Zola Klaaste OMSG (6 January 1940 – 19 June 2004) was a South African newspaper journalist and editor. He was best known for being editor of the Soweto-based newspaper, the '' Sowetan'', from 1988 to 2002. He introduced the concept of "na ...

, who was editor from 1988 to 2002.

Distribution areas

Distribution figures

Readership figures

References

External links