Rand Daily Mail

The Rand Daily Mail (German: daily mail of the edge ) was an English-language daily newspaper in South Africa . She appeared in Johannesburg and was known for her stand against apartheid .

history

In 1902, the Rand Daily Mail was founded by Bertie Charles Forbes in Johannesburg and after a short time sold to the mine owner Abe Bailey. Until his death in 1940, Bailey controlled the newspaper, most recently through The Rand Daily Mail Limited. After the election victory of the National Party in 1948 and the subsequent introduction of apartheid laws, the newspaper hardly expressed any opposition. In 1955 the publishing house became a subsidiary of the South African Associated Newspapers Limited. From then on, deliveries to distant areas such as Natal and what was then Rhodesia were made by plane. Government attacks on the press in the late 1950s fueled anti-government attitudes at the Rand Daily Mail.

Although the newspaper was mostly read by whites, the newspaper was the first of its kind to deal with black issues during the apartheid period. In 1960 she reported on the Sharpeville massacre . In 1963, journalists wrote about the conditions in the prisons and about forced resettlements. In the 1960s, so-called township editions were published for black readers. In 1966 the newspaper received the World Press Achievement Award from the American Newspaper Publishers Association (ANPA) for its commitment . Helen Zille , Prime Minister of the Western Cape Province since 2009 , exposed the circumstances surrounding the violent death of Steve Biko in the newspaper . The political prisoner did not die of a hunger strike, as the government claims, but of injuries.

On October 3, 1978, the Rand Daily Mail published a report on the - later so-called - Muldergate affair . From 1973, under the leadership of Information Minister Cornelius Petrus Mulder , the South African government tried to create a network of newspapers in South Africa and abroad to improve the reputation of the apartheid regime with the help of public funds that had been put aside. Among other things, an attempt had been made to buy the American daily Washington Star . The Citizen newspaper was founded as a rival newspaper to the Rand Daily Mail and fought against it through dumping prices, among other things . The Anglo American corporation , owner of the Rand Daily Mail, dismissed editor-in-chief Allister Sparks in 1981 and demanded that the course of the paper be moderated towards the government in order to attract more wealthy white readers. However, this strategy led to losses, so that the Rand Daily Mail appeared for the last time on April 30, 1985.

Some editors of the Rand Daily Mail used their severance pay to found the weekly newspaper Weekly Mail , which also took a stand against apartheid and was later renamed the Mail & Guardian .

description

The Rand Daily Mail was published in broadsheet format . The word Rand Daily Mail was blue.

Editors (selection)

• Edgar Wallace , 1902–1903 editor
• Laurence Gandar , Editor-in-Chief 1957–1965
• Benjamin Pogrund , 1958–1985 journalist, deputy editor-in-chief
• Raymond Louw, editor-in-chief 1965–1977
• Peter Magubane , photojournalist, from 1967
• Allister Sparks , journalist, editor-in-chief 1977–1981
• Helen Zille , 1974–1982 journalist
• Rex Gibson, Editor-in-Chief 1981–1985

Use of the name

In October 2014, the Times Media Group , which holds the naming rights to the Rand Daily Mail, set up a website of the same name. News and reports, especially from South African politics, are offered there.

See also

• List of South African newspapers

literature

• Benjamin Poground: War of Words. Memoir of a South African Journalist. David Philip, London 2000, ISBN 978-1888363715 .
• Benjamin Poground: Sheer Cussedness. A History of the Rand Daily Mail. David Philip, London 2003, ISBN 978-0864863201 .
• Rex Gibson: Final Deadline. The Last Days of the Rand Daily Mail. David Philip, London 2007, ISBN 978-0864867100 .

Web links

• Interview with Allister Sparks at democracynow.org (English)
• Rand Daily Mail page at businesslive.co za (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} New Dignitized Newspaper: The Rand Daily Mail from 1902 to 1985. library.illinois.edu, accessed December 6, 2018
2. ↑ ^{a b} page no longer available , search in web archives: History of the Rand Daily Mail at myfundi.co.za (English), accessed on June 26, 2011
3. ^ History of the Rand Daily Mail and its successors at mg.co.za ( Memento from July 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
4. ↑ Information on Zille and Biko at oraclesyndicate.twoday.net , accessed on June 26, 2011
5. ↑ Zilles' life data ( Memento from June 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive )