*The Sowetan newspaper was founded on this date in 1981. This is an English-language South African daily newspaper that began publication following the end of apartheid, marking the culmination of the liberation struggle.
It belonged to Dr. Nthato Motlana, a South African businessman, physician, and activist, who played a leading role in the formation of New African Investments Limited (NAIL), which subsequently purchased it. The Sowetan was free to households in the then-segregated township of Soweto, Johannesburg, Gauteng Province. It was a replacement for the Post Transvaal newspaper, which itself consisted of editorial staff that migrated from another newspaper, The World.
At the time, a total strike occurred at the Post, which lasted so long that the Post nearly went bankrupt. Two days before publishing the Post, the government decided to ban it again. The Post decided to go with The Sowetan, a weekly newspaper published on Saturdays and Sundays. The latter was later closed as it was never financially viable.
The new Sowetan was never a free sheet and was registered at the time to publish at a rather huge cost. It was one of the 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 outset and was distributed in the Transvaal, Natal, and Orange Free State, with copies also reaching Port Elizabeth and Cape Town. 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 for sales to improve.
Percy Qoboza was the editor at the time, replaced by Joe Latakgomo, initially starting as a sports editor in 1967. Later, Latakgomo left and joined The Star after receiving death threats and was replaced by Aggrey Klaaste, who served as editor from 1988 to 2002. With an added mainstream format, 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 owned by a South African media company, Arena Holdings (formerly Tiso Blackstar Group, Avusa, and Times Media Group).
