The ''Cape Times'' is an

English-language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

morning

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

owned by Independent News & Media SA and published in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. the newspaper had a daily readership of 261 000 and a circulation of 34 523. By the fourth quarter of 2014, circulation had declined to 31 930.

History

The ''Cape Times'' had its origins in the great economic and social boom years that followed the Cape's attainment of "

Responsible Government Responsible government is a conception of a system of government that embodies the principle of parliamentary accountability, the foundation of the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy. Governments (the equivalent of the executive bran ...

" (local democracy) in 1872. The first edition of the newspaper, a small four-page sheet, was published on 27 March 1876 by then editor

Frederick York St Leger Frederick York St Leger was the Irish founder of the ''Cape Times'' newspaper in South Africa, and an Anglican priest. Early life and family He was born into an Anglo-Irish family in Limerick, Ireland, on 20 March 1833. He married Christian ...

. St Leger was assisted by Richard William Murray Jnr, whose

father A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...

of the same name had been one of the founding partners of the ''

Cape Argus The ''Cape Argus'' is a daily newspaper co-founded in 1857 by Saul Solomon and published by Sekunjalo in Cape Town, South Africa. It is commonly referred to as ''The Argus''. Although not the first English-language newspaper in South Africa ...

''. It was the first daily paper in southern Africa, and soon became one of the principal newspapers of the Cape. Modelled on ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', its primary target was the poor working class, as it attempted to expose early government

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

. Later bought by Irish group

Independent News and Media Mediahuis Ireland (formally Independent News and Media (INM) )) is a media organisation that is based in Dublin and publishes national daily newspapers, Sunday newspapers, regional newspapers and operates multiple websites including Independent. ...

, the South African portion, including the ''Cape Times'', was sold to

Sekunjalo Investments Sekunjalo Investment Holdings (parent company of African Equity Empowerment Investments) is a black owned South Africa-based private equity firm specializing in acquisitions, PIPEs, and buyouts. It has principal operations in publishing, Inte ...

(Independent News and Media SA) in 2013.

Supplements

*Business Report (Mon-Fri) *Career Times (Mon) *Drive Times (Thur) *Top Of The Times (Fri) *Book Times (Once a month) *Escape (Once a month) *Health Times (Once a month) *Play (Once a month)

Criticism

On 16 April 2013 the ''Cape Times'' was cautioned by the Press Ombudsman "for untruthfully, inaccurately and unfairly suggesting that a poll showed that the majority of sraeliJews believed that the Jewish state was practicing apartheid." The poll related to a hypothetical situation, whether Palestinians living in the West Bank should be allowed to vote if Israel annexed the territory, rather than the way that Israel was actually being governed at the time. The newspaper was directed to correct its mistake after a complaint by Sidney Kay. On 28 June 2016 The Press Ombudsman found "The Cape Times has repeatedly made this totally false allegation (stated as fact) on its front page over the course of several months, beginning in November last year." In July 2016 the ''Cape Times'' was again ordered to issue a front-page apology to Premier Helen Zille, after making false allegations that she hired a spy. Despite this, the newspaper has failed to comply with the previous order, as handed down by Judge Bernard Ngoepe, Chair of the Press Council's Appeals Panel. 16 August 2017, veteran journalist Ed Herbst debunked ''Cape Times'' claims of it receiving awards, "has run a series of front-page articles claiming that an international media organisation, Newseum, has rated the front page of the Iqbal Survé-owned newspaper as among the best in the world." The reports turned out to be untrue.

Famous staff and contributors

* Roy Campbell *

Alide Dasnois Alide Dasnois (born 1950) is a South African journalist and newspaper editor. Education and career Dasnois matriculated from Herschel Girls School and completed a bachelor's degree in economics at the University of Cape Town. She obtained a mas ...

(editor 2009-13) * James Matthews *

Sol Plaatje Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje (9 October 1876 – 19 June 1932) was a South African intellectual, journalist, linguist, politician, translator and writer. Plaatje was a founding member and first General Secretary of the South African Native Nation ...

William Plomer William Charles Franklyn Plomer (10 December 1903 – 20 September 1973) was a South African and British novelist, poet and literary editor. He also wrote a series of librettos for Benjamin Britten. He wrote some of his poetry under the pseud ...

Allister Sparks Allister Haddon Sparks (10 March 1933 – 19 September 2016) was a South African writer, journalist, and political commentator. He was the editor of ''The Rand Daily Mail'' when it broke Muldergate, the story of how the apartheid government sec ...

(columnist) *

Laurens van der Post Sir Laurens Jan van der Post, (13 December 1906 – 15 December 1996) was a South African Afrikaner writer, farmer, soldier, educator, journalist, humanitarian, philosopher, explorer and conservationist. He was noted for his interest in Jun ...

(reporter 1930s) * Tony Weaver (Reporter, columnist, opinion editor) *

Desmond Young Desmond Young (born March 6, 2000, in Frederiction, New Brunswick) is a Canadian curler from Banff, Alberta. He is currently the third of the Alberta Golden Bears men's curling team in university curling and on the World Curling Tour. Young wi ...

- reporter

Distribution areas

Distribution figures

Readership figures

Estimates of readership are maintained by the SAARF with 95% confidence intervals of about 15%. Within the estimated error readership has remained constant since 2009. Methodological changes introduced in 2009 by SAARF make comparison to previous years difficult.

Sekunjalo Investments

Two controversies have plagued the paper since its takeover by Sekunjalo Investments in 2013. Most notable of which have been the firing of ''Cape Times'' editor

in December 2013 and accusations of pro-

ANC The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

bias in January 2015. On 6 December 2013, the ''Cape Times'' led with a front-page article on the Public Protector's report highlighting irregularities in the awarding of the Sekunjalo Marine Services Consortium tender. The same day, the newspaper's editor,

, was dismissed from her post by Iqbal Survé, executive chairman of Sekunjalo Investments. Sekunjalo Investments threatened to sue the paper, Dasnois, and journalist Melanie Gosling over the tender story, but Survé has denied that Dasnois' removal was connected to the article. He instead pointed to the title's declining circulation figures as his primary motivation. Compounded loss of sales, between 2008 and 2012, amounted to 28%, he said. In response to a perceived attack on press freedom, several organizations have issued statements of support for Dasnois and of concern over editorial independence at the ''Cape Times''. These include

Index on Censorship Index on Censorship is an organization campaigning for freedom of expression, which produces a quarterly magazine of the same name from London. It is directed by the non-profit-making Writers and Scholars International, Ltd (WSI) in association w ...

, the

International Federation of Journalists The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is the largest global union federation of journalists' trade unions in the world. It represents more than 600,000 media workers from 187 organisations in 146 countries. The IFJ is an associate ...

, the SA Centre for

PEN International PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internationa ...

, the SA National Editors Forum, the Freedom of Expression Institute, and the Right2Know campaign. In September 2014 Dasnois filed papers in the South African Labour Court for unfair dismissal and for breech of contract.

References

External links

*
''Cape Times'' online edition
{{Authority control Mass media in Cape Town Daily newspapers published in South Africa 1876 establishments in the Cape Colony Publications established in 1876 Articles containing video clips