Karima Brown (1967 – 4 March 2021) was a South African journalist. She worked in a variety of positions, being the political editor for national daily magazine ''

Business Day A business day means any day except any Saturday, any Sunday, or any day which is a legal holiday or any day on which banking institutions are authorized or required by law or other governmental action to close. The definition of a business day ...

'' and launching Forbes Women Africa. She was also known for a court case she took against the

Economic Freedom Fighters The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is a South African left-wing to far-left pan-Africanist and Marxist–Leninist political party. It was founded by expelled former African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) President Julius Malema, and hi ...

Early life and education

Born in Cape Town and educated at

Salt River High School File:Salt River High School.jpg, Salt River High School Salt River High School is a high school on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community near Scottsdale, Arizona. It is operated by that tribe's Education Department along with an early edu ...

, Brown was the daughter of Achmat Semaar, a community leader in

Mitchell's Plain Mitchells Plain is a large township located within the City of Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa and situated about from the Cape Town city centre. It is one of South Africa's largest residential areas and contains multiple smaller suburbs ...

and an

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 ...

activist. She followed him into political activism joining the Cape Youth Congress and the

South African Students Congress The South African Students Congress (SASCO) is a South African student organisation currently led by Bamanye Matiwane as the organization's President. SASCO was founded in September 1991 at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, through ...

while studying at the

University of the Western Cape The University of the Western Cape (UWC) is a public research university in Bellville, near Cape Town, South Africa. The university was established in 1959 by the South African government as a university for Coloured people only. Other un ...

. She was later a member of the United Democratic Front.

Career

During her career as a respected South African journalist, she served as ''

''s political editor, presented the Karima Brown show on

Radio 702 702 is a commercial FM radio station based in Johannesburg, South Africa, broadcasting on FM 92.7 and FM 106 to the greater Gauteng province. The station is also webcast via its website. It claims to be Johannesburg's number one news and talk ...

, was group executive editor at

Independent Newspapers Independent Newspapers Limited (INL) was a newspaper publisher in New Zealand. Started as the Wellington Publishing Company in 1906 to publish ''The Dominion'', it began taking over other newspapers in the 1970s and was renamed Independent New ...

and launched Forbes Women Africa. Shortly prior to her death, she hosted a current affairs show on

eNCA eNCA, also known as eNews Channel Africa, is a 24-hour television news broadcaster owned by e.tv that focuses on South African, African stories and events. The broadcaster became South Africa's first and most watched 24-hour news service aft ...

called The Fix. As a member of the

, as well as a journalist, she occasionally attracted controversy. In October 2006 an internal commission at the

SABC The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is the public broadcaster in South Africa, and provides 19 radio stations ( AM/ FM) as well as six television broadcasts to the general public. It is one of the largest of South Africa's state ...

agreed with veteran journalist John Perlman that the broadcasting corporation had an arbitrary blacklist of political commentators. The commission of inquiry, headed by

Zwelakhe Sisulu Zwelakhe Sisulu (17 December 1950 – 4 October 2012) was a South African black journalist, editor, and newspaper founder. He was president of the Writers' Association of South Africa, which later became the Black Media Workers Association of So ...

and Gilbert Marcus, found that Brown had been blacklisted alongside Aubrey Matshiqi, William Gumede, Paula Slier, Sipho Seepe,

Moeletsi Mbeki Moeletsi Goduka Mbeki (born 30 November 1945) is a South African political economist and the deputy chairman of the South African Institute of International Affairs, an independent think tank based at the University of the Witwatersrand, and is a ...

Elinor Sisulu Elinor Sisulu (née Batezat; born 9 March 1958) is a South African writer and activist. Biography She was born Elinor Batezat in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe) to Francis Batezat and Betty Stuhardt, who was the daughter of George S ...

, and

Trevor Ncube Trevor Vusumuzi Ncube is a Zimbabwean entrepreneur and newspaper publisher now living in South Africa and publishing in both countries. As an editor and publisher, he was a critical voice in media of former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe an ...

. In 2019 she won a court case against the

, suing after she received threatening messages when

Julius Malema Julius Sello Malema (born 3 March 1981) is a South African politician and activist who is a Member of Parliament and the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a left-wing party which he founded in 2013. He was formerly the President of ...

published her cellphone number on social media. The

Johannesburg High Court The Gauteng Division of the High Court of South Africa is a superior court of law which has general jurisdiction over the South African province of Gauteng and the eastern part of North West province. The main seat of the division is at Pretoria, ...

found that the party contravened the electoral code and Brown welcomed the ruling as a “victory for media freedom, a victory against sexism, and victory for women in journalism and protection and freedom of the media”.

Death

She died from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

during the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa on 4 March 2021 at the age of 54 and she was buried on the same day according to

Islamic Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the mai ...

religion. The South African government paid tribute to her saying that "her contribution to the journalistic profession and fearlessness in carrying out her job will sorely be missed."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Karima 1967 births 2021 deaths Cape Coloureds South African women journalists South African journalists South African Muslims University of the Western Cape alumni Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa