''Die Burger'' (English: The Citizen) is a daily

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

-language

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, 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 p ...

, published by

Naspers Naspers Limited is a South African multinational internet, technology and multimedia holding company headquartered in Cape Town, with interests in online retail, publishing and venture capital investment. Naspers' principal shareholder is its ...

. By 2008, it had a circulation of 91,665 in the

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

and

Eastern Cape Province The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in 199 ...

s of

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

. Along with ''

Beeld ''Beeld'' (freely translated as ''Picture'' or ''Image'') is an Afrikaans-language daily newspaper that was launched on 16 September 1974. ''Beeld'' is distributed in four provinces of South Africa: Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo and North West, ...

'' and ''

Volksblad The ''Volksblad'' (English: People's Journal) is an Afrikaans-language daily newspaper published in Bloemfontein, South Africa, and distributed in the Free State and Northern Cape The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated ...

'', it is one of three broadsheet dailies in the

Media24 Media24 is the print media division of the South African media company Naspers. It controls Naspers' newspaper and magazine Southern African publishing and printing activities, including Internet publishing of the 24.com collection of web portal ...

stable.

History

On 18 December 1914, sixteen prominent

Afrikaners Afrikaners () are a South African ethnic group descended from predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th and 18th centuries.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: Brain to Cas ...

gathered in

Stellenbosch Stellenbosch (; )A Universal Pronounc ...

to discuss the establishment of a national newspaper. With considerable financial support from local philanthropists

Jannie Jannie is a given name. Notable people with the name include: *Jannie Blackwell, American politician *Jannie Bornman (born 1980), South African rugby union player *Jannie Boshoff (born 1986), South African rugby union player *Jannie Chan, Singaporea ...

and Christiaan Marais, purchased a quarter of 20,000 £1 shares in the new holding company, the project soon got off the ground, with the founding of ''De Nasionale Pers'' ("the National Press") and the selection of Dr. D. F. Malan as editor of its daily paper, ''De Burger'' (Dutch for "The Citizen"). The first issue was published on 26 July 1915.

Language

ASC Leiden - Library - South African newspaper stack of Die Burger - 2012

''Die Burger'' was originally published in Dutch. In 1916, the first Afrikaans-language articles were published. In 1921, the newspaper's Dutch title (''De Burger'') was translated into Afrikaans (''Die Burger'').

Supplements

*Sake24 (Mon-Fri) *Buite (Tues) *Jip (Mon) *Leefstyl (Wed) *Motors (Thur) *Vrydag! (Fri) *Landbou (Fri)

Political affiliation

''Die Burger'' was a newspaper that supported the nationalist cause and

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

, and used to be the mouthpiece of the National Party. This only began to change after 1985, when then editor Piet Cillié, a staunch supporter of the government under B. J. Vorster and

P. W. Botha Pieter Willem Botha, (; 12 January 1916 – 31 October 2006), commonly known as P. W. and af, Die Groot Krokodil (The Big Crocodile), was a South African politician. He served as the last prime minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984 and ...

, retired. In 1990, the National Party was officially informed by editor Ebbe Dommisse that it no longer served as a political mouthpiece. This disaffiliation was continued in 1999 with the appointment of a more progressive editor, Arrie Rossouw. In 2006, Henry Jeffreys became the first

Cape Coloured Cape Coloureds () are a South African ethnic group consisted primarily of persons of mixed race and Khoisan descent. Although Coloureds form a minority group within South Africa, they are the predominant population group in the Western Cape ...

editor of the paper.

List of editors

* D. F. Malan (1915-24) * Albertus Geyer (1924-45) * Phil Weber (1945-54) * Piet Cillié (1954-77) * Wiets Beukes (1977-90) * Ebbe Dommisse (1990-2000) * Arrie Rossouw (2000-06) * Henry Jeffreys (2006-10) * Bun Booyens (2010-2016) * Willem Jordaan (2016-)

Distribution areas

Distribution figures

Readership figures

Sources

Nieman Reports at Harvard University
* ''Die Burger'' 2000/8/05 * ''Die Burger'' 2005/7/26

References

External links

''Die Burger'' Website

SAARF Website
Afrikaner culture in Cape Town Daily newspapers published in South Africa Afrikaans-language newspapers Mass media in Cape Town 1914 establishments in South Africa Publications established in 1914 {{DEFAULTSORT:Burger, Die