Government welcomes birth of African Independent

28 August 2015

Government welcomes the launch of the African Independent, a new weekly newspaper that will focus on changing the Africa narrative.

Acting Cabinet Spokesperson Phumla Williams said the launch of the new publication signals the importance of telling an African story from an African perspective as opposed the continent being portrayed negatively.

“Government wishes to congratulate the Independent Media, the owners of the new publication for launching such a revolutionary newspaper that is premised at changing the narrative of the continent. We hope that the newspaper will tell the story about a rising Africa.

“We hope that through the Africa Editors’ Forum, of which the editor of the African Independent Jovial Rantao is the chairperson, African Independent will utilise the existing networks in the continent to cover issues of regional integration, Africa Union (AU), the Regional Economic Communities such as the South African Cooperation Development (SADC) are given prominence.

“It is important that as the newspapers penetrates the entire continent, it has bureaus in all the other 53 countries, and not just South Africa. Government hopes that the initiative by Independent Media will support the efforts made by the public broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) in ensuring balanced coverage of the African continent,” Williams said on the day the newspaper hit the streets.

She said Africa has been covered from a biased and Afro-pessimistic view without telling the positive stories and highlighting the enormous potentials. We have many instances where the media has portrayed Africa as a dark continent, where nothing but war, famine, dictatorship and drought are the order of the day.

“I hope that he African Independent will greatly contribute to telling and propagating the positive stories about the African narrative in order to allow the continent to thrive and flourish,” Williams said.

Enquiries: Phumla Williams, Acting Cabinet Spokesperson: Spokesperson
Cell: 083 887 3581

Issued by: GCIS