THE 1980s was a rough time in South Africa. States of emergency, sanctions, daily violent mass action, detention without trial, state death squads. Apartheid was in its death throes but held on desperately.
It was in this atmosphere that an independent, robust Afrikaans newspaper made its appearance with a handful of brave, capable pioneers and very little money. In the face of a finger-wagging PW Botha we were unashamedly against apartheid and violence, and for negotiation, peace and reconciliation.
In good Afrikaans.
In its six years as a weekly newspaper, Vrye Weekblad left deep footprints in South African politics, discourse and media. We called ourselves “The New Voice for a New South Africa" then. There had never been anything like it in Afrikaans before.
Just two months before the day we had dreamed of, the first fully democratic election in a united South Africa in 1994, Vrye Weekblad had to close its doors after losing an expensive and years-long defamation case from a police general in the appeal court – a miscarriage of justice, as now we all know.
Under Nelson Mandela's leadership, the new South Africa flourished, and the mainstream Afrikaans media helped Afrikaans speakers make peace with our new, open society.
But after Mandela retired, things started going wrong – first slowly, and then very quickly, especially after Jacob Zuma became president. And white and Afrikaans people began feeling increasingly alienated, and their attitudes hardened.
In 2018, the media group Arena Holdings approached us to revive Vrye Weekblad in online format. We agreed, because we believed it was time again for a fresh, honest voice in Afrikaans. And we didn't have apartheid baggage that would inhibit us from taking on those in power.
It wasn't a happy marriage with Arena, and in September 2022, Arena decided to discontinue the publication.
Pienaar to the rescue
A South African-born international venture capitalist based in London and Washington, André Pienaar of C5 Capital, immediately came to the rescue and kept the publication alive with a considerable investment. (André was an avid reader of the original Vrye Weekblad as a student at the University of Port Elizabeth.)
Vrye Weekblad 3.0 surpassed both its predecessors with the quality of its journalism and excellent writing. We were again the only Afrikaans publication that consistently maintained a critical voice in all directions and used Afrikaans at its very best.
Vrye Weekblad was free until early last year, and was widely read. But when it came time to move behind a paywall, hopes were dashed.
We don't believe in philanthropic journalism. Vrye Weekblad's new owners, the New Vrye Weekblad Media Group, didn't want to make a profit from the project, but the project inevitably had to stop surviving off monthly subsidies at some point. We needed to at least stand on our own feet.
It didn't happen. Only about a quarter of our regular free readers were willing to subscribe and pay R75 per month. Advertisers don't like digital publications, and even less so when readership is small, so subscribers necessarily had to be our main source of income.
André and I, and our colleagues, agree that Vrye Weekblad is no longer viable. The prospects of thousands of new subscribers in the short term are slim and the editorial budget cannot be cut further.
It's time to go.
(When we had to close in 1994, we announced somewhat crudely: Ons fade nie, ons fokof. We might as well say it again.)
Vrye Weekblad will appear for the last time on March 28, 2025.
There will not be a Vrye Weekblad 4.0.
Our editorial staff and contributors since September 2022 are all heroes; talented idealists and hard workers who went the extra mile every day. I honour them and am deeply grateful to them.
André Pienaar also deserves recognition. He believed in our project and our dreams when no one else did.
Vrye Weekblad probably had the most loyal reader community of any publication. We'll miss you, especially in our comments section, the best of its kind in the country.
This is the end of an era, the end of one of the few truly proud chapters in the history of Afrikaans.
Bad for public opinion
Monoculture is bad in agriculture, but also for public opinion. Vrye Weekblad was that other voice in the otherwise monocultural Afrikaans discourse, however unpopular with some. We are unfortunately now returning to a monoculture.
The dream of a quality publication in Afrikaans, one that looks deeper and investigates and brings fresh ideas, one that places great emphasis on good writing, is now shattered. It happened before with publications like Die Suid-Afrikaan and Insig.
Deep-thinking Afrikaans readers, it seems to me, are content to read about crime, celebrities, scandal and yesterday's sports in Afrikaans, but when they seek intellectual nourishment, they read English.
My colleagues at Vrye Weekblad and I are anything but defeated.
We are particularly proud of what we achieved in the last two years with a minuscule budget.
In my own opinion, Vryeweekblad.com was a triumph for Afrikaans and Afrikaans (and South African) journalism. We published material that was unparallelled in Afrikaans. Without hesitation, without pretence, without fear of negative reaction from ethnic nationalists and professional victims.
But the party isn't quite over yet. There are still five issues left before we ride into the sunset. Enjoy it.
Postscript: In the coming days, we will provide more information on our digital archive of the last six years so that everyone can still have access, and how subscribers will be compensated for advance payments.
♦ VWB ♦
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