The press in South Africa You'll never be left in the dark in this part of Africa. The country's troubled history and the passage from apartheid to democracy has made its people remarkably news hungry, fed by a strong, free and growing press. South Africa has 20 daily and 13 weekly newspapers, most in English. Some 14,5 million South Africans buy the urban dailies, while community newspapers have a circulation of 5,5 million. There is also a range of general and specialised news websites which, in terms of the speed and breadth of their coverage, are of a similar standard with the best in the world. South Africa has always had a brave and opinionated press. For over 40 years the apartheid state tried to gag the country's newspapers, Husing legislation, harassment and imprisonment, ending in the late- 1980s States of Emergency. in a summary form