page_title: De Zuid-Afrikaan
section_title: Establishment
hierarchical_section_title: De Zuid-Afrikaan / Establishment
caption_attribution_description: English: Sir Christoffel Brand
context_page_description: De Zuid-Afrikaan was a nineteenth-century Dutch language newspaper based in Cape Town that circulated throughout the Cape Colony, published between 1830 and 1930.
  The paper was founded by the advocate Christoffel Johan Brand on 9 April 1830 and played a major role in providing a mouthpiece for the more educated sections of the Cape Dutch community. Carl Juta, founder of Juta publishers in Cape Town, and brother-in-law of Karl Marx, printed De Zuid Afrikaan. Marx wrote begging letters to Juta and in return Juta asked him to write articles for De Zuid Afrikaan. These letters are to be seen in the history files of Juta and Co. In 1930 the paper finally succumbed to falling circulation figures resulting from the popularity of the Afrikaans language paper, Die Burger.
context_section_description: With the arrival of the 1820 settlers, Thomas Pringle and Abraham Faure were granted permission to produce a monthly newspaper, alternately in English and in Dutch.  Pringle was outspoken about the harsh conditions of the 1820 settlers and the governor, Lord Charles Somerset effectively expelled the printer Grieg from the colony.  The case was taken to the British Government and in 1828 the Colonial Secretary, Sir George Murray granted the Cape Colony the same freedom of the press as existed in England.
  The newly won freedom of the press resulted in a number of newssheets being published. On 9 April 1830, an advocate Christoffel Johan Brand together with DG Reitz and JH Neethling  established De Zuid-Afrikaan to promote the interests of the Cape Dutch community.  The first editor was Charles Etienne Boniface, whose family had fled France during the French Revolution and who, as a sea cadet, had arrived in the Cape Colony on board a British warship.
  Brand himself became editor of De Zuid-Afrikaan in 1839. Through his columns, he first opposed the emancipation of slavery on account of the large numbers of loans, estimated at £400,000 that has been taken out by white farmers who used slaves as collateral. Once the abolition laws had been passed, the paper campaigned for appropriate compensation to enable former slave-owners to pay their debts.
  Although the paper lobbied against many aspects of British rule, including for example warning the British Government not to impose unpopular taxes. it nevertheless saw British rule as "synonymous with civilized progress and order". The paper also played a large role in ensuring that Common Law on South Africa was based on Roman-Dutch Law rather than English Law.  The newspaper lobbied for parliamentary representation within the colony and in 1853 Brand later became the first speaker in the Cape Parliament.
caption: Christoffel Johan Brand, first owner and second editor of De Zuid-Afrikaan
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