THE first edition of the Cape Times looks and reads like a compacted classifieds section. To the eye now, the first edition is a relic.
Dated 27 March, 1876, eager passers-by paid one penny for the newspaper at every street corner around Cape Town.
Back then, the Cape was a mere colonial outpost of the British and conditions in the city were bare and basic, but as the city grew the Cape Times began to establish itself as the leading newspaper in the colony.
With the editorial values of the public interest prioritised, the Cape Times was established by Irish-born Frederick York St Leger in March 1876.
Modelled on The Times of London, the paper attempted to expose early government corruption.
The Cape Times had its origins in the great economic and social boom years that followed the Cape's attainment of local democracy in 1872.
Launched
From 1845, most of the oldest newspapers were born. These included the Eastern Province Herald established in 1845, the Natal Mercury in 1852, Cape Argus 1857, the Cape Times in 1876 and the Diamond Fields Advertiser in 1878.
In the decade after 1850, 11 newspapers sprang up in Cape Town. By the end of the century, more than 40 had been created.
Of these, only the Cape Times and the Cape Argus still thrive today, remaining principal papers locally.
The paper was among the first to keep the public informed of events in Parliament by publishing speeches made in the old Cape Parliament, and by the 1990s the Cape Times churned out copy, with the paper on every street corner.
According to former Cape Times assistant editor Gerald Shaw, in his book the Cape Times – An Informal History, St Leger stayed away from featuring gossip and scandal which he denounced as “the literature of the gutter”.
In 1895, Edmund Garrett took over from him. Shaw says that Garrett deplored the abuse of imperial power in pursuit of public aims or private gain.
He was reportedly also revolted by the gross manifestations of prejudice and violence against black people.