Bongani Siqoko, left, chief executive of Ubuntu Media Holdings, and Sakie Sakhumzi Magele, director of Ubuntu Media Holdings and Khumzi Investments. Photo Credit: IOL

NNA News - South Africa’s editors’ body has called for the urgent payment of July salaries to staff at two Eastern Cape newspapers. It warned that uncertainty since a change of ownership has left journalists struggling to cover basic living expenses. In a statement issued on Tuesday, the South African National Editors Forum (SANEF) expressed concern that journalists and other staff at the Daily Dispatch and Herald had not been paid their July salaries by the new owners.

The forum detailed that the dispute followed the sale of the two newspapers and several community outlets by Arena Holdings to Ubuntu Media Holdings. SANEF explained that the new owners were expected to take on the responsibility for salaries following their acquisition. The wage dispute has highlighted the financial plight of staff at two titles with deep roots in the region. The Herald serves Gqeberha, formerly Port Elizabeth, and the wider Nelson Mandela Bay area. It traces its history back more than 180 years.

According to its website, it has served as a cornerstone of the Eastern Cape since its founding as a four-page paper. Its sister publication, the Daily Dispatch, was founded in 1872 in East London, a city renamed KuGompo in February 2026. The paper became the province's first penny daily in 1898 and by 1906 had a wider circulation than any colonial newspaper outside Cape Town.

Years later it became the first in South Africa to introduce full-colour printing. These historical papers both played a role during apartheid. The Dispatch and Herald were prominent at the time. "The day after Steve Biko died in police detention in 1977, it ran his photo with the words ‘a hero of the nation’ in English and Xhosa," the Dispatch website revealed. That legacy later earned the provincial publications national and international recognition, including CNN African Journalist of the Year awards in 2010 and 2011.

SANEF has warned that this legacy is now under threat. The editors’ body said the salary dispute risks undermining the role the publications play and that the impact extends beyond employees who have gone unpaid. "Journalism, journalists, media sustainability and plurality of news, views, and democracy all suffer when media companies do not pay their employees," the forum highlighted. The forum added the immediate burden is falling on journalists and other staff, many of whom continue to report while struggling to meet daily expenses. "While this dispute persists, the affected workers continue to suffer as they struggle to pay their bills and put food on the table," the organisation stated. "The boardroom battles should not affect workers, particularly when such meetings are not communicated to the workers regarding any progress made."

The organisation also maintained that media companies must prioritise paying journalists. "SANEF has always stated that employers across the media industry need to put journalists first and know that their work does not come for free." It added that it had engaged Ubuntu Media Holdings and received an assurance that the salary issue was being addressed. "An undertaking has been made that the issue is being attended to and would hopefully be resolved soon," it said.

The forum stressed that the assurance had not yet translated into payment. Even amid the dispute, it praised newsroom teams for continuing to produce the newspapers. "In the meantime, the affected workers continue to work and put together the newspapers, a valiant effort which SANEF praises them for," it said. The South African National Editors Forum is a non-profit organisation representing editors, senior journalists and journalism trainers across South Africa. It is not a trade union for media workers.  
By Tuesday evening, Ubuntu Media Holdings had not publicly commented on SANEF's statement.