campaign’ aimed at discrediting and embarrassing Magashule, his
administration and some of the black-owned businesses with which the
province did business, including Ntsele’s companies.^32 The Weekly
seemed to be accusing Volksblad of racism. ‘According to
investigations carried out by this newspaper it has emerged that very
senior white officials in the office of the Premier, under the pretext of
being loyal to him, are intercepting government information and
passing it on to Volksblad newspaper,’ the article claimed.^33 Volksblad
submitted a complaint to the Press Ombudsman, who found that The
Weekly had no facts to substantiate its story and was thus ordered to
apologise to Volksblad.^34
The Weekly’s most significant media battle occurred much earlier,
however. In 2011 , Zimbabwean-born journalist-turned-media-
entrepreneur Basildon Peta launched the now defunct Free State
Times. ‘I was the main publisher in Lesotho, but I wanted to expand to
South Africa,’ Peta told me during an interview in late 2018. ‘The Free
State was the logical starting point to do so.’ He felt that the province’s
media offering left ample space for a new publication. Volksblad was
doing great work in terms of holding the Magashule administration to
account, but it only catered for Afrikaans readers.
After assembling a team of journalists and setting up shop in
Bloemfontein, the first edition of the Free State Times hit the streets in
April 2011. The publication was unflinchingly independent and critical
right from the start. ‘Our very first front-page story ran under the
headline “Premier Magashule under fire”,’ Peta recalled. ‘It detailed
alleged irregularities involving the premier. In the months thereafter, we
published story after story about Ace and his [alleged] corruption.’ The
Free State Times tackled a series of government deals with companies
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