Gangster State

is simply unethical for bureaucrats to punish newspapers for criticising
government.’
From the outset, Peta was less than optimistic about his gutsy
publication’s chances of securing much revenue from Magashule’s
government. Given the newspaper’s promising circulation figures,
however, he had thought that the Free State Times would secure
enough advertising income from the private sector. Things were not
that simple. Peta and his colleagues were told that large companies and
other businesses operating in the Free State had been pressured into
boycotting his newspaper. ‘Potential clients told our advertising team
that people from government had asked them not to support us,’ Peta
claimed. ‘These companies were afraid of losing out on business with
the provincial government, so they complied.’
A former advertising agent at the Free State Times told me the same
story. This source gave me the name of a large retailer in Bloemfontein
that initially agreed to advertise in the Free State Times but later
backed out for alleged ‘political reasons’. I asked the retailer for
comment. It admitted that it had placed one advertisement in the Free
State Times before terminating its relationship with the new
publication, but maintained that this was for purely commercial
reasons. ‘We didn’t get much traction after our once-off advertisement
and therefore decided not to make use of it again,’ the retailer
maintained.
Peta cited other companies that, according to him, boycotted the Free
State Times because of alleged pressure from Magashule’s
administration. These included cellphone network giants and other
major South African companies. Regardless of the reasons for these
businesses not wanting to advertise in the Free State Times, the dual