Find helps keep paper’s history in frame
WHEN Baviel Blakely’s mother found a copy of the January 2, 1896, Cape Argus, she initially wanted to throw it away.
Fortunately the historic paper caught Blakely’s eye and he decided to save it. Immediately afterwards, he contacted the Cape Argus to tell us of his find.
Blakely is the fourth person to come forward with a copy of this paper. Blakely’s father was a dedicated reader of the Cape Argus.
“My father loved newspapers and especially the Cape Argus, and so do I,” Blakely said. His father died 25 years ago and his grandfather kept the paper.
Blakely grew up in Claremont. At primary school he sold newspapers.
“I sold newspapers for pocket money. My parents didn’t have much,” Blakely said.
His mother had three jobs and his father wasn’t a professional.
He said he sold newspapers for about five pence over weekends and two to three pence during the week. He sold papers till the family moved out of Claremont when the Group Areas Act was implemented.
Blakley then moved to his maternal grandparents’ home in Newlands where he sold newspapers again.
Blakely said it was amazing how the newspaper had evolved through the years. Now 73, he lives in Plumstead and is still a dedicated Cape Argus reader.
He told editor Aziz Hartley he enjoyed the current news content of the newspaper.
“I still love this newspaper. It’s my favourite. Not a day goes by that I don’t read it. If I forget the paper at the supermarket, I run back to get it,” Blakely said.
The content of the newspapers of those days was very different to what it is today.
The paper mainly consisted of advertisements and small stories.
In 1896, the story that dominated every paper across the country was the Jameson Raid, a failed attack against the South African Republic (a Boer republic led by Paul Kruger). The raid was led by British colonial statesman Leander Starr Jameson.
The edition is also seen as a collector’s dream – a copy was sold for R149 on BidorBuy last month.