Got it. Here’s a rewritten version of the story that weaves in both the lived experiences from Bongekile Macupe’s reportand the hard numbers from SANEF’s Glass Ceilings studies so that it’s anchored in fact rather than hearsay.
South Africa’s newsrooms no longer look like they did under apartheid. By 2018, women made up 49% of staff across media houses, with big players such as Media24 (57%), Tiso Blackstar (54%), and the SABC (50%) reporting female-dominated workforces. The transformation by race has also been significant: black journalists now form the majority in most newsrooms.
Yet beneath these headline gains lies a more uncomfortable truth. At the very top of the profession including editors-in-chief and managing directors, black African women remain almost invisible. In 2018, black men held 50% of top management roles, while black women held just 30% still well below their 46% share of the population.
Leadership by Numbers
The absence is stark. The Reuters Institute fellowship paper by News24 deputy politics editor Bongekile Macupe notes:
“There is currently no black African woman leading any of South Africa’s national mainstream print or digital publications”.
This is despite their growing presence in middle management. SANEF’s Glass Ceilings study shows black women held 40% of senior management roles in 2018 (up from 22% in 2006), but their representation dropped at the highest tier of decision-making. In other words, they rise through the ranks, but the ceiling is still there.
When black women do break through, they face scepticism. Nwabisa Makunga, the first black African woman to edit the Sowetan, recalls being dismissed as “Tshepo’s princess”—a reference to the paper’s owner:
“It completely erased everything I had done. It killed me”.
A Recycled Boys’ Club
While women climb slowly, men—particularly black men—are routinely “recycled” into leadership. As former Sowetanpolitics editor Moipone Malefane put it:
“A man can fail in one newsroom and be resuscitated in another… Men get recycled”.
SANEF’s data backs this. Between 2006 and 2018, black men’s share of top management jumped from 22% to 50%, while black women’s growth, though significant (6% to 30%), has not kept pace. White women, by contrast, declined sharply—from 23% of top management in 2006 to just 6% in 2018.
Pay and Promotion Gaps
The inequities aren’t just about titles; they are also about pay. Although few media houses disclosed salary data to SANEF, those that did showed a widening gender pay gap—women were clustered in junior positions, while men dominated better-paid top roles.
This aligns with Macupe’s interviewees, who described how black African women are steered toward “soft beats” and denied high-profile assignments that lead to promotion. A white colleague might decline a story to pick up her children—without consequence—while black women feared mentioning family life lest it be used against them.
Culture and Attrition
Representation alone does not mean equity. SANEF’s survey found that 91% of media houses reported cases of sexual harassment and that 30% of women journalists (versus 9% of men) reported cyber-harassment, making digital misogyny a new barrier.
Macupe’s report captures the cost: younger women leaving journalism altogether. One junior journalist, “EC,” said her newsroom experience was “overall traumatic.” Others, like veteran Athandiwe Saba, spoke of “very black, extreme boys’ clubs” where men’s stories landed front pages, even when weaker.
The Takeaway
The data shows undeniable transformation: women now form half of newsroom staff, and black journalists dominate senior roles. But the intersectional gap remains: black African women are present, but not leading.
As Macupe told her London audience:
“Black African women are not being done a favour by working in newsrooms; they deserve to be there… They would like to be recognised for the value they bring, and given the space to do the work they love. That’s all”.
Until the industry tackles this gendered glass ceiling within racially transformed spaces, the pipeline will keep leaking—and South African journalism will keep losing some of its most committed voices.
Would you like me to also build a data sidebar / infographic brief (e.g. “By the Numbers: Women in South African Media”) that could sit alongside this story?
