Max du Preez promises 'exposés' in revived Vrye Weekblad

Editor Max du Preez has hinted at big exposés to come in the soon-to-be-relaunched digital version of historic anti-apartheid Afrikaans newspaper Vrye Weekblad.

Du Preez said the editorial team, which also includes two other co-editors, Anneliese Burgess and Jacques Pauw, have already been preparing content in the lead-up to the publication's launch in April.

It was a chorus of calls during the last decade of the Zuma administration that led to Du Preez, Burgess and Pauw – all of whom were part of the original Vrye Weekblad editorial team – as well as the need for an Afrikaans publication not "sensitive to right-wing boycott pressure" that led the team to bringing Vrye Weekblad back to life.

The publication shut shop in 1994 after a protracted legal battle with General Lothar Neethling. Vrye Weekblad exposed the Vlakplaas death squads and reported that Neethling had supplied toxins to police to be used on anti-apartheid activists.

Du Preez said Vrye Weekblad 2.0 would aim to "change the agenda and make people think again" just as it did a quarter of a century ago.

"The level of journalism in SA is at a low, with the exception of investigative journalism. General media produce superficial content and have juniorised newsrooms. There's a hunt for profit, rather than integrity."

The first issue will appear on April 5. Readers will get the first six issues free, after which Vrye Weekblad will be available to subscribers only.

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