The African News Agency rises from the ashes of the South African Press Association (SAPA). It has a start-up capital of $20 million and plans to expand into 15 countries around the continent by July.

The African News Agency is publishing international news stories from the Chinese service Xinhua and the German News Agency DPA.

National content comes from a team of reporters in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria – many of whom are drawn from Sapa which winds up operations at the end of the month.

ANA CEO Chris Borain says they’re excited to be embarking on the first step of providing African news by and for Africans.

African business leaders – including Ghanaian Ladislas Agbesi and Iqbal Surve, owner of the Independent Group of Newspapers in South Africa – are among those behind the formation of ANA.

An editorial in the Cape Times, which is one of his newspapers, says yesterday that ANA will challenge the domination of the major Western wire services in Africa.

The editorial says it’s a matter of anger and shame that it, like so many others, has had to rely on Europeans and others to provide news about its own continent.

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Withdrawal of major media outlets from the non-profit organisation has made it unviable.

The South African Press Association was formed in 1938 as a co-operative between the then four major newspaper groups and the state broadcaster.

It shared breaking news nationally and acted as the conduit for distributing international wire services, like Agence France Press, to South African clients.

For decades, founder members complained that they were paying the lion’s share to provide news to media outlets springing up in competition with them.

The closure leaves 40 journalists across the country out of work.

They have been active on social media saying the decision has left them high and dry.

As a non-profit organisation, SAPA cannot be sold off. An independent firm of auditors and financial advisors has been appointed to assist in selling off its assets and winding up the operation.

The National Press Club in Pretoria says this development is a sad day for the South African media.

The club’s chairman Jos Charle says SAPA provides an unparalleled service reaching the vast corners of South Africa where the rest of the media falls short.

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