Sue Mackay, who has transcribed extracts from a large number of South African newspapers, has kindly agreed to her extracts appearing on the eGGSA web site.
She writes:
Having received help from others, I decided to put something back by taking day trips with my digital camera to the National Archives in Kew, London, and photographing records of South African interest. These I could then transcribe at home and post on the Internet. I started with the log of the Weymouth, the ship on which my ancestors sailed to the Cape, and then went on to photograph extracts from original South African newspapers held at Kew.
I don't think I could even have attempted the project had I had to use microfilm. The print is small enough in the actual papers, but if I'd had to use film I'd have gone cross-eyed years ago! Once I discovered that they had original newspapers at Kew under the CO (Colonial Office) subset, I could just order them up in advance and then sit flicking through them upstairs in the Map Room (where they bring large documents) and photographing anything that I thought might be of interest. This is why my transcriptions of newspapers don't go beyond the 1850s. I am not sure of the exact significance of the dates, but it seems most likely that it is connected with the the fact that, by an order-in-council of March 1853, the Cape was granted its own legislative assembly, consisting of two elective houses. Perhaps the Cape then came under some other department than the Colonial Office.
There is a wonderful collection of South African newspapers at the British Newspaper Library at Colindale, and because there is not such a demand to view them as for British newspapers they are also mostly available as originals rather than filmed copies, BUT they don't allow digital cameras and their photocopying charges are astronomical.
