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</style></head><body style="background-color:#fff;margin:0;padding:0;-webkit-text-size-adjust:none;text-size-adjust:none"><div class="sailthru-emco-preheader" style="display: none; max-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">It's there until it's not</div><div style="display:none"><a href=""><img src="https://link.dailymaverick.co.za/img/654b96d2a426663d33afca23663c8f66ff9d4b0001a6736b/1c82d1f7.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a></div><table class="nl-container" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" role="presentation" style="mso-table-lspace:0;mso-table-rspace:0;background-color:#fff"><tbody><tr><td><table class="row row-1" align="center" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" role="presentation" style="mso-table-lspace:0;mso-table-rspace:0"><tbody><tr><td><table 
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role="presentation" style="mso-table-lspace:0;mso-table-rspace:0"><tr><td class="pad" style="padding-top:5px;width:100%;padding-right:0;padding-left:0"><div class="alignment" align="center" style="line-height:10px"><div class="fullWidth" style="max-width:510px"><a href="https://link.dailymaverick.co.za/click/663c8f66ff9d4b0001a6736b/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZGFpbHltYXZlcmljay5jby56YS9pbnNpZGVyP3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9c2FpbHRocnUmdXRtX21lZGl1bT1lbWFpbCZ1dG1fY2FtcGFpZ249bWlsa19kaXJlY3RfbWFpbGVyX3Jlc2VuZCZ0b2tlbj1NRWRqY3pWTllVcFplRkJ1Wm1OMlNrZHZRVUpYVUVOeGFETTVTRThyVkZGbFlrVlBkaXQ1WW5wRFRsQnNNMnQzZDBoQ1FUaHNXRmhYYUVrNWFVcHVRV3BLVERGa2JTc3JSVFJ6VVRoak9FaERlamRNVEVoa05Dc3dVelZEYm5CbFVHTnFSek5JWjJWVGEwZFJiVTB5YlVkWGJTdHZTa2RuVEVJMVVuWkRXWEklM0Q/654b96d2a426663d33afca23B870e2349" target="_blank" style="outline:none" tabindex="-1"><img src="https://media.sailthru.com/composer/images/sailthru-prod-7o7/editor_images/DailyMaverick%20New.png" 
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style="margin:0;color:#2c2c2c;direction:ltr;font-family:'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size:17px;font-weight:700;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:120%;text-align:center;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;mso-line-height-alt:20.4px"><span class="tinyMce-placeholder">Thursday, 9 May 2024</span></h1></td></tr></table><table class="paragraph_block block-3" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" role="presentation" 
style="mso-table-lspace:0;mso-table-rspace:0;word-break:break-word"><tr><td class="pad" style="padding-bottom:15px;padding-left:10px;padding-right:10px"><div style="color:#000;direction:ltr;font-family:Georgia,Times,'Times New Roman',serif;font-size:18px;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:0;line-height:150%;text-align:left;mso-line-height-alt:27px"><p style="margin:0;margin-bottom:16px">Have you ever thought about where milk comes from? Spoiler alert: it’s not “the fridge”.&nbsp;</p><p 
style="margin:0;margin-bottom:16px">There’s obviously a product life cycle that gets milk from the cow to the conveniently packaged carton in your fridge. Most people – we’d go as far to say the <em>majority</em> — don’t consider this cycle because, well, it’s just there.&nbsp;</p><p style="margin:0;margin-bottom:16px">Now, for a horrific moment, imagine it wasn’t? What would we put in our coffee?!&nbsp;</p><p style="margin:0;margin-bottom:16px">
<strong>Why are we in your inbox conjecturing about the end of milk?</strong>&nbsp;</p><p style="margin:0;margin-bottom:16px">Because, like milk, journalism has a product life cycle which, unsurprisingly, the majority of people don’t consider… it’s just there.&nbsp;</p><p style="margin:0;margin-bottom:16px">Until it’s not.&nbsp;</p><p style="margin:0;margin-bottom:16px">There’s a very real, very scary crisis that news media across South Africa are facing.&nbsp;</p><p 
style="margin:0;margin-bottom:16px"><strong>So, what is this ‘crisis’?&nbsp;</strong></p><p style="margin:0;margin-bottom:16px">Funding is drying up. For some media houses it’s already completely gone, resulting in them shutting down permanently. This has left regions across South Africa with no journalists.&nbsp;</p><p style="margin:0;margin-bottom:16px"><strong>Why does that matter?</strong></p><p style="margin:0;margin-bottom:16px">
“Journalism defends democracy” – you’ve probably seen us mention that before, but what does it really <em>mean</em>? Essentially, journalists are watchdogs.&nbsp;</p><p style="margin:0;margin-bottom:16px">You go to work, earn your salary and pay taxes to the government so they can take care of those kinda essential parts of society (hospitals, roads, schools, ports, etc).&nbsp;</p><p style="margin:0;margin-bottom:16px">Except, that doesn’t seem to be happening in reality.</p><p 
style="margin:0;margin-bottom:16px">Somewhere along the line, from when SARS takes your taxes to when service delivery is meant to happen, money goes missing/is completely mismanaged or is not used for its intended purpose.&nbsp;</p><p style="margin:0;margin-bottom:16px">
That’s where journalists come in. Our job is to check where your taxes are going, to check that your mayor is actually turning up at work, to ask why a road has exploded, why there is no water coming through taps or why sewage is pumping into the ocean.&nbsp;</p><p style="margin:0;margin-bottom:16px">Our job is to make the politicians accountable to you.&nbsp;</p><p style="margin:0;margin-bottom:16px"><strong>But surely Daily Maverick, as a national publication, is everywhere?&nbsp;</strong></p>
<p style="margin:0;margin-bottom:16px">Eh, no. This is a massive misconception. We’ve been punching above our weight for 15 years. Our work has resulted in the stepping down of various corrupt ministers and a corrupt president; our investigations have been instrumental in the retrieval of billions of your taxes to the State, so it’s easy to see why you would think that we’ve got everything covered.&nbsp;</p><p style="margin:0;margin-bottom:16px">
The reality is, we have no permanent journalists employed in:</p><p style="margin:0;margin-bottom:16px">KZN<br>Limpopo<br>Northern Cape&nbsp;<br>Mpumalanga&nbsp;<br>Free State&nbsp;<br>North West</p><p style="margin:0;margin-bottom:16px">We have one permanently employed journalist in the Eastern Cape.&nbsp;</p><p style="margin:0;margin-bottom:16px"><strong>Why does this matter to me?&nbsp;</strong></p><p style="margin:0">
Whether you live in one of these provinces or not, with no journalism there is no watchdog on municipalities.</p></div></td></tr></table><table class="image_block block-4" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" role="presentation" style="mso-table-lspace:0;mso-table-rspace:0"><tr><td class="pad" style="width:100%;padding-right:0;padding-left:0"><div class="alignment" align="center" style="line-height:10px"><div class="fullWidth" style="max-width:600px"><img 
src="https://media.sailthru.com/composer/images/sailthru-prod-7o7/NoaccountabilityV2.png" style="display:block;height:auto;border:0;width:100%" width="600" height="auto"></div></div></td></tr></table><table class="paragraph_block block-5" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" role="presentation" style="mso-table-lspace:0;mso-table-rspace:0;word-break:break-word"><tr><td class="pad" style="padding-bottom:15px;padding-left:10px;padding-right:10px;padding-top:10px"><div 
style="color:#000;direction:ltr;font-family:Georgia,Times,'Times New Roman',serif;font-size:18px;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:0;line-height:150%;text-align:left;mso-line-height-alt:27px"><p style="margin:0;margin-bottom:16px"><strong>Why are you bringing this up now?&nbsp;</strong></p><p style="margin:0;margin-bottom:16px">
As local newsrooms have closed down, it has left a vacuum in these regions. We have the experience and capability to expand into every province, but we don’t have the funding. There is no government funding for news media (haha, imagine?!) advertising revenue now goes to social media and the majority of our 10-million+ monthly readers can’t afford to help.&nbsp;</p><p style="margin:0;margin-bottom:16px">As we said, it’s a crisis.&nbsp;</p><p style="margin:0;margin-bottom:16px">
<strong>So put up a paywall?&nbsp;</strong></p><p style="margin:0;margin-bottom:16px">We can’t force our readers to pay because we know that the majority of&nbsp; citizens cannot afford the basics in life. They’ll simply migrate to social media for their news. Do you really want the electorate of South Africa being fed propaganda from politicians, with no journalists checking the actual facts?&nbsp;</p><p style="margin:0;margin-bottom:16px"><strong>What can we do?&nbsp;</strong></p><p 
style="margin:0">If you’re an individual, you can join Maverick Insider, our voluntary membership community. You choose the amount and you can cancel at any time. If you contribute R200 per month, you get that straight back in Pick n Pay asap! vouchers every month.</p></div></td></tr></table><table class="button_block block-6" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" role="presentation" style="mso-table-lspace:0;mso-table-rspace:0"><tr><td class="pad" 
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