The announcement that City Press will be going fully digital takes me back to a rather ugly incident 22 years ago. I was covering Jacob Baby Jake Matlala’s final boxing match for the Sunday Sun at The Carnival City on a Saturday night.

City Press and Sunday Sun, located in the same building and both owned by Media 24 assigned three photographers for the event. Back then it was standard procedure that when there was a sporting event on deadline day, the photographer on duty would quickly snap pictures, then hand over the spool of film to a driver to take back to the office for processing while they remained to cover the rest of the event.

But on the night of Baby Jake’s fight, there was no company driver. So the task of ferrying the film to the office for processing fell on Sipho Maluka who had also been shooting. Maluka moered the car to make it back at Auckland Park in record time. Unfortunately, when he reached the office he met their production team heading home.

Upon enquiry, he was informed the team had used a digital image of the fight sent by Themba Maseko, who was shooting for Rapport, the Afrikaans newspaper located on the same floor as Sunday Sun and owned by the same company Media24.

If Maluka didn’t moer someone that night…City Press, Sunday Sun and as I was to experience later, DRUM magazine were the literal black sheep in the Media 24 stable. There were hardly any resources at these publications. The pay was terrible, the pool cars were usually rickety hand me downs from the Beeld, Rapport, Huis Genoot and YOU.

Even the computers were very old. There was only one film scanner and computer for an entire photographic department, which was used on a first come first serve basis, sometimes leading to confrontation among colleagues.

So, while other publications migrated to digital cameras, City Press and Sunday Sun photographers had to contend with being stuck in the film age, using cameras that were so worn out they resembled those old Zola Budd skorokoros at Bree Street taxi rank. While everyone at ringside were busy typing their stories on the laptops at Matlala’s fight, I had only a pen, notebook and relied on the ringside telephone to dictate the story to the newsdesk.

Dictating a story in that chaotic environment meant one needed to really raise their voice, literally shout so the person on the other side could get what you were saying. It was embarrassing, especially drawing strange and annoyed looks from colleagues filing stories on their laptops.

Having come from the Sunday Times where I started my career in print media to City Press back then, was like getting off a flight at OR Tambo and hopping into a taxi at Noord Street taxi rank. Basic things like getting a petrol card for a trip were such a hassle, the out of town allowances, hotel accommodation were treated as luxuries, not necessities, and they were atrocious! Once, Lesley Lehlohonolo Mofokeng who was then with the Sunday Times, saved my life by offering me his room at Sun City after covering the Kora Awards.

The company had refused to book me accommodation and gave me R100 as an out of town allowance. This was despite the fact that the event was set to go on until the early hours of the morning. Mofokeng, may the gods bless his generous Bafokeng spirit, would not allow me to drive back to Joburg at that hour.

Once, I travelled to cover a story in North West province with Panyaza Mcineka (MHSRIP). The transport manager refused to give us a petrol card, arguing that Brits was just around the corner and there was enough fuel in the vehicle to take us there and back. Lo and behold, after a day of driving around putting the story together, we ran out of gas.

Panyaza called the newsdesk, threatening to abandon the car there and take a taxi back to Jhb. The finance and HR departments were run by verkrampte old Boers (I really and truly resented those people’s attitudes!!!) who never seemed to believe Black journalists were worthy of being afforded the best resources like their counterparts Beeld, Rapport, YOU and Huisgenoot.

I’m not sure if black editors then, who were in charge of these publications put up enough fight to force management to improve conditions. I don’t think journalists themselves put up a fight either. Conditions gradually improved under the editorship of Mathatha Tsedu, salaries and general conditions got better, but still not on the same level as the paper’s rivals.

But it was under Ferial Haffejee that conditions improved drastically, salaries, general resources, and the paper could even recruit staff from rival publications like Sunday Times and Mail&Guardian among others, something previously unheard of. Apart from the challenges highlighted, the spirit in the City Press newsroom was out of this world.

We became like family and made friendships that endure to this day. The team spirit was so great, we missed the newsroom on our off days. We spent most evenings in the newsroom, discussing politics, news stories, sport, women (and men), sharing our experiences in the field.

I had three stints at City Press, (2001-2002; 2006-2008; 2010-13) and I can safely say that despite the challenges, this was where I enjoyed the best years of my journalism life.

A new digital era has dawned for the paper, and by the look of things this is likely to become the new normal going forward. No one will have to moer the company car at devilish speed, risking life and limb, to deliver films for processing to meet the deadline. May the journey be rough.

Lucas Ledwaba is a journalist and author. The article first appeared on Facebook and was published with the author’s permission.