by the Special Branch police in an effort to shut down two of the most popular black publications at the time, The World and Weekend World. Nation Building In the late 1980s South Africa was a bedrock for mass protest action met with violence from the apartheid police. By 1988 Aggrey Klaaste was the editor of The Sowetan (previously The World) which was the largest circulating black newspaper in the country at the time. The ANC accused The Sowetan of showing preferential treatment and being pro-PAC and Black Consciousness. With these two factors to consider, Klaaste decided to shift the newspaper's editorial policy and began sparking a dialogue around nation building. He wrote at length in his column On the Line about a non-racial South Africa and practical measures with which black people can make sense of apartheid on a daily basis. Klaaste was also known to be an active member of his community in Meadowlands, Soweto. Klaaste faced more criticism for his attempts at unifying a divided country, particularly from the Black Consciousness Movement, who accused him of ‘selling-out’ by spreading ideas of a non-racial society. Prior to his death, he was an executive with the black empowerment company, New Africa Investment Ltd. (NAIL) as well as the chairperson of the Johannesburg Tourism Company. He was voted 58th in the Top 100 Great South Africans in 2004. See also Can Themba United Democratic Front (South Africa) References External links KLAASTE, Aggrey Zola International Who's Who. accessed September 4, 2006. People from Kimberley, Northern Cape 1940 births 2004 deaths University of the Witwatersrand alumni South African newspaper editors 20th-century South African women