In 1871 Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr, who had been editor of De Volksvriend became editor of De Zuid-Afrikaan, a post that he held until 1904.
During the early 1870s, Arnoldus Pannevis and CP Hoogenhout, via letters to De Zuid-Afrikaan argued the need to translate the Bible into Afrikaans for the benefit of the coloured community and the poorer section of the Cape Dutch community who spoke a local patois rather than Dutch.