The Sowetan is an English language

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

n newspaper that started in 1981 as a liberation struggle newspaper and was freely distributed to households in the black township

Township (South Africa)

In South Africa, the term township and location usually refers to the urban living areas that, from the late 19th century until the end of Apartheid, were reserved for non-whites . Townships were usually built on the periphery of towns and cities...

 of Soweto

Soweto

Soweto is a lower-class-populated urban area of the city of Johannesburg in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for South Western Townships...

, Johannesburg

Johannesburg

Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...

, Gauteng Province.

The paper carries a left-wing editorial tone, usually strongly favourable to the ruling African National Congress

African National Congress

The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...

, and in 2006 carried a readership of 1.6 million and a circulation of 124,000.

See also

• List of newspapers in South Africa
• The World (South African newspaper)
  The World (South African newspaper)
  The World, originally named The Bantu World, was the Johannesburg black daily newspaper which published photographer Sam Nzima's iconic image of Hector Pieterson, taken during the Soweto uprisings of June 16, 1976.- History:...