The Karibu newspaper was launched in 2005 as a quarterly newspaper for social movements with a specific focus on combating xenophobia in South Africa, and with a limited regional focus. Over the years Karibu developed from a quarterly to a monthly, and broadened its coverage of news from a focus on combating xenophobia to a focus on struggles for social justice in general, and on service delivery in particular. Karibu therefore sees itself as part of taking up the broader social justice and democratic challenges of post-apartheid South Africa. Over the last two years Karibu has evolved even further and now seeks to be a broader working class newspaper covering all aspects of working class life. Karibu has become a platform where people from different sectors and different walks of life access news about social, economic, political and cultural life of the country and of the working class in particular. An equally important element of this evolution of Karibu is that the newspaper has set itself the goal of becoming a national newspaper – operating on a variety of platform that include digital (web-based), mobi as well as paper. As part of its perspective of becoming a working class newspaper, Karibu launched an educational supplement named “Baithuti” – which means ‘those who educate themselves’. The name for the supplement points to another key principle in the development of the newspaper – which is that it seeks to base itself on working class self-education. The principle on which Karibu is founded is that as a newspaper it seeks to promote democracy and to work in a democratic way. This element is also embedded in its news gathering strategy.
