David Coetzee (1943-2010), editor of SouthScan, has died in the US on January 19th after battling asbestos-related cancer since February last year. Coetzee's SouthScan news bulletin has been a valuable source of reliable information from and about Africa for the past 25 years. During the apartheid years, it was virtually the only comprehensive source of independent, uncensored news from South Africa. The publication reported from the trenches of township war zones through a network of sources.

Southscan was published in London, from where it reached South African exiles, international journalists and interested audiences at large. Except for the apartheid government, the magazine was valued by all, particularly also because Coetzee -though friendly with ANC leaders- never shirked away from also reporting truthfully and sometimes critically about the ANC side of the struggle.

After the end of apartheid in 1994, Southscan continued to give audiences in and outside Africa realistic inside information about important developments in all the different countries of the continent. It is not known yet if SouthScan can and will live on without Coetzee. FAIR director Evelyn Groenink said that "African journalists have lost a great friend and a colleague who was a rolemodel", and added that she hoped that Coetzee's legacy, Southscan, would be given enough support to carry on. "David supported and enabled good journalism in Africa. We as African journalists should now try to help keep Southscan going."