By Rebecca Harrison
Racist sharks that devour white swimmers, husband-snatching witchdoctors and a magic tree with penis-enlarging properties.
Such lurid tales ensure that South Africa's young tabloid industry is riding a wave of sales.
Driven by a classic formula of sex and celebrity with a distinctive African flavour, the tabloids have proved a hit with the country's black majority.
Solid diet of sex, sensation and sangomas "It has all the news about what's happening in the townships, and it's cheap," said security guard Jacob Jaleni of top-selling tabloid Daily Sun.
"Some people don't like it, but I think it tells the story like it is."
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Publishers in South Africa used to target the richer white minority with upmarket titles in English and Afrikaans. But media companies have realised there is money to be made in the mass market, prompting a flurry of tabloid titles that are luring hundreds of thousands of readers, mainly from the townships.
"Our research shows most Daily Sun readers had never bought a newspaper before it was launched," said Steve Pacak, chief financial officer at Naspers, which publishes the Daily Sun.
Daily Sun hit newsstands three years ago and now shifts more than 400 000 copies a day with a solid diet of sex, sensation and sangomas.
'That has changed – this is their country now' Two more daily titles – the Afrikaans Die Son and English Daily Voice – and two Sunday papers have since followed and more are in the pipeline.
The boom in tabloids reflects a wider trend. Previously, black consumers were considered too poor, but their buying power is now recognised as massive.
Higher incomes and improved literacy among the black majority, as well as the end of apartheid-era censorship has prompted the launch of more populist newspapers.
"The black majority is now free to vote and free to access the media," said Karl Brophy, executive editor of the Daily Voice which was launched recently in Cape Town.
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