Cape Times Contact Details

The Cape Times is a Cape Town daily founded in 1876 and now published as part of the IOL group of titles, alongside the Cape Argus, Daily Voice and Weekend Argus in the Western Cape. Its own site, capetimes.co.za, publishes contact addresses but no switchboard number — every route below is an email address, which is what the paper itself lists.

Official contact details

• Newsroom: newsroom@iol.co.za and ctnews@inl.co.za
• Advertising and advert bookings: sales@volt.africa
• Complaints about published material: complaints@iol.co.za

Advertising for the Cape Times is handled by Volt, the group’s sales arm, which covers the Cape titles. The sales team lists a named regional sales manager as well; that person’s individual mailbox is not repeated here, because sales@volt.africa reaches the same desk and survives staff changes.

How the complaints procedure works

The Cape Times publishes a full complaints procedure, and it is unusually specific about the steps. A complaint goes first to complaints@iol.co.za, where Independent Online’s national executive editor acts as public advocate and has fourteen days to try to settle it. Only if that fails does the complaint go to the Press Ombuds for adjudication.

• Anyone with a direct interest in the published material may complain, and third-party complaints are accepted if the person affected cannot act for themselves or good cause is shown.
• If no settlement is reached, the complainant must sign an unequivocal waiver of the right to take the matter to court or another tribunal before the Ombuds will hear it.
• Complainants other than individuals, registered non-profits and public benefit organisations must pay a refundable deposit of R5 000, refunded if the complaint is substantially successful. The Ombuds may waive it on good cause shown.

Where the Cape Times sits

The paper describes itself as covering Cape Town from South Africa’s parliamentary capital, and points to its 1985 interview with the then-banned ANC leader Oliver Tambo as the moment it drew international attention. Editorially it is one title inside a much larger stable: Business Report, Cape Argus, Daily News, Independent on Saturday, Isolezwe, The Mercury, Post, Pretoria News, Saturday Star, Sunday Independent, Sunday Tribune, The Star, Daily Voice and Weekend Argus all sit alongside it, which is why the newsroom and complaints addresses are IOL group addresses rather than Cape Times ones.

If email does not get a reply

• For a story correction, quote the article headline and publication date — the complaints procedure requires the specific article to be identified.
• For subscription or delivery problems, the newsroom address is the wrong desk; use the subscription details printed on the paper itself.
• The Press Council of South Africa is the external escalation point once the paper’s own fourteen-day settlement window has passed.