John Tengo Jabavu, a mission-educated teacher and vice president of the NEA, had founded his own newspaper, Imvo Zabantsundu (Native Opinion) in 1884.

Jabavu uses the newspaper as a forum through which to express African grievances about the pass laws; "location" regulations; the unequal administration of justice; and what are considered "anti-native" laws, such as the one passed in 1887 by the Cape Parliament at Rhodes's behest that had raised the property qualification for voters and had stricken twenty thousand Africans off the rolls.

Through these organizations and newspapers, and others like them established in the late nineteenth century, Africans protest their unequal treatment, pointing out in particular contradictions between the theory and practice of British colonialism.

They call for the eradication of discrimination and for the incorporation of Africans into colonial society on an equal basis with Europeans.

By the end of the nineteenth century, after property qualifications have again been raised in 1892, there are only about eight thousand Africans on the Cape's voting roll.