11-05-2025
Printing the paper could be a dangerous job
Working for newspapers can be a dangerous job if you're in one of the conflict hotspots of the world.
But you don't expect to lose a limb when you're actually printing one.
Technology may have largely changed all that and made it a lot safer, but when long-time Newspaper House staffer Pieter van Wyk started out as an apprentice in the printing press section, he had lost the top of two fingers not much longer than a year into the job.
Van Wyk was one of 14 apprentices who started in the works department at the same time, printing The Herald, Evening Post, Weekend Post and later Sunday Times, in the works in the year that he turned 18.
These 'appies' included compositors and photo mechanics.
Long night shifts for many months at a time were part and parcel of the job — 9pm until 4am.
And often, double shifts. But then, frighteningly, there was also the risk of losing a body part.
One employee lost an arm after it was ripped from its shoulder socket, another had two thumbs crushed, and Van Wyk, now 72 and long retired since 2007, had the tops of a ring finger and a pinky chopped off when he was just 19.
'You had to rig the paper through this 'old school' press. And I thought another guy was taking the paper through these two rolling cylinders,' Van Wyk said.
But then his fingers got caught in the gap as he fed the paper through.
He was rushed to hospital for treatment, and when it came to his compensation claim, unfortunately for Van Wyk the workers' compensation laws didn't allow for much.
'The doctor said this was because no digits [fingers] were involved.
'You're going to find this a joke now but I got paid out the equivalent of the value of a fishing reel and a fishing rod — about R160,' Van Wyk said with a broad grin.
In early 1981, the team had their work cut out for them when the printing press section was totally flooded.
'The [then Afrikaans newspaper] Oosterlig printed The Herald for us which was about 30,000 to 32,000 copies. It took us about three months working non-stop to get our press up and running again.'
The Herald
