My former Guardian colleague John Paterson, who has died aged 80, was chief subeditor on the Rand Daily Mail newspaper in South Africa during a turbulent period of the 1970s when opposition to apartheid intensified along with state repression.
John and his wife, Maggie (nee Stent), a fellow journalist whom he married in 1965, were staunch opponents of apartheid, and like many others in their profession in South Africa, played an important role in the fight to try to reverse the racial laws of the country. However, they decided to leave when the black daily newspaper on which Maggie was chief sub, the World, was closed down by the government in 1977, and life became increasingly dangerous for journalists.
