"The Bantu World"'s first editor was Victor Selope-Thema who served until 1952. The newspaper was the first in South Africa to place news rather than advertisements on the front page. A women's page was introduced in October 1932. The paper ran a beauty competition from November 1932 to March 1933 for which readers could vote. A favourite debate in the paper during the 1930s was what constituted the "African modern girl". Similar discussions of feminine beauty intended to attract female readers.