Later he was political editor of the Johannesburg Sunday Times and a regular contributor to publications in Britain, Australia, and New Zealand.
Uys moved to London in the 1990s to run the office of South Africa's Morning Group chain, while continuing to write for the Rand Daily Mail and other media.
Living in London he became a regular pundit on BBC radio, assessing the 1980s political unrest that heralded the release of Mandela.
Following the abolition of apartheid, his criticisms of ANC one party rule annoyed the new rulers, but underlined his journalistic rectitude.
In 2010 from his home in London he wrote that the ANCs plans to rein in the press were "mind blowing," and compared them to the censorship under the white government.