South Africa is initially mentioned in the paper (5)
I believe the answer is:
essay
'paper' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'south africa is initially mentioned' is the wordplay.
'is initially' indicates taking the first letters.
'mentioned' shows a homophone (sound like).
The first letters of 'south africa' is 'sa'.
'sa' is a homophone of 'ESSAY'.
'in the' is the link.
(Other definitions for essay that I've seen before include "Prose composition" , "School composition" , "What may be written in exam" , "Trial, piece of writing" , "Try - composition" .)