Volksblad Newspaper South Africa


     View Epaper

Volksblad Newspaper South Africa is an Afrikaans language daily newspaper published in Bloemfontein, South Africa, and distributed in the Free State and Northern Cape provinces, where it is the largest Afrikaans daily. It is South Africa’s oldest Afrikaans newspaper.The paper is owned by Media24.

The history of the Volksblad can be traced to 18 November 1904 when the Dutch printer Hendrik de Graaf founded the Dutch weekly magazine, Het Westen, in Potchefstroom.The paper devoted itself to the interests and development of the Afrikaner people of the former independent Orange Free State and Transvaal Republics in the aftermath of the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). The name of this overtly nationalist paper was changed to Het Volksblad in March 1915 and its headquarters were moved to Bloemfontein the following year. In 1917 it underwent a further name adjustment to Die Volksblad, henceforth publishing in Afrikaans rather than Dutch.

In 1925 Die Volksblad became a daily newspaper.

Within the Northern Cape the Volksblad distributes a free weekly supplement called Noordkaap. Since the 1990s the paper has actively courted a larger readership beyond its traditional white Afrikaner following, as is suggested by its new slogan, in three languages: “Saam kan ons – Together we can – Hammoho re ka kgona” (Afrikaans, English and Sesotho).