The ''Diamond Fields Advertiser (DFA)'' is a daily newspaper published in
Kimberley
Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to:
Places and historical events
Australia
* Kimberley (Western Australia)
** Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley
* Kimberley Warm Springs, Tasmania
* Kimberley, Tasmania a small town
* County of Kimberley, a ...
, South Africa, founded on 23 March 1878.
The early days
The earliest paper on the
Diamond Fields
Kimberley is the capital and largest city of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It is located approximately 110 km east of the confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers. The city has considerable historical significance due to its ...
was a weekly called the ''Diamond Field'', published from 15 October 1870 at
Pniel. It moved the following year first to
Du Toit's Pan
Du Toit's Pan, now usually Dutoitspan, is one of the earliest diamond mining camps at what is now Kimberley, South Africa. It was renamed Beaconsfield, which existed as a separate borough from Kimberley itself until Kimberley and Beaconsfield wer ...
and then
New Rush
Kimberley is the capital and largest city of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It is located approximately 110 km east of the confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers. The city has considerable historical significance due to its ...
(later renamed Kimberley), and had a strongly anti-imperial view point. Another of the early papers was the pro-British ''Diamond News'' of
R. W. Murray.
[Van Niekerk, F. (ed), ''Knights of the Shovel''. Kimberley: Africana Library, 1996, pp. 86–87.]
The ''Independent'', owned by William Ling in 1876, was acquired by
J. B. Robinson. By the late 1870s the success of the ''Independent'' had forced the ''Diamond Field'' to close, but with the ''Diamond Fields Advertiser'' then emerging as a third paper alongside the ''Diamond News'' and the ''Independent'' keeping local politicians on their toes in the turbulent years that followed.
During the
Siege of Kimberley
The siege of Kimberley took place during the Second Boer War at Kimberley, Cape Colony (present-day South Africa), when Boer forces from the Orange Free State and the Transvaal besieged the diamond mining town. The Boers moved quickly to try ...
, the newspaper was the subject of a feud between
Cecil Rhodes
Cecil John Rhodes (5 July 1853 – 26 March 1902) was a British mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896.
An ardent believer in British imperialism, Rhodes and his Br ...
and garrison commander, Colonel
Robert Kekewich
Major-General (United Kingdom), Major-General Robert George Kekewich, Order of the Bath, CB (17 June 1854 – 5 November 1914) was a Victorian era British Army officer.
Early life
Kekewich was the second son of Trehawke Kekewich, of Peamore Hou ...
. The local newspaper, which was under Rhodes' control, ignored the military censor and printed information that compromised the military.
Kekewich obtained permission from his superior to place Rhodes under arrest if necessary.
Prominent journalists in Kimberley in the early years included
R. W. Murray,
and
F. Y. St Leger, later founder of the ''
Cape Times
The ''Cape Times'' is an English-language morning newspaper owned by Independent News & Media SA and published in Cape Town, South Africa.
the newspaper had a daily readership of 261 000 and a circulation of 34 523. By the fourth quarter of ...
''.
Editors of the DFA
[Diamond Fields Advertiser Monday 23 March 1998 'Commemorative Edition' p. 31]
1878 – 1884 Henry Tucker, secretary of the Kimberley mining board and one time Member of the Cape Parliament.
1884 – 1896 Robert Fisher Wilson, independent spirit and fearless writer. Went on to become editor of the Johannesburg Times.
1896 – 1898 Albert Cartwright. Went on to edit the SA News and the Johannesburg Times.
1898 – 1910 George AL Green, Rhodes's 'Prince of Journalists'. Went on to edit the Cape Argus.
1910 – 1923 Frank Ireland
1923 – 1932 Henry Lissant Collins
1932 – 1938 George A Simpson. Was one of Sol Plaatje's pallbearers at his funeral at the West End cemetery.
1938 – 1939 Hastings H Beck
1939 – 1942 A Harrington
1942 – 1949 Rex Hall. Later helped to establish South Africa's Iron and Steel Corporation.
1949 – 1959 David Brechin
1959 – 1962 Archie Atkinson
1962 – 1967 Conrad Lighton
1967 – 1977 Mike Lloyd
1977 – 1984 Graham Etherington
1985 – 1991 Anthony Ball
1991 – 1992 Charles Guild (acting)
1992 – 2002 Kevin Ritchie
2002 – present Johan du Plessis
DFA today
The ''Diamond Fields Advertiser'', affectionately known to its readers as the ''DFA'', outlived its rivals and has continued as a daily paper (although the Saturday edition was dropped in the late 1960s). Today it is a member of
Independent News & Media
Mediahuis Ireland (formally Independent News and Media (INM) )) is a media organisation that is based in Dublin and publishes national daily newspapers, Sunday newspapers, regional newspapers and operates multiple websites including Independent. ...
.
Readership stood at 108,000 in 2015, mainly in Kimberley and the surrounding region, with a distribution of 9,161 copies in Q1 2015.
Distribution areas
Distribution figures
Readership figures
References
{{Reflist
External links
DFA OnlineSAARF Website
Daily newspapers published in South Africa
Mass media in Kimberley, Northern Cape
Newspapers established in 1878