- Tabloid Newspaper
- Printed on Newsprint Paper
- 20,000 Copies Distributed Weekly
- Frequency: Weekly Tuesday
- Target Audience: Local Community
- Area of Distribution: Culemborgpark, Finsbury, Glenharvie, Greenhills, Greenhills Ext3, Hillshaven, Homelake, Lebanon, Randfontein, Randgate, Rietvallei, Toekomsrus, Westonaria.
Randfontein is a gold mining city in the West Rand, Gauteng, South Africa, 40 km (25 mi) west of Johannesburg. With the Witwatersrand gold rush in full swing, mining financier JB Robinson bought the farm Randfontein and, in 1889, floated the Randfontein Estates Gold Mining Company. The town was established in 1890 to serve the new mine and was administered by Krugersdorp until it became a municipality in 1929. Apart from having the largest stamp mill in the world (used in early paper making for preparing the pulp), Randfontein, like many of the other outlying areas of Johannesburg, is essentially a rural collection of farms and small holdings in a particularly beautiful part of Gauteng.
Shopping in Randfontein is characterised by typical High Street shopping with the majority of the shops situated along Main Reef Road and surrounds. The main mall, Village Square, is also along the main street and provides comfortable access to 72 shops. A number of government departments have their regional offices in Randfontein. This includes SARS (Stubbs Street), SASSA (Stubbs Street), Department of Labour (Main Reef Road), and Department of Home Affairs (Main Reef Road). Being smaller offices than those in the bigger centres they are relatively efficient and used by members of the public from far afield.
For news and information, residents of Randfontein count on the Randfontein Herald. The Randfontein Herald made its first appearance in 1935 as a national newspaper published by Amalgamated Press in Krugersdorp. It reported on the nuclear bomb attack on Hiroshima, Queen Elizabeth’s visit to our country and the first airplane. Today it is known as the Randfontein/Westonaria Herald.
For many years it served Randfontein as a community newspaper reporting on the comings and goings of the new town mayor, community dances and the old Robinson Hall to name but a few. The only available page for Afrikaans news was the back page. To make it easier for customer to see the price of the newspaper from the other side of the shop counter, the price of one penny was printed upside down. In 1975 the newspaper was bought by Fanie van Zijl and grew to 42 pages becoming an even bigger newspaper than the West Rand Times.
In 1976 the Randfontein Herald Newspaper was bought by one Victor Lewis and two years later it was sold to the Caxton Group who is currently still the owner. Today the Herald is a much-respected newspaper that serves the community in bringing it up to date news about crime, politics and news of interest about the community, churches, schools and sports. Both the newspaper and the website have gone from strength to strength since and have become an irretrievable part of the communities of Randfontein and Westonaria. The Randfontein Herald has a readership of 71 % and News readers do most of their shopping in Randfontein. It presents a valuable opportunity for businesses to advertise in the Randfontein Herald to reach potential customers and increase sales.
Randfontein Heralds 20,000 copies are distributed every Tuesday into areas such as Culemborgpark, Finsbury, Glenharvie, Greenhills, Greenhills Ext3, Hillshaven, Homelake, Lebanon, Randfontein, Randgate, Rietvallei, Toekomsrus and Westonaria.