The DFA’s website has had more than 3 million unique users since its establishment and is still growing in leaps and bounds, bringing breaking news and updates to the people of Kimberley, the Northern Cape and South Africans across the country.
IN 1968 the DFA cost 4c, while in 1878 it cost 6d (sixpence). Had the price gone up or come down? The answer was South Africa’s move from pounds to rands, at an exchange rate of £1 to R2, so effectively the paper had increased by just 1c in 90 years – an achievement that’s never been seen since.
Mike Lloyd remains unique among South African editors for taking up holy orders on his retirement. A devout Anglican, he was ordained just before his retirement in December 1977 and served as a priest until his death 20 years later. He was the author of the DFA’s thought for the day on the leader page. One of his first duties as a priest was to minister to Pan Africanist Congress icon Robert Sobukwe, who had been exiled to Kimberley, as he lay terminally ill. Sobukwe would die in February 1978 and be buried in his home town of Graaff-Reinet.
Copies of the DFA sent on the very first flight from Johannesburg to Kimberley in 1925 were later sold on the floor of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange for £250 each (R4 700), possibly the highest price ever paid for a South African newspaper – to date.
Colonel Sam Salaman combined his duties as the chief sub-editor of the DFA with being the commanding officer of the Kimberley Regiment.
Albert Davis took seven days to reach Kimberley by stagecoach in 1872 when it was still a tent town. By 1885 he was a DFA street seller, by 1898 secretary of the company and by 1911, manager of the DFA. He held the post until his retirement in 1936, after which he was made a director, which he remained until his death – 51 years of service to the DFA. He was married to Ada Anne King, the niece of Dick King who made the epic 900km ride from Durban to Grahamstown in 1842 to get reinforcements against the Voortrekkers. One of Albert and Ada’s sons, Edgar, would go on to become mayor of Kimberley, while Albert’s grandson would represent South Africa at the 1960 Olympic games.
The ‘Perm’, or Permanent Building Society which was started in Kimberley and was a South African icon before being subsumed by Nedbank at the turn of the century, owes its genesis to the DFA – editor Henry Tucker, who was also secretary of the Kimberley Mutual Building Society.
And here are some updated “did you knows” . . .
The DFA’s current editor, Johan du Plessis, is the longest-serving editor in the newspaper’s history. In December last year he celebrated 30 years with the DFA, 20 of them as editor.
In May 2022 the newspaper went free, printing 40 000 copies every Friday, probably its highest print order in history.
The DFA’s Facebook page has a following of nearly 95 000 people.
The DFA’s website has had more than 3 million unique users since its establishment and is still growing in leaps and bounds, bringing breaking news and updates to the people of Kimberley, the Northern Cape and South Africans across the country.
