Vrye Weekblad
| Dink vir jouself (English: "Think for yourself") | |
A screenshot of the Vrye Weekblad (English edition) website from 20 March 2024. | |
| Founder(s) | Max du Preez Jacques Pauw |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Arena Holdings |
| Editor | Max du Preez Anneliese Burgess |
| Founded | November 1988 |
| Political alignment | Apartheid era (1988-1994): Anti-establishment Anti-apartheid Online era (2019-2025): Independent |
| Language | Afrikaans & English |
| Ceased publication | May 28, 1993 March 28, 2025 |
| Relaunched | April 6, 2019 |
| Headquarters | Cape Town |
| Country | South Africa |
| Website | www |
Vrye Weekblad was a progressive Afrikaans national weekly newspaper that was launched in November 1988 and forced to close in 28 May 1994,. It was then relaunched as an online newspaper in 2019, before closing again in 2025. The paper was noted for its anti-apartheid stance making it a notable outlier in the Afrikaans language media of the 1980s and early 1990s. The paper was initially driven into bankruptcy by the legal costs of defending its charge that South African Police General Lothar Neethling had supplied poison to security police to kill activists.
It was relaunched in a digital format on 6 April 2019 by Arena Holdings, with Max du Preez returning as editor and Anneliese Burgess as co-editor. A new edition was published every Friday on the Vrye Weekblad website. The final issue was published on 28 March 2025.