Randfontein (E 9)

Name: Randfontein

Randfontein is a gold mining town in western Gauteng, South Africa, 45 km 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.

Randfontein Estates had the largest stamp mill in the world, with 600 stamps.

A pretty sheet of water, Riebeeck Lake, is among the attractions of the town.

Today Randfontein has a population of 181,940, which incorporates Mohlakeng and Toekomsrus.


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David Goldblatt was born in Randfontein, the grandson of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants. He attended Krugersdorp High School, where his interest in photography began. Unable to pursue his desired career as a magazine photographer, he worked in his father’s men’s outfitting business and studied part-time to obtain his Bachelor of Commerce degree. After the death of his father Eli Goldblatt in 1962, he sold the family store and in September 1963, at age 33, he started to work as professional photographer.

In 1975, he published his first solo book ‘Some Afrikaners Photographed’. It compiled the work he had done between 1961 and 1968. By the end of the 1970s Goldblatt had published four books of photographs, all of them studies on South African life. He was also employed as picture editor at Leadership Magazine.


Abandoned farmhouse near Molteno, Eastern Cape. 25 February 2006. Digital prints on 100% rag cotton paper in pigment inks. Source: www.goodman-gallery.com Goldblatt, along with a small group of white South African photographers, including Struan Robertson, followed the lead of some international photographers and set out to document social and political life in South Africa. He has been hailed for his vision and a career that has, to date, spanned almost five decades of work and great dedication to his craft. He is also one of the most interviewed and written about contemporary South African photographers.

http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/people/special%20projects/arts/goldblatt/menu.htm