Afrikaans magazines have a hold on South African readers that English titles rarely match. Ask any Afrikaans-speaking household which magazine lands on the kitchen table each week and you'll get an answer in seconds, usually with a story attached. Huisgenoot has been part of family life since 1916. Sarie shaped what a generation of women read. These are not just magazines; they are a reading culture. This guide walks through the Afrikaans magazines worth knowing in 2026, who each one is really for, and the simplest way to get the ones you want without chasing them title by title.
Why Afrikaans Magazines Still Matter
Afrikaans is a first language for roughly seven million South Africans, and the magazine market reflects that loyalty. While print has shrunk worldwide, the leading Afrikaans titles have held their readers better than most because they do something digital struggles to replace: they speak to a specific community in its own voice, week after week. The reader who grew up with Huisgenoot on the coffee table tends to stay with it for life, and often passes the habit to the next generation.
For anyone curating reading material, whether for a home, a guesthouse, a salon or a doctor's reception, the lesson is simple. Leaving Afrikaans titles out of the mix ignores a large slice of the South African audience. Including them signals that you actually know who your readers are.
The Best Afrikaans Magazines in South Africa
Huisgenoot, the family weekly
No list of Afrikaans magazines starts anywhere else. Huisgenoot, published by Media24, is the most-read magazine in the country and has been a fixture of Afrikaans family life for more than a century. It mixes real-life human-interest stories, celebrity news, health, recipes, puzzles and competitions into a weekly that genuinely has something for every member of the household. Its English sister title, YOU, carries much of the same content for English readers, which is why the two so often sit side by side in a well-stocked waiting room.
Sarie, women's lifestyle with a long memory
Sarie is the leading Afrikaans women's magazine and one of the most recognisable brands in South African publishing. It covers fashion, beauty, relationships, careers and real-life features with an editorial voice that has matured alongside its readers. For an Afrikaans-speaking woman, Sarie is often the title she reaches for first.
Sarie Kos, for the people who actually cook
A spin-off that earned its own following, Sarie Kos is built entirely around food: seasonal recipes, entertaining ideas, baking and the kind of practical home cooking that gets bookmarked and splattered with flour. In a salon or guesthouse lounge, it is one of the titles guests quietly photograph pages from.
Tuis, home and garden in Afrikaans
Tuis is the Afrikaans home-and-decor title for readers who want interiors, gardening and lifestyle content in their own language rather than in translation. It sits naturally alongside English equivalents like Garden & Home for a household, lodge or reception that wants to cover both language communities on the home-interest shelf.
Weg!, the road-trip and outdoors favourite
Weg! (and its English counterpart Go!) is the travel and outdoor magazine South Africans plan holidays around. Destinations, 4x4 routes, camping, wildlife and practical trip guides make it a perennial favourite, particularly for waiting rooms where readers daydream about being somewhere else.
Rooi Rose, the enduring women's monthly
One of the oldest Afrikaans women's magazines, Rooi Rose continues to serve a loyal readership with a blend of lifestyle, food, fashion and real-life storytelling. It rounds out the women's-interest options alongside Sarie for any collection that wants depth rather than a single title.
English and Afrikaans, Side by Side
The smartest reading collections in South Africa are bilingual. The country reads in both languages, often within the same family, and a mix that respects that is a mix that works harder. A simple rule of thumb: for most of the big interest areas, there is an Afrikaans title and an English one that pair naturally.
- Family weekly: Huisgenoot (Afrikaans) and YOU (English)
- Women's lifestyle: Sarie (Afrikaans) and Glamour or Marie Claire (English)
- Home and garden: Tuis (Afrikaans) and Garden & Home (English)
- Travel and outdoors: Weg! (Afrikaans) and Go! (English)
Stock both sides of each pair and you cover the full South African readership instead of half of it.
Where Afrikaans Magazines Come From, and Why It Complicates Things
Here is the practical catch. The major Afrikaans titles are not all published by the same company. Huisgenoot, Sarie, Sarie Kos, Tuis and Weg! come from Media24. Rooi Rose and other titles come from Caxton. If you want a genuine spread of Afrikaans magazines, you would normally have to set up and manage a separate subscription with each publisher, track separate renewals, and field separate deliveries. For a household it is a nuisance. For a business stocking a reception or lounge, it is a recurring admin headache.
This is exactly the gap DLT Monthly was built to close. We are South Africa's only multi-publisher magazine service, which means a single subscription can bring together Afrikaans titles from Media24 and Caxton alongside the English magazines you want, in one curated pack with one delivery and one point of contact. You choose the mix; we handle the publishers.
How to Get the Afrikaans Magazines You Want
You have three realistic routes:
- Buy them individually at retail. Fine for one or two titles, but the per-issue price is the highest and you are at the mercy of what the shop stocked that week.
- Subscribe directly with each publisher. Workable for a single title, but a true Afrikaans spread means juggling Media24 and Caxton separately.
- Use a multi-publisher subscription. One curated pack, titles from across the publishing houses, delivered monthly. This is the route built for people who want variety without the management.
For a business, the multi-publisher route also fixes the consistency problem. A waiting room or lounge that always has current Afrikaans and English titles, refreshed every month without anyone on staff having to remember, quietly tells customers that the place pays attention to detail.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most popular Afrikaans magazine in South Africa?
Huisgenoot is the most-read magazine in the country and the clear leader among Afrikaans titles. It has been part of Afrikaans family life since 1916 and its English sister title, YOU, carries similar content for English readers.
Can I subscribe to Afrikaans and English magazines together?
Yes. With a multi-publisher service like DLT Monthly you can combine Afrikaans titles such as Huisgenoot, Sarie and Tuis with English magazines in a single subscription, rather than running separate subscriptions per publisher.
Are Afrikaans magazines still being printed in 2026?
Yes. While the print market has contracted globally, the leading Afrikaans titles retain strong, loyal readerships and continue to publish in print. Their staying power is one of the reasons they remain a smart inclusion in any South African reading collection.
Which Afrikaans magazines are best for a waiting room or salon?
A reliable mix is Huisgenoot for broad family appeal, Sarie or Rooi Rose for women's lifestyle, Sarie Kos for food, and Weg! for travel. Pairing each with its English counterpart covers both language communities.
The Short Version
Afrikaans magazines remain some of the most loved and most read titles in South Africa, and any serious reading collection, at home or in a business, is incomplete without them. The only real friction is that the best titles are spread across different publishers. DLT Monthly removes that friction by bringing Afrikaans and English magazines from every major publishing house into one curated subscription.
Want a pack that gets the Afrikaans titles right alongside the English ones? Take a look at the options and build the mix that fits your home or your business.