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Coordinates: 26°13′4″S 28°10′2″E / 26.21778°S 28.16722°E
This article is about Germiston in Gauteng, South Africa. For the Germiston in Scotland, see Germiston, Glasgow.
Germiston is a city in the East Rand of Gauteng in South Africa. It is the sixth largest city in the country with South Africa's biggest railway junction.
It was established in the early days of the gold rush when two prospectors, John Jack from the farm of Germiston near Glasgow and August Simmer from Vacha in Germany, struck paydirt on the farm of Elandsfontein. Both men made fortunes and the town sprung up next to the mine. In 1921 the world's largest gold refinery, the Rand Refinery, was established at Germiston. The refinery sees seventy percent of the Western World's gold passing through it.
Germiston is now the seat of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality which includes much of the East Rand, and is also considered part of Greater Johannesburg.
The WesBank Raceway motorsports facility was located in the city, but it was sold to industrial estate developers in November 2007. Germiston Stadium (formerly the Herman Immelman Stadium), home stadium of Moroka Swallows FC is also located in the city.
Notable people to come from Germiston include: Andre Nel (South African cricket fast bowler), Andre Watson (Rugby Referee),Pierre Issa (Bafana Bafana Defender), Dr Sydney Brenner, winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Ernie Els (professional golfer), Albert Johanneson (Professional Footballer and first black player to play in the FA Cup), Ted Grant (Trotskyist politician and theorist) and Helen Suzman (anti-apartheid activist and politician).
Apparently the house wherein Daisy Louisa De Melker lived (and murdered her husbands) is also located in Germiston. She certainly married her last husband in Germiston, at the historical Anglican Church. (Her son, Rhodes, whom she also poisoned, was a witness at the marriage.)There is also a World War I Memorial in the CBD, but this is now sadly covered in Graffiti. There is hope, once the metro council agree to it, that the Memorial will be relocated to a garden in one of the city's historic churches.
The city is fortunate in having a number of historic buildings. Among these are the St Andrew's Presbyterian Church which was built in 1905, and St Boniface Church designed by Sir Herbert Baker, which was built in 1910 (This is the second church on the site, as the Anglican Parish was founded in 1897). The church also houses the historic 1910 English Romantic Norman and Beard Organ.
The Alexander Hotel was also partly designed by Baker, using his traditional stone appearance, although this building has been allowed to decay over the last twenty years, with the stonework having been painted over.
There are a number of good schools in the city, the most historic being the Dominican St Catherine's Convent, which was founded in the city centre in 1908, and then relocated to the suburb of Parkhill Gardens in the 1940s. Germiston High School was founded in 1917, alongside Victoria Lake. For a period of time from the 1940s to the late 1960s it was divided into separate Boys' and Girls' High Schools, with the boys staying at Victoria Lake, and the girls moving to Fourth Avenue in Lambton. Due to the need to relocate the Afrikaans Delville Primary School, the Girls were moved back to combine with the boys in the original historic buildings. Famous past pupils include Dr Sydney Brenner, winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize, the actor and entertainer, Paul Ditchfield, the radio and TV personality, Malcolm Gooding and the tenor soloist, Malcolm Chalmers.
Victoria Lake is better known today simply as Germiston Lake, however, the famous Sailing and Rowing Club retains the name of the Victoria Lake Club. The club is home to some of the best canoeists and rowing crews in the country, including the sixteen time South African School Champions, St Benedict's College. The lake is very popular on weekends for water skiing and regattas.
Germiston is also the location of Rand Airport, at one time one of the busiest in Africa, and indeed the Southern Hemisphere. Today it caters largely for light aircraft and flying schools, but is also home to the South African Airways Museum. As a result of this, two of the earlier Boeing 747 Jumbo Aircraft acquired by SAA now reside there on permanent display.
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