Vereeniging ( ; ) is a city located in the south of

Gauteng province Gauteng ( , ; Sotho-Tswana for 'place of gold'; or ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only 1.5% of the coun ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, situated where the Klip River empties into the northern loop of the

Vaal River The Vaal River ( ; Khoemana: ) is the largest tributary of the Orange River in South Africa. The river has its source near Breyten in Mpumalanga province, east of Johannesburg and about north of Ermelo and only about from the Indian Oce ...

. It is also one of the constituent parts of the

Vaal Triangle The Vaal Triangle is a triangular area formed by Vereeniging, Vanderbijlpark and Sasolburg about 60 km south of Johannesburg, South Africa. The area forms a substantial urban complex. Meyerton, just north of Vereeniging, is also sometimes ...

region and was formerly situated in the

Transvaal province The Province of Transvaal (), commonly referred to as the Transvaal (; ), was a province of South Africa from 1910 until 1994, when a new constitution subdivided it following the end of apartheid. The name "Transvaal" refers to the province's ...

. Vereeniging is the third largest city in Gauteng. The name ''Vereeniging'' is the

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

word meaning "association", although the spelling has since changed to ''vereniging'', with a single ''e''.

Geographical information

Vereeniging is situated in the southern part of Gauteng Province, and forms the southern portion of the Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeninging (PWV) conurbation, and its neighbors are

Vanderbijlpark Vanderbijlpark is an industrial city with approximately 95,000 inhabitants, situated on the Vaal River in the south of Gauteng province, South Africa. The city is named after Hendrik van der Bijl, an electrical engineer and industrialist. V ...

(to the west), Three Rivers (east), Meyerton (north) and

Sasolburg Sasolburg is a city in the Free State province of South Africa. The city is located in the northern part of the province and is the seat of the Metsimaholo Local Municipality. The city lies 13 kilometres south of the Gauteng province and form ...

(south). The city is currently one of the most important industrial manufacturing centres in South Africa, with its chief products being iron, steel, pipes, bricks, tiles and processed lime. The predominant language in Vereeniging is

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

followed closely by

Sesotho Sotho (), also known as ''Sesotho'' (), Southern Sotho, or ''Sesotho sa Borwa'' is a Southern Bantu languages, Southern Bantu language spoken in Lesotho as its national language and South Africa where it is an official language. Like all Ba ...

language and

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

History

In 1879, George William Stow was commissioned by the

Orange Free State The Orange Free State ( ; ) was an independent Boer-ruled sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeated and surrendered to the British Em ...

government to look for coal deposits in the Bethlehem district With no deposits found he moved northwards to ''Maccauvlei'' on the Vaal River and then crossed the river to the

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name ''Transvaal''. * South African Republic (1856–1902; ...

side. On the farm ''Leeuwkuil'', he found a

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

deposit twelve feet thick. But the Orange Free State government believed that the deposit was too far away and there was a lack of transport so turned down the idea of mining there. Stow settled in

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia Queensland * Kimberley, Queensland, a coastal locality in the Shire of Douglas South Australia * County of Kimberley, a cadastral unit in South Australia Ta ...

to find a job, where he met

Samuel Marks Samuel Marks (July 11, 1844 – February 18, 1920) was a Russian-born South African industrialist and financier. Life history Born the son of a Jewish tailor in 1844 in Neustadt-Sugind, Russian Empire (now Lithuania), Marks was endowed w ...

. After hearing Stow's story, Marks saw an opportunity to use the coal for energy generation at the Kimberley diamond fields. Marks formed ''De Zuid Afrikaanshe en Oranje Vrystaatsche Kolen and Mineralen Vereeniging'' (The South African and Orange Free State Coal and Mineral Association) and sent Stow to purchase the farms where the coal was found. On 25 November 1880 he purchased the 12,000 acre farm ''Leeuwkuil'' for £5,000. Marks' agent J.G. Fraser also purchased the 6,000 acre ''Klipplaatdrift'' farm from Karl August Pistorius in October 1881 for £15,500. This was opposite the farm ''Maccauvlei''. From 1881, coal was taken by ox-wagon to Kimberley, and by 1882 there was so much development around the mining area that a village was surveyed on the two former farms. The ''

Volksraad The Volksraad was a people's assembly or legislature in Dutch or Afrikaans speaking government. Assembly South Africa * Volksraad (South African Republic) (1840–1902) * Volksraad (Natalia Republic), a similar assembly that existed in the Natalia ...

'' agreed to name it Vereeniging, a shortened version of the company's name.

Second Boer War

The

Treaty of Vereeniging The Treaty of Vereeniging was a peace treaty, signed on 31 May 1902, that ended the Second Boer War between the South African Republic and the Orange Free State on the one side, and the United Kingdom on the other. This settlement provided ...

ending the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War (, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War, Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer republics (the South African Republic and ...

(1899–1902) was negotiated here by delegates of the

South African Republic The South African Republic (, abbreviated ZAR; ), also known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer republics, Boer republic in Southern Africa which existed from 1852 to 1902, when it was annexed into the British Empire as a result ...

, the

, and the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

. During the conflict, a

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

was set up in the area by the British in September 1900, and by October 1901 it housed 185 men, 330 women, and 452 children. Conditions at the camp were very poor: drinking water was brought by cart from a fountain (there was no direct water supply although it was situated next to the Vaal River) and there were only 24 latrines. Most inmates lived in bell-tents but there was a dispensary and a school. The concentration camp was situated where the Mittal Steel plant (Vaal Works) is situated. Today, the Maccauvlei Golf Course is on the opposite side of the Vaal River to where the concentration camp was, and a Garden of Remembrance is situated at Maccauvlei. All the British soldiers killed in and around Vereeniging during the war were re-buried on this site.

Apartheid

Near Vereeniging is the predominantly black community of

Sharpeville, Gauteng Sharpeville (also spelled Sharpville) is a township situated between two large industrial cities, Vanderbijlpark and Vereeniging, in southern Gauteng, South Africa. Sharpeville is one of the oldest of six townships in the Vaal Triangle. It was na ...

, the site of the Sharpeville massacre in 1960.

Post-Apartheid

Since 1999 its municipal services were provided by the

Emfuleni Local Municipality Emfuleni Municipality (; ; ) is a local municipality within the Sedibeng District Municipality, in the Gauteng province of South Africa. It is the westernmost local municipality in the district, and covers an area of 987 km2 at the heart of t ...

. In 2018 the municipality was placed under administration after years of wasteful practices and poor service delivery. In February 2022 it was reported that Vereeniging had 14 out-of-service police vehicles for visible policing, and only 20 operational vehicles.

Flooding 2011

In December 2010 and January 2011 the southern part of

Gauteng Gauteng ( , ; Sotho-Tswana languages, Sotho-Tswana for 'place of gold'; or ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts f ...

and Mpumulanga experienced a higher than normal rainfall. This resulted in the need to release more water from the nearby

Vaal dam The Vaal Dam in South Africa was constructed in 1938 and lies 77 km south of OR Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg. The lake behind the dam wall has a surface area of about and is 47 meters deep. The Vaal Dam lies on the Vaal River ...

. As a consequence, parts of Vereeniging, Three Rivers and the rest of the towns downstream were flooded. Three Rivers Proper Floods.JPG, Flooding along Sugarbush Drive, Three Rivers Proper Brandmuller Avenue.JPG, Brandmuller Avenue in Three Rivers Proper

Trade and industry

The city's motto is ''Per Pacem ad Industriam'' (''Through Peace to Industry''). It is currently one of the most important industrial manufacturing centres in South Africa, with its chief products being

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

, pipes, bricks, tiles and processed

lime Lime most commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a color between yellow and green Lime may also refer to: Bo ...

. Several

mines are also still situated in the area, with reserves being estimated at four billion tons. Other mines nearby extract fire-

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

silica Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , commonly found in nature as quartz. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one of the most complex and abundant f ...

and building stone. Vereeniging also has several

Eskom Eskom Hld SOC Ltd or Eskom is a South African electricity public utility. Eskom was established in 1923 as the Electricity Supply Commission (ESCOM) (). Eskom represents South Africa in the Southern African Power Pool. The utility is the larg ...

thermal

power plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...

s that supply

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

to the nearby

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

mines.

Suburbs and municipality

In the census of 2001 the population of Vereeniging was recorded as 73,283. Vereeniging consists of 20 suburbs: * Arcon Park & -Proper * Bedworth Park * Dickensonville * Duncanville * Falcon Ridge * Homer * Leeuhof * Peacehaven & -Proper * Powerville * Randwater * Roodt's Gardens * Roshnee * Sonland Park * Spider Valley * Springcol * Steel Park * Unitas Park * Vereeniging Central * Waldrift Since 1999, Vereeniging has been part of the Emfuleni Local Municipality, along with

, Sharpeville, Sebokeng and the smaller Three Rivers.

Healthcare

Various health services are available in Vereeniging. The majority of these services are located in or near the major medical centres. These include: * Vereeniging Medi-Clinic * Kopanong Hospital * Naledi-Nkanyezi Hospital * Midvaal Private Hospital * Market-Avenue clinic

Education

* Vereeniging Gimnasium (Afrikaans medium - Amalgamation of Hoërskool Vereeniging and Hoër Tegniese Skool Vereeniging) * Handhawer Laerskool (Afrikaans and English medium) (http://www.handhawer.co.za) * Selborne Primary School (English medium) * General Smuts High School (English medium) * Arcon Park Primary School (English medium) * Unitaspark Laerskool (Afrikaans and English medium) * Vryheidsmonument Laerskool (Afrikaans medium) * Overvaal Hoërskool (Afrikaans medium) * Sonland Park Primary School (English medium) * Phoenix High School (English medium) * Roshnee Islamic School (English medium) * Word of Life School (English medium - CIE) * Krugerlaan School (Afrikaans and English medium - LSEN School) *

Tertiary institutions

Campuses of: *

University of South Africa The University of South Africa (UNISA) is the largest university system in South Africa by enrollment. It attracts a third of all higher education students in South Africa. Through various colleges and affiliates, UNISA has over 400,000 student ...

* Damelin College * CTU Training Solutions * Sedibeng College *Boston City Campus * It is also close to the North-West University's Vaal Triangle Campus, and the

Vaal University of Technology Vaal University of Technology (VUT) is a higher education institution in South Africa. It attracts students from all over the country. It is one of the largest residential universities of technology, with about 20 000 students, 40 programs, al ...

Notable residents

* Gerald Bosch, played fly-half for The Springboks 1974–1976 *

Bles Bridges Bles Bridges (22 July 1946, in Viljoensdrif, Orange Free State – 24 March 2000, near Bloemhof, North West), born Lawrence John Gabriel Bridges, was a South African singer. He became known as Bles Bridges, as his Irish grandfather called him " ...

, an Afrikaans country singer, stayed in Vereeniging until his death in 2000. *

F.W. de Klerk Frederik Willem de Klerk ( , ; 18 March 1936 – 11 November 2021) was a South African politician who served as the seventh and final state president of South Africa from 1989 to 1994 and as deputy president alongside Thabo Mbeki under Preside ...

was first elected to the South African parliament in 1969 as the member for Vereeniging. *

Francois Pienaar Jacobus Francois Pienaar (born 2 January 1967) is a retired South African rugby union player. He played flanker for South Africa (the Springboks) from 1993 until 1996, winning 29 international caps, all of them as captain. He is best known for ...

Springboks The South Africa national rugby union team, commonly known as the Springboks (colloquially the Boks, Bokke or Amabhokobhoko) is the country's national team governed by the South African Rugby Union. The Springboks play in green and gold jersey ...

rugby player. *

Charl Schwartzel Charl Adriaan Schwartzel ( ; born 31 August 1984) is a South African professional golfer who currently plays in the LIV Golf Invitational Series and has previously played on the PGA Tour, European Tour and the Sunshine Tour. He has won one ma ...

(the 2011 US Masters champion). *

Tertius Bosch Tertius Bosch (14 March 1966 – 14 February 2000) was a South African cricketer who played in one Test cricket, Test and two One Day International, ODIs in 1992. Cricketing career A fast bowler, Bosch was educated at Handhaver Laerskool and V ...

Morné Morkel Morné Morkel (born 6 October 1984) is a South African-born cricket coach and former cricketer who is currently serving as the bowling coach of the India national cricket team since August 2024.Kishore S (2024Morne Morkel appointed India's bowli ...

and

Albie Morkel Johannes Albertus Morkel (born 10 June 1981), better known as Albie Morkel, is a former South African cricketer. He is an all-rounder who bowls right-arm medium fast and bats left-handed. He was earmarked as the new Lance Klusener from an earl ...

Protea cricket players attended Vereeniging High. *

Leon Schuster Leon Ernest "Schucks" Schuster (born 21 May 1951) is a South African filmmaker, comedian, actor, prankster and singer. Early life Schuster was drawn to the filmmaking process at an early age. As a child he and his brother would play practical ...

, actor, comedian, filmmaker, presenter and singer. *

Deon Dreyer Deon Dreyer (7 August 1974 – 17 December 1994) was a South African recreational scuba diver who died in Bushman's Hole in South Africa. Cave diver David Shaw died while trying to retrieve Dreyer's body over 10 years later. Life Drey ...

, a cave diver who perished in Bushman's Hole in 1994, was raised in Vereeniging. *

Pieter Aldrich Pieter ("Piet") Aldrich (born 7 September 1965) is a former professional tennis player from South Africa. A doubles specialist, he won two Grand Slam men's doubles titles (Australian Open and US Open) and became the world No. 1 in doubles in ...

, a South African professional tennis player.

Crime

The latest annual crime statistics for Vereeniging Police Precinct was issued by the South African Police Service (SAPS) in 2021. The SAPS crime reportVereeniging 2021 Crime Statistics
/ref> showed the following information:

Coat of arms

Vereeniging established a municipality in 1912. By 1931, the town council had assumed a
emblem
depicting bridge across a river, and two clasped hands. The town council obtained a coat of arms from the

College of Arms The College of Arms, or Heralds' College, is a royal corporation consisting of professional Officer of Arms, officers of arms, with jurisdiction over England, Wales, Northern Ireland and some Commonwealth realms. The heralds are appointed by the ...

in October 1955, registered it with the Transvaal Provincial Administration in October 1957Transvaal ''Official Gazette'' 2664 (23 October 1957). and with the

Bureau of Heraldry The Bureau of Heraldry is the South African heraldic authority, established in Pretoria on 1 June 1963. It is headed by a State Herald (known unofficially as the National Herald since 2004) and its functions are to register arms, badges, flags ...

in June 1987.National Archives of South Africa : Data of the Bureau of Heraldry
/ref> The arms were : ''Sable, on a fess wavy Or a barrulet wavy Tenne, the fess between in chief a thunderbolt between two picks, Or, and in base a steel pipe palewise proper between two cogwheels, also Or''. In layman's terms, the design is a black shield displaying, from top to bottom, a golden heraldic thunderbolt between two picks, a wavy orange stripe edged in gold, and an upright golden pipe between two cogwheels. The crest was a dove of peace perched on two clasped hands; the supporters were a lion and a zebra standing on a grassy base strewn with veld flowers; and the motto was ''Per pacem ad industriam''.

References

External links

Emfuleni MunicipalityVaal Triangle Info
{{Authority control Populated places in the Emfuleni Local Municipality Second Boer War concentration camps Populated places established in 1892