Kempton Park is a city in the

East Rand The East Rand is the urban eastern part of the Witwatersrand that is functionally merged with the Johannesburg conurbation in South Africa. The region extends from Alberton in the west to Nigel in the east, and south down to Nigel. It includ ...

region of

Gauteng province Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only 1 ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. It is part of the

City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality The City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality is a metropolitan municipality that forms the local government of the East Rand region of Gauteng. The municipality itself is a large suburban region east of Johannesburg. The name ''Ekurhuleni'' m ...

. It is situated south of

Tembisa Thembisa, formerly Tembisa (Dindela), is a large township situated to the north of Kempton Park on the East Rand, Gauteng, South Africa. It was established in 1957 when black people were resettled from Alexandra and other areas in Edenvale, Kem ...

, one of the largest

townships A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, C ...

in South Africa, which is also part of Ekurhuleni. South Africa's busiest airport, O. R. Tambo International Airport is located in Kempton Park. The name of the city is sometimes written as "Kemptonpark" in

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

History

Kempton Park lies on what was two Boer farms in the South African Republic (ZAR). The first farm was ''Zuurfontein No 369'' with the title deed issued to Johannes Stephanus Marais on 25 October 1859 and surveyed to be 3000 morgen on 12 December 1859. The second farm northwest of the first was registered to Cornelius Johannes Beukes in March 1865 and was called ''Rietfontein 32 IR''. After the discovery of gold in Johannesburg, 22 km southwest of the farms in 1886, a railway connecting

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foot ...

Vereeniging Vereeniging () is a town located in the south of Gauteng province, South Africa, situated where the Klip River empties into the northern loop of the Vaal River. It is also one of the constituent parts of the Vaal Triangle region and was formerly s ...

and to the Cape line was constructed in the early 1890s. The railway line did not go through

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

, but passed to the east through the two farms with a station called ''Zuurfontein''. That station would be linked by a side-rail to the ''Zuid-Afrikaansche Fabrieken voor Ontplofbare Stoffen'', a dynamite factory a few kilometres north west. The city was established on 24 August 1903 when Karl Friedrich Wolff sub-divided a portion of his Zuurfontein farm into 216 residential stands and named the new town

Kempten Kempten (, (Swabian German: )) is the largest town of Allgäu, in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. The population was about 68,000 in 2016. The area was possibly settled originally by Celts, but was later taken over by the Romans, who called the town ' ...

after the German town in

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

of his birth. The name was anglicised into Kempton Park. JNB-MRU 22

O. R. Tambo International Airport (Africa's busiest airport) is located in Kempton Park.Background
"

Ekurhuleni The City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality is a metropolitan municipality that forms the local government of the East Rand region of Gauteng. The municipality itself is a large suburban region east of Johannesburg. The name ''Ekurhuleni'' m ...

. 3 (3/8). Retrieved on 30 September 2009. In 1952 the airport, then known as Jan Smuts International Airport, was built on land next to the community, and opened in 1953. The airport's name was changed to Johannesburg International Airport in the late 1990s and then to OR Tambo International Airport in 2006. Kempton Park has been part of the City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality since the year 2000.

Storming of the Kempton Park World Trade Centre

The storming of Kempton Park World Trade Centre took place on 25 June 1993 when approximately three thousand members of the

Afrikaner Volksfront The Afrikaner Volksfront (AVF; ) was a separatist umbrella organisation uniting a number of right-wing Afrikaner organisations in South Africa in the early 1990s. History The AVF was formed by General Constand Viljoen and three other gene ...

(AVF),

Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging The Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (), meaning "Afrikaner Resistance Movement", commonly known by its abbreviation AWB, is an Afrikaner nationalist paramilitary organisation in South Africa. Since its founding in 1973 by Eugène Terre'Blanche and ...

(AWB) and other paramilitary White Nationalist Afrikaner groups stormed the World Trade Centre in Kempton Park. At the time of the attack the World Trade Centre was the venue for multi-party CODESA negotiations to end the

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

system through the country's first multi-racial elections. These negotiations were strongly opposed by some White groups in South Africa. The invasion came after other clashes between police and right-wingers, such as the Battle of Ventersdorp, and much belligerent rhetoric from supremacists such as Eugène Terre'Blanche of the AWB.

Geography

Communities

Kempton Park was declared a city in 1992 and has the following suburbs: * Allen Grove *

Aston Manor Aston Manor was a local government district of Warwickshire in what is now northern Birmingham, from the 19th century to 1911, when it was added to Birmingham. The Aston Manor Local Board of Health was formed in 1869, from part of the ancient par ...

Birch Acres Birch Acres is a suburb of Kempton Park, in Gauteng province, South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch alon ...

* Birchleigh * Birchleigh North * Bonaero Park * Bredell * Cresslawn * Croydon * Edleen *

Esther Park Esther Park, also spelt Estherpark, is a suburb of Kempton Park, in Gauteng province, South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of co ...

* Glen Marais * Isando *

Kempton Park West Kempton Park West is a suburb of Kempton Park, in Gauteng province, South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretc ...

* Nimrod Park *

Norkem Park Norkem Park is a suburb in northern Kempton Park, Gauteng, Kempton Park, in Gauteng province, South Africa. It contains Norkem Park Primary School and Norkem Park High School. References

Suburbs of Kempton Park, Gauteng {{Gauteng-geo-s ...

* Pomona * Rhodesfield *

Spartan Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta refe ...

* Terenure * Van Riebeeck Park

is a large township situated to the north of Kempton Park in Ekurhuleni, Gauteng, South Africa. It was established in 1957 when Africans were resettled from Alexandra and other areas in Edenvale, Kempton Park,

Midrand Midrand is a former municipality in central Gauteng, South Africa. It is situated in-between Centurion and Sandton and now forms part of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. History Midrand was established as a municipality in 1 ...

and

Germiston Germiston, also known as kwaDukathole, is a small city in the East Rand region of Gauteng, South Africa, administratively forming part of the City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality since the latter's establishment in 2000. It functions a ...

Demographics

In the census of 2011, the population of Kempton Park consisted of 171,575 people living in 53,777 households. 47% of the people described themselves as "

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

", 46% as "

Black African Black is a Racialization, racialized classification of people, usually a Politics, political and Human skin color, skin color-based category for specific populations with a mid to dark brown complexion. Not all people considered "black" have ...

" and 2% as " Coloured". 35% spoke

as their

first language A first language, native tongue, native language, mother tongue or L1 is the first language or dialect that a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' or ''mother tongu ...

and 26% spoke English.

Economy

is a large industrial zone which houses many chemical manufacturing and other industrial sites. North-west of Kempton Park lies the heavy industry suburb of Modderfontein with one of the main companies there, the AECI Dynamite factory. Kempton Park also has a large coal power station named Kelvin power station which supplies power to the City of Johannesburg. The Emperor's Palace Casino is also located in Kempton Park, just south of the airport. The international airport plays a dominant role in the local economy. Several airline and other aviation related companies are headquartered in Kempton Park. South African Airways, the flag carrier of South Africa, and subsidiary South African Express have their head offices in Kempton Park.

Airlink Airlink is an airline based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Its main business is to provide services between smaller, under-served towns and larger hub airports. It has since expanded to offer flights on larger, mainline routes. The airline h ...

, a regional South African airline, has its headquarters on the grounds of OR Tambo Airport. Mango, a low cost airline, is headquartered on the grounds of OR Tambo. Federal Air has its headquarters on the OR Tambo grounds. 1Time had its head office in the Isando Industrial Park. Safair's head office is in Kempton Park.

Education

The city has ten major schools: * Hoërskool Jeugland, Hoërskool Kempton Park, Rhodesfield High School, Hoërskool Birchleigh, Norkem Park High, Sir Pierre van Ryneveld, Shangri-La Academy, Sonrise Christian School, Cresslawn Primary School, and Maranatha Christian School.

Sport and recreation

The Kempton Park Golf Course, first designed in 1965, in Spartan, is known as the club where

Ernie Els Theodore Ernest Els (; born 17 October 1969) is a South African professional golfer. A former , he is known as "The Big Easy" due to his imposing physical stature (he stands ) along with his fluid golf swing. Among his more than 70 career victor ...

learnt how to play golf.

Gautrain

The suburb of Rhodesfield just south of the city centre has got a station on the

Gautrain Gautrain is an higher-speed express commuter rail system in Gauteng, South Africa, which links Johannesburg, Pretoria, Kempton Park and O.R. Tambo International Airport. It takes 15 minutes to travel from Sandton to O.R. Tambo Interna ...

rail, named the Rhodesfield station.Gautrain route map
''Gautrain'' Retrieved 2 June 2010 The O. R. Tambo International Airport has the eastern terminus of the Gautrain rail at the OR Tambo station. The highspeed Gautrain Rail links the airport as well as Rhodesfield with the Sandton station in the west. This section from OR Tambo to Sandton opened on 08 June 2010, in time for the

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

. From Sandton, the railway connects either north to

, Centurion and

or south to Rosebank and

References

External links

Google Map
{{Authority control East Rand Populated places in Ekurhuleni