Alberton is a town situated on the southern part of the

East Rand The East Rand is a major urban area located in the Gauteng province of South Africa. It is the urban eastern part of Witwatersrand that is functionally merged with the Johannesburg conurbation. The region extends from Alberton in the west to ...

of the

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 ...

and is situated very close to the major urban centre of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

. Alberton is described as a typical suburban community, one which is primarily residential in character, with most of its workers commuting to work in nearby suburbs or cities such as Johannesburg and

Germiston Germiston, also known as kwaDukathole, is a 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 as the m ...

History

In the early 1840s, the Voortrekkers Johan Georg (Org) Meyer and Hester Catharina Elizabeth (née Mulder) arrived in the Transvaal after moving from their home in

Prince Albert Prince Albert most commonly refers to: *Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1819–1861), consort of Queen Victoria *Albert II, Prince of Monaco (born 1958), present head of state of Monaco Prince Albert may also refer to: Royalty * Alb ...

, in what was then the Cape Colony. Org sourced land and selected three farms, namely Klipriviersberg, Elandsfontein and Swartkoppies. In 1856, Johannes Petrus Meyer (better known as Jan Meyer) acquired of his father's Elandsfontein farm and built a house next to the Natalspruit, close to where the civic centre stands today. In 1890, he built a new farmhouse mansion on the opposite end of the farm that was miraculously left unharmed during the Anglo Boer War of 1899–1902. The homestead can still be seen today from the bypassing N12 freeway. Jan's brother, also Johan Georg (Org) Meyer, took over the farm after Jan's death. General Hendrik Abraham Alberts, a veteran of the Anglo Boer War, purchased a part of the farm from Org in 1904 and named it Alberton. The Afrikaans medium primary school Jan Meyer was named for the original owner of the farm, and the affluent suburb Meyersdal also refers to the family whose original farmhouse mansion still stands on the land behind the Meyersdal koppie. The primary school Generaal Alberts, and Hennie Alberts Avenue in the suburb of Brackenhurst, are named after the town founder. The first official

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

was opened in 1926, and in 1938 building work started on a town hall. In the same year, street names in the Alberton North suburb were renamed after Voortrekker leaders to coincide with the 100 year commemoration of the Great Trek. A well-known landmark of the city, ABC STORE, was established in 1943 on Pieter Uys Avenue, Alberton North, and is still trading today as a general store specializing in school uniforms. Alberton was incorporated into 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, a large suburban region east of Johannesburg. ''Ekurhuleni'' means "place of peace" in Xi ...

governing the East Rand in the year 2000 and celebrated its centenary year in 2005.

Demographics

According to the 2011 census conducted by

Statistics South Africa Statistics South Africa (officially the Department of Statistics South Africa, and often shortened to Stats SA) is the national statistical service of South Africa. The Department has the goal of producing timely, accurate and official statistics ...

, Alberton had a population of 121,536; but this figure excludes the black township of Thokoza, which has a population of 105,827.

Geography

Alberton lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level on the banks of the Natal Spruit, approximately 11 km south-east of

Johannesburg CBD The Johannesburg Central Business District, commonly called Johannesburg CBD, is one of the main business centres of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is the densest collection of skyscrapers in Africa, however, due to white flight and urban blight, ...

, 59 km south of

Pretoria Pretoria ( ; ) is the Capital of South Africa, administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to the country. Pretoria strad ...

and 49 km north-east of

Vereeniging Vereeniging ( ; ) is a city 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 forme ...

. Organisationally and administratively, it is included in the

. Alberton is bordered by the city of

to the north-east, the townships of Thokoza and Katlehong to the east, and the city of

to the west and north-west.

Cityscape

The city's initial centre of development was in the area now known as Alberton North or 'Old' Alberton. The original black settlement in Alberton was in the area of the Alberton Dam. During the

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

era, inhabitants were moved to the surrounding black townships and a 'white' suburb was established around the dam and named Verwoerdpark, after former prime minister

Hendrik Verwoerd Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd (; 8 September 1901 – 6 September 1966), also known as H. F. Verwoerd, was a Dutch-born South African politician, scholar in applied psychology, philosophy, and sociology, and newspaper editor who was Prime Mini ...

. Over the years, development sprawled out into adjacent areas, and today Alberton is made up of 19

suburbs A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

stretching over an area of 77 km². The city, as per South African in whole, is no longer segregated although surrounding black townships (which are now also not exclusively black) still remain.

Suburbs

* Alberante * Albertsdal * Alberton North * Alrode * Brackendowns * Brackenhurst * Eden Park * Florentia * General Albertspark * Mayberry Park * Meyersdal * New Redruth * Newmarket Park * Palm Ridge * Raceview * Randhart * South Crest * Sky City * Thokoza * Verwoerdpark Alrode, which is Alberton's industrial suburb, was established in 1943. One of the most notable industries to be established in the town during this time was CJ Fuchs (Pty) Ltd. Venturing into the production of domestic electrical appliances under licence from the American company Westing House Electric International, the business was relocated from central Johannesburg to a newly built, modern factory in Alrode in 1948. Until the mid-seventies, CJ Fuchs (Pty) Ltd would continue to grow into a multi-million Rand operation, employing thousands of people in several subsidiary companies within the group. After Carl Fuchs' death in April 1976, the company was sold to the then Barlow Rand. In 1973, he was also the first to be admitted as a Freeman of the Town of Alberton. The construction of the Alberton Boulevard was a major development started in the late 1980s with the aim of converting a section of Voortrekker Road that runs past the Alberton City Shopping Mall into a pedestrian-friendly zone.

Transport

Alberton has multiple access roads to some of the major freeways in the Gauteng Province such as the R59, N12, N17 and N3. The R59 ''Sybrand van Niekerk Freeway'' is the main highway running through Alberton, separating its western suburbs of Brackenhurst, Brackendowns and Meyersdal from the rest of the town. The regional highway connects Alberton with

, Sasolburg and

Bloemfontein Bloemfontein ( ; ), also known as Bloem, is the capital and the largest city of the Free State (province), Free State province in South Africa. It is often, and has been traditionally, referred to as the country's "judicial capital", alongsi ...

(via the N1) to the south-west, and

to the north-west. The N12 ''Southern Bypass Freeway'' runs north of Alberton connecting the town with

Potchefstroom Potchefstroom ( ; ), colloquially known as Potch, is an college town, academic city in the North West (South African province), North West Province of South Africa. It hosts the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University. Potchefstro ...

to the south-west and with Benoni and eMalahleni to the north-east. The N17 Freeway runs north-east of Alberton connecting the town with Springs to the north-east and the N3 Freeway partially borders Alberton to the west at its eastern suburb of Verwoerdpark connecting the town with Johannesburg to the north-west and with

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

and

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

to the south-east. Local major routes in Alberton include: the R554 (Swartkoppies Road'')'' leading north-eastwards to Brakpan and westwards to

Lenasia Lenasia, also known as Lenz, is a Suburbs of Johannesburg, suburb south of Soweto in the Gauteng Province, Gauteng province, South Africa, originally created to house Indian South Africans, Indians. It is located in Region G of the City of Joha ...

, the M7 (Kliprivier Drive'')'' to Johannesburg, the M31 (Voortrekker Road) to Johannesburg, the M48 (Van Riebeeck Avenue) leading northwards to

, the M61 (Vereeniging Road) to

, the M94 (''Kritzinger Road/Grey Avenue'') to Germiston, and the M95 (Nelson Mandela Avenue) to Johannesburg South.

Sports

There are many well-established

sport Sport is a physical activity or game, often Competition, competitive and organization, organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The numbe ...

s facilities and clubs for tennis, rugby, road running, boxing, wrestling, cricket, jukskei, netball, hockey, soccer, bowls, korfball and ring tennis in Alberton. It is also home to the Reading Country Club and Golf Course. Alberton was also home to the now defunct New Market Race Course, which is now a shopping mall.

Parks and greenspace

Alberton borders on the Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve, located on Peggy Vera Road, Kibler Park, Gauteng (26°18′13″S 28°0′39″E). This reserve is home to many wild animals, including

zebra Zebras (, ) (subgenus ''Hippotigris'') are African equines with distinctive black-and-white striped coats. There are three living species: Grévy's zebra (''Equus grevyi''), the plains zebra (''E. quagga''), and the mountain zebra (''E. ...

red hartebeest The red hartebeest (''Alcelaphus buselaphus caama''), also called the Cape hartebeest or Caama, is a subspecies of the hartebeest found in Southern Africa. More than 130,000 individuals live in the wild. The red hartebeest is closely related to ...

porcupine Porcupines are large rodents with coats of sharp Spine (zoology), spines, or quills, that protect them against predation. The term covers two Family (biology), families of animals: the Old World porcupines of the family Hystricidae, and the New ...

s, black wildebeest,

otter Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic, or marine. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which includes weasels, badgers, mink, and wolverines, among ...

blesbok The blesbok or blesbuck (''Damaliscus pygargus phillipsi'') is a subspecies of the bontebok antelope endemic to South Africa, Eswatini and Namibia. It has a distinctive white face and forehead, which inspired the name because ''bles'' is the Afr ...

springbok The springbok or springbuck (''Antidorcas marsupialis'') is an antelope found mainly in south and southwest Africa. The sole member of the genus (biology), genus ''Antidorcas'', this bovid was first Species description, described by the Germa ...

duiker A duiker is a small to medium-sized brown antelope native to sub-Saharan Africa, found in heavily wooded areas. The 22 extant species, including three sometimes considered to be subspecies of the other species, form the subfamily Cephalophinae ...

and 170 bird species. There are also

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

settlements dating from about 1500 and the ruins of a house built in 1850 by

voortrekker The Great Trek (, ) was a northward migration of Dutch-speaking settlers who travelled by wagon trains from the Cape Colony into the interior of modern South Africa from 1836 onwards, seeking to live beyond the Cape's British colonial adminis ...

Sarel Marais. File:Entrance to Klipriviersberg Reserve.jpg File:Yellow Mongoose Klipriviersberg Johannesburg.jpg File:Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve.jpg File:Transvaal Girdled Lizard, Klipriviersberg, Johannesburg, South Africa.JPG File:Gymnosporia buxifolia00.jpg File:Black Wildebeest 2.jpg

Infrastructure

Health

Healthcare Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

facilities include numerous government clinics as well the privately run Netcare Alberton hospital, formerly the Union Hospital and Clinton Clinic respectively.

Notable residents (past and present)

* Trevor Noah (Comedian) * Japie Mulder (Springbok rugby player) * Arnold Vosloo (Actor) * Carl Niehaus (Politician) *

Andrew Hall Andrew James Hall (born 31 July 1975) is a former South African first-class cricketer who played from 1999 until 2011. He played as an all-rounder who bowled fast-medium pace and has been used as both an opening batsman and in the lower order. ...

(Protea cricketer) *

André Pretorius André Stefan Pretorius (born 29 December 1978 in Johannesburg, South Africa) is a former South African rugby union footballer that played professionally between 1999 and 2014. His usual position was at fly-half. He has been capped by his count ...

(Springbok rugby player) *

Bernadette Coston Bernadette Coston (born 17 August 1989, Johannesburg) is a South African field hockey player. At the 2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an internat ...

(Protea and Olympian hockey player) * Malcolm Marx (Springbok rugby player) *

Ruan Combrinck Ruan Jacobus Combrinck (born 10 May 1990) is a South African rugby union player. He plays mostly as a wing. He plays for in the Top14 in France. He previously played for the in Super Rugby, the and domestically and Kintetsu Liners in the Ja ...

(Springbok rugby player) * Gert van der Merwe (Paralympic athlete) * Marais Viljoen (State President of South Africa)

Earthquake

On June 11, 2023, Alberton experienced a notable earthquake that originated approximately 2 km from Alberton. Preliminary measurements by the US Geological Survey indicated a magnitude of 5.0 on the Richter scale. The earthquake struck at a depth of around 10 kilometers. Residents from Johannesburg noted that it was the worst earthquake in 6 years.

Gallery

File:Alberton Civic Centre.JPG, Civic Centre looking west File:Alberton Service Delivery Centre.JPG, Civic Centre from Alberton City rooftop File:Alberton Post Office.JPG, Alberton main post office File:Alberton City Entrance.JPG, Alberton City shopping centre circa 2010 File:Town Hall Alberton.JPG, Old town hall File:Alberton Bus Station 1977.jpg, Bus Station circa 1977 File:Royal York Building Alberton.JPG, Royal York high-rise File:Dutch Reformed Church Alberton.JPG, Dutch Reformed Church (Eeufeeskerk) File:The Blue Mill.JPG, The Blue Mill File:Natal Spruit.JPG, Banks of the Natalspruit File:Sybrand Van Niekerk R59 N12 - panoramio.jpg, Reading interchange at R59 Sybrand van Niekerk/Southern Bypass File:Alberton Rugby Stadium, 2018.jpg, Alberton rugby stadium, 2018

References

External links

Alberton web site

Alberton Blogging and Community web siteAlberton Online Community Forum and Business Directory

Alberton moving company
{{Authority control East Rand Populated places in Ekurhuleni