Kempton Park is a city in the East Rand region of Gauteng province,

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 ...

. It is part of the City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality. It is situated south of Thembisa, one of the largest townships 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

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History

Kempton Park lies on what were 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 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 ...

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

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 ...

, but passed to the east through the two farms with a station called ''Zuurfontein'', which 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 after the German town in

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

of his birth. The name was

anglicised Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English language ...

into Kempton Park. JNB-MRU 22

O. R. Tambo International Airport (Africa's busiest airport) is located in Kempton Park. 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 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 (AVF), Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (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: , ; , ) 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 ...

system through the country's first multi-racial elections. These negotiations were strongly opposed by some White groups in South Africa.

Geography

Kempton Park lies in the westernmost part of the East Rand and the City of Ekurhuleni, bordering with the

City of Johannesburg The City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality () is a metropolitan municipality that manages the local governance of Johannesburg, the largest city in South Africa. It is divided into several branches and departments in order to expedite se ...

to the west. The city is positioned on the urban fringe of the Greater Johannesburg metropolitan area abutting semi-rural

smallholding A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technolo ...

s and the rural countryside to its north-east. As a result of its integration into the

conurbation A conurbation is a region consisting of a number of metropolises, cities, large towns, and other urban areas which, through population growth and physical expansion, have merged to form one continuous urban or industrially developed area. In most ...

, the boundaries of Kempton Park are now contiguous with Thembisa to the north, Boksburg to the south,

Midrand Midrand is a town in central Gauteng, South Africa. It is situated in-between Centurion, Gauteng, Centurion and Sandton. Formerly an independent municipality, Midrand now forms part of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. History ...

to the north-west, Germiston and Edenvale to the south-west, Benoni to the east and Modderfontein to the west.

Communities

Kempton Park was declared a city in 1992 and has the following suburbs: * Allen Grove * Aston Manor * Birch Acres * Birchleigh * Birchleigh North * Bonaero Park * Bredell * Cresslawn *

Croydon Croydon is a large town in South London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a Districts of England, local government district of Greater London; it is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater Lond ...

* Edleen * Esselen Park * Esther Park * Glen Marais * Isando * Kempton Park West * Nimrod Park * Norkem Park * Pomona * Rhodesfield * Spartan * Terenure * Van Riebeeck Park

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 chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

", 46% as "

Black African Black is a racial 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 dark skin and ofte ...

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

as their

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

and 26% spoke English.

Economy

Spartan 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

. 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 South African Airways (SAA) is the flag carrier of South Africa. Founded in 1929 as Union Airways it later rebranded to South African Airways in 1934, the airline is headquartered in Airways Park at O. R. Tambo International Airport in Johannes ...

, the flag carrier of South Africa, and subsidiary South African Express have their head offices in Kempton Park. 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 learnt how to play golf.

Transportation

Gautrain

The suburb of Rhodesfield just south of the city centre has got a station on the Gautrain 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 8 June 2010, in time for the

2010 FIFA World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

. From Sandton, the railway connects either north to

, Centurion and

or south to Rosebank and

Road

The R21 is the major freeway that runs through Kempton Park. It enters the city from Boksburg in the south, bypassing the O.R. Tambo International Airport and Kempton Park CBD before heading north towards

. There are 2 offramps into Kempton Park being Voortrekker Road / Air Freight and Pomona Road which gives closer access to the Glen Marais and Bonaero Park suburbs. The R24 (Albertina Sisulu Freeway) is a freeway in the south of the city starting at an interchange with the R21 at the O.R. Tambo International Airport, and continues south-west towards Edenvale and

. The R25 crosses Kempton Park’s northern suburbs from north-east to south-west linking the city with Bapsfontein and Bronkhorstspruit to the north-east and Johannesburg to the south-west. Kempton Park is also served by a number of metropolitan routes linking it to surrounding towns and cities in the East Rand ( City of Ekurhuleni). The M16 links Kempton Park with Edenvale to the south-west. The M32 links Kempton Park with Benoni to the east. The M43 links Kempton Park with Boksburg to the south. The M45 links Kempton Park with Benoni to the east. The M57 links Kempton Park with Thembisa and Olifantsfontein to the north, Boksburg to the south and Germiston to the south-west. The M59 passes in-between Kempton Park and Edenvale. The M99 links Kempton Park with Bedfordview and Germiston to the south-west. The M39 connects Kempton Park with

to the north-west and Germiston to the south. Kempton Park is also served internally by metropolitan routes including the M84, M88, M89, M90, M91, M92 and M96.

Notable People

André Stander was a police officer in Kempton Park CID from 1963 to 1980, before being jailed for bank robberies.

References

External links

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