Kempton Park | |
|---|---|
 The Central Business District of Kempton Park | |
  Kempton Park  Kempton Park  Kempton Park | |
| Coordinates:26°6′S28°14′E / 26.100°S 28.233°E /-26.100; 28.233 | |
| Country | South Africa |
| Province | Gauteng |
| Municipality | Ekurhuleni |
| Established | 1903 |
| Area | |
• Total | 149.05 km2 (57.55 sq mi) |
| Population (2011)[1] | |
• Total | 171,575 |
| • Density | 1,151.1/km2 (2,981.4/sq mi) |
| Racial makeup (2011) | |
| • Black African | 46.6% |
| • Coloured | 2.3% |
| • Indian/Asian | 3.3% |
| • White | 46.9% |
| • Other | 0.9% |
| First languages (2011) | |
| • Afrikaans | 35.0% |
| • English | 26.2% |
| • Zulu | 8.6% |
| • Northern Sotho | 7.8% |
| • Other | 22.4% |
| Time zone | UTC+2 (SAST) |
| Postal code (street) | 1619 |
| PO box | 1620 |
| Area code | 010 |
Kempton Park is a city in theEast Rand region ofGauteng province,South Africa. It is part of theCity of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality. It is situated south ofThembisa, one of the largesttownships 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" inAfrikaans.
Kempton Park lies on what were twoBoer farms in theSouth African Republic (ZAR). The first farm wasZuurfontein No 369 with the title deed issued to Johannes Stephanus Marais on 25 October 1859 and surveyed to be 3000morgen on 12 December 1859.[2]: 17 The second farm northwest of the first was registered to Cornelius Johannes Beukes in March 1865 and was calledRietfontein 32 IR.[2]: 17
After the discovery of gold in Johannesburg, 22 km southwest of the farms in 1886, a railway connectingPretoria toVereeniging and to the Cape line was constructed in the early 1890s.[2]: 17 The railway line did not go throughJohannesburg, but passed to the east through the two farms with a station calledZuurfontein, which would be linked by a side-rail to theZuid-Afrikaansche Fabrieken voor Ontplofbare Stoffen, a dynamite factory a few kilometres north west.[2]: 17
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 townKempten after theGerman town inBavaria of his birth.[3]: 302 The name wasanglicised into Kempton Park.[4]
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,[5][6] was built on land next to the community, and opened in 1953.[5] The airport's name was changed to Johannesburg International Airport in the late 1990s and then to OR Tambo International Airport in 2006.[7][8] Kempton Park has been part of the City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality since 2000.
Thestorming of Kempton Park World Trade Centre took place on 25 June 1993 when approximately three thousand members of theAfrikaner Volksfront (AVF),Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) and other paramilitary White Nationalist Afrikaner groups stormed the World Trade Centre in Kempton Park.[9] At the time of the attack, the World Trade Centre was the venue for multi-partyCODESA negotiations to end theapartheid system through the country's first multi-racial elections. These negotiations were strongly opposed by some White groups in South Africa.[10]
Kempton Park lies in the westernmost part of theEast Rand and theCity of Ekurhuleni, bordering with theCity of Johannesburg to the west. The city is positioned on theurban fringe of theGreater Johannesburg metropolitan area abutting semi-ruralsmallholdings and the rural countryside to its north-east.
As a result of its integration into theconurbation, the boundaries of Kempton Park are now contiguous withThembisa to the north,Boksburg to the south,Midrand to the north-west,Germiston andEdenvale to the south-west,Benoni to the east andModderfontein to the west.
Kempton Park was declared a city in 1992 and has the following suburbs:
In thecensus of 2011, the population of Kempton Park consisted of 171,575 people living in 53,777 households.[1] 47% of the people described themselves as "White", 46% as "Black African" and 2% as "Coloured". 35% spokeAfrikaans as theirfirst language and 26% spokeEnglish.
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 ofModderfontein with one of the main companies there, theAECI Dynamite factory.[11]: 286 Kempton Park also has a large coal power station named Kelvin power station which supplies power to theCity 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,[12][13] the flag carrier of South Africa, and subsidiarySouth African Express[14] have their head offices in Kempton Park.Mango, a low cost airline, is headquartered on the grounds of OR Tambo.[15]Federal Air has its headquarters on the OR Tambo grounds.[16]1time had its head office in the Isando Industrial Park.[17]Safair's head office is in Kempton Park.[18]
The city has ten major schools:
The Kempton Park Golf Course, first designed in 1965, in Spartan, is known as the club whereErnie Els learnt how to play golf.
The suburb ofRhodesfield just south of the city centre has got a station on theGautrain rail, named theRhodesfield station.[27]
TheO. R. Tambo International Airport has the eastern terminus of the Gautrain rail at theOR Tambo station.[27]
The highspeed Gautrain Rail links the airport as well as Rhodesfield with theSandton station in the west.[27] This section from OR Tambo to Sandton opened on 8 June 2010, in time for the2010 FIFA World Cup.
From Sandton, the railway connects either north toMidrand,Centurion andPretoria or south toRosebank andJohannesburg.[27]
TheR21 is the majorfreeway that runs through Kempton Park. It enters the city fromBoksburg in the south, bypassing theO.R. Tambo International Airport and Kempton Park CBD before heading north towardsPretoria. 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. TheR24 (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 towardsEdenvale andJohannesburg. TheR25 crosses Kempton Park’s northern suburbs from north-east to south-west linking the city withBapsfontein andBronkhorstspruit to the north-east and Johannesburg to the south-west.
Kempton Park is also served by a number ofmetropolitan routes linking it to surrounding towns and cities in theEast Rand (City of Ekurhuleni). TheM16 links Kempton Park with Edenvale to the south-west. TheM32 links Kempton Park withBenoni to the east. TheM43 links Kempton Park with Boksburg to the south. TheM45 links Kempton Park with Benoni to the east. TheM57 links Kempton Park withThembisa andOlifantsfontein to the north, Boksburg to the south andGermiston to the south-west. TheM59 passes in-between Kempton Park and Edenvale. TheM99 links Kempton Park withBedfordview and Germiston to the south-west.
TheM39 connects Kempton Park withMidrand to the north-west and Germiston to the south. Kempton Park is also served internally by metropolitan routes including theM84,M88,M89,M90,M91,M92 andM96.
André Stander was a police officer in Kempton Park CID from 1963 to 1980, before being jailed for bank robberies.
Communities ofEkurhuleni,Gauteng | ||
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Seat:Germiston | ||
| Places in Ekurhuleni | .svg) | |
| Suburbs of Kempton Park | ||
| Suburbs of Germiston |
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| International | |
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| National | |
| Geographic | |
| Other | |
