WESTONARIA Town of Choice by ChĂŠrie van der Westhuizen
21 February 2014
CONTENTS
4 5 16 17 20 22
- Small-Knit Town
- A little bit of history
- Pre Historic Sinkhole
- Local Attractions
- Town of Choice
- LasT Word
Entrance to Westonaria, Westonaria, 2014 (photograph by author).
town is a small town situated on the West Rand of Gauteng, South Africa. It is a town with a number of various small satellite towns which includes Westonaria itself and Hillshaven, Glenharvie, Venterspost, Libanon, Waterpan, Bekkersdal, Simunye as well as Zuurbekom. The town forms the basis of several gold mines which is the source of income for the most of the community’s members. This small town living might not be ideal for everyone and for most of the people passing by it might seem like a ghost town where no one ever caught a lift on the runaway train.
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This is certainly not true for the people who live here because slow paced living rarely happens here. During weekdays from the wee early hours of the morning people buzz around and flock to their jobs and businesses from within the town as well as the surrounding towns, especially the townships (Bekkersdal and Simunye). Even during the day the town is quite busy with people going their way.
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Close-Knit
W estonaria
A little bit of history
T he town ha
history and t it is kno of Choice�. proclaim result of activities tha since 1910 the first sha was sunk whic majority of m
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as a rich mining to the community own as the “Town . Westonaria was med in 1938 as a f all the mining at happened here 0. This was when aft in this area ch led to a vast mining happening ever since.
‘Golden West’
The
M ining
has been happening here for over a century. In 1910 the first attempt to open up the gold bearing reefs took place. The first shaft, Pullinger Shaft named after the organizer of the enterprise, limited the activities of mining when it was sunk. Later in 1926 Colonel Donaldson and Mr. Charlis purchased various farms in the surrounding area of Westonaria, they then sold the mineral rights of these farms to New Consolidated Goldfields Ltd. Operations were suspended due to geological reports that placed these reefs in the Elsburg-Kimberly groups. Mine shaft, Westonaria, 2014 (photograph by author).
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In
1930 these results were proven to be incorrect by a German geophysicist’s investigation of the geological reports, which resulted in the establishment of
Venterspost and Libanon Gold mines in 1934 and 1936. The discovery and mining of gold stretches from Westonaria to Blyvooruitzicht, this is known today as the
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out of a variety shafts around the town. These mines recently underwent a change of ownerships and are now known as Sibanye Gold, Goldfields Twin Shafts as well as Rand Uranium.
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‘Golden West’. The mines are by far the biggest providers of employment to the community of Westonaria. Westonaria is home to three gold mines; Harmony, Goldfields and South Deep consisting
Old mine shaft, Westonaria, 2014 (photograph by author).
The
town is surrounded by a mountain ranges as well as decreased quite a bit from is due to various home plan expand the town and provide
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a vast majorityy of large fields, which have the earlier years. The nning projects which is to e homes for more people.
It’s all about
BUSINESS T he town is home to a large number of shops, the majority of these shops are locally owned.
Income for the community is somewhat scarce and not all can afford to travel very far for better opportunities which are why a lot of the community’s people opened up their own take away’s, spaza shops or street vending businesses.
There are also people who have grown up into family businesses’ and don’t want to relocate because they also enjoy the vibe of the town’s locals. These shops have been in town for decades with other shops coming and going these ones are the ones who seem to stay and change according to the people’s needs. Our town is also home to various retail shops and franchises like Pick ‘n Pay, KFC, Foschini and others. This helps the town municipality’s task of growing to help suit the people’s needs and wants.
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shops are around the centre of town, that might not be very upstream but who has a close relation to the people who owns the shops.
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T he
facts
General
The distance from Westonaria to Randfontein, its neighbouring town, is 18km. The distance from Westonaria to Johannesburg, the big city, is approximately 45km. Altitude is 1685m above sea level. Average rainfall is 24,4mm per annum, which is an important factor for the agricultural activities surrounding the town. There are about 10 churches in the entire Westonaria which is a high amount for such a little town.
NG Moedergemeente church, Westonaria, 2014 (photograph by author).
Photographer Unknown, Sinkhole near Westonaria,
2014 (Free Image DOwnload 2014)
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of the pre historic sinkhole in the Venterspost area, which blocked one of the back roads out of Westonaria to Venterspost, is locally known. This hole is known to have been here for many years and as a result other sinkholes have appeared in this area for many years. This resulted in the closing of the local golf course because smaller sinkholes started to appear on the course itself.
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A ttraction
HANGOUT PLACES
Local
attractions In
town there is a local pub named Shooters, where all the locals hang out on a daily basis. It has various entertainments like the bar, a pool table and TV’s which is obviously geared for the rugby fans. One of the close-knit towns, Libanon which is 2km from Westonaria, has a local restaurant called the Libanon/Westonaria Recreation club where wedding functions, birthday parties, anniversaries or even a price giving are held every weekend. The restaurant is also open to the public with a linked bar.
T he
few events going on in town are usually Church Bazaar’s on certain Saturday’s or the yearly event of The Randfontein show, which is an event where our townsfolk flock to the neighbouring town and get together for a couple of days each year to spend time trading and beign entertained by various musicians.
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he town also has a local dam, named after Colonel Donaldson who took part in the establishment of the gold mines. The dam comes from the perennial stream. It consists of caravan and tent camping sites with ablution facilities. The Dam is known by locals to be the source of excellent catch and release fishing entertainment. The fishermen that take fishing up as a sport have been catching very large carps here that weigh up to about 15 kg.
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DONALDSON DAM
LOCAL MUNICIPALITY They aim to facilitate creation of an efficient productive town through growth and development of the local economy. The town has undergone an face-lift in the past year by the municipality in order for new investment and to optimize the opportunities provided by the mining sector. the municipality placed statues al aroudn the town in a “Zen� garden like feel. They also had a local artist paint various paintings of the big five close to the center of town.
FACILITIES & INDUSTRIAL AREA The local municipality is located in one of the biggest buildings in the town. The ground where it is situated consists of various local places. There is a library, clinic and banquet hall. The libraries allow for the people of the town who need to obtain information to come and take out books or even go on the internet in order to obtain the information, this is especially helpful for the learners at the schools. The clinic is open to the public on weekdays. The banquet hall has been known to be booked out for meetings, performances or art shows.
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Westonaria has quite a big industrial area for such a small town. The businesses located here are normally engineering companies, scrap metal buyers and sellers as well as a few local vehicle mechanics. The traffic department as well as the firefighting department are located near this area.
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Town of Choice
The local municipality strives to facilitate the development of a strong, dynamic and balanced economy.
EDUCATION The town consists of a small community, but there are a lot of schools for the children. There are various pre-primary and day-cares around town. The two primary schools; Gerrit Maritz Laerskool and Westonaria Primary School, cater for English and Afrikaans students of the town. Westonaria High School is the only high school in town and there are a lot of students attending there. The town promotes education and therefore the mining sector provides bursaries to encourage further education on a tertiary level.
Local Library, Westonaria, 2014 (photograph by author).
n this close-knit town one can only make the best of where we come from. With its vast differences from the cities and larger towns it is home to a variety of people who have called the Westonaria their homes for decades will probably still be in many more years to come.
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I
not least PAGE
L a s tbut
a world class African city