Welcome to our 4-star Guest House, situated in a quiet suburb of Vanderbijlpark, Gauteng, South Africa: for sale

Vanderbijlpark is an industrial city with 95 000 inhabitants on the Vaal River in the south of the Gauteng province of South Africa.

Named after Hendrik van der Bijl, an electrical engineer and industrialist, Vanderbijlpark is home to Vanderbijlpark Steel (previously part of ISCOR (South African Iron and Steel Corporation), now part of the global company ArcelorMittla). With neighbouring towns Vereeniging and Sasolburg, it forms the Vaal Triangle, a major industrial region of South Africa. Located in the district municipality of Sedibeng and the local municipality of Emfuleni.

History

In 1920, Dr HJ van der Bijl, a young South African electrical engineer working in the United States at the time, was called back to South Africa by the then Prime Minister Jan Smuts to advise the government in the planning of South Africa's industrial development. Van der Bijl oversaw the Iron and Steel Corporation's first plant at Pretoria, but with the increased demand after World War II, 100 km² was bought to build a large steelworks and model town. The steel works began operating in 1947 and the town was proclaimed in 1949. The town attained municipal status on 29 October 1952 when Governor General Dr EG Jansen opened ISCOR's second steelworks. The founder of the town, Hendrik van der Bijl, had his old house situated in Grieg street, in the affluent SW 5 proper suburb.

Climate

Vanderbijlpark is situated on the Highveld of South Africa, at 1500 masl on the banks of the Vaal River. Summers in the city are warm to hot with an average high between 31 and 35, and an average low between 15 and 22. Winters in the city are cool to warm with an average high of between 18 and 23 and an average low of between -1 and 5.

Economy

About 60% of the town's workforce are employed in factories. The rest work for the Government, private businesses, shops or in the service sector. Rossini Boulevard used to be a residential area, but in recent years most of the homes have been turned into informal businesses.

Architecture

Most of the town's houses were built by ISCOR during the 1947–1964 period, these homes are all built in exactly the same format. About 60% of the town's population lives in these homes. A few suburbs close to the Vaal River are modern and have wealthy areas. There are large and modern buildings and apartment buildings in the open areas around the CBD.

The suburb area SW5 houses some of the most extravagant and sought after houses in the Vaal triangle. Dr. HJ van der Bijl and Aldridge had built their private estates in this area during the 1920s, and these homes are now privately owned and still preserved in the area. Some of the stands in the area range between 2–4 acres. The stands used to be much bigger in the day of Dr van der Bijl, however, further development of the town increased the use of subdivided stands.

Another part of the Vaal's wealth lies on the Marlbank of the Vaal River towards Loch Vaal, west of the CBD. Some of these houses sized up to 2,000 square meters and more. The area is often also referred to as "millionaires bend" and houses some of the most expensive homes in South-Africa, ranging into the R10 million for an estate.

Vanderbijlpark has major influences of French, German and Italian architecture, due to the settlement of foreigners in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The building industry used to be owned by a select group of wealthy developers in the early 1900s up until the late 1980s by companies such as Visser Properties, Dias Family, Storm Family to name a few. Construction and design companies thrived during these times, such as van der Merwe & Associates Engineering, Stutco structural engineers, DOS Gwendolyn van Wyk, Leslie van Wyk and Riscali who was renamed to Riscali from DOS in 2012 now owned by Jean Marx-Ubbink and Charl Marx-Ubbink.

The town center also consists of many old houses showcasing beautiful homes built during the early 1900's, these houses have fallen to dramatic decay during the years, however continuous efforts exist by individuals and companies in order to restore these classic homes to their former glory.

SW5 Proper and Vaal riverfront properties remain to this day some of the most extravagant and largest homes in the country, however, the value of these properties has dramatically declined since 2015 due to corruption in local government. The 2019 bankruptcy of the local government was due to billions of unpaid accounts to Rand Water and Eskom, late 2019 investigations led to findings that 800 million rands were stolen by the current Mayor of the town within a short period of 8 months. This has caused a significant collapse in industries and in turn; building development in the town.

Education

There are over 60 primary and secondary schools within the Vaal Triangle area. Of these, 20 primary and 8 secondary schools are located in Vanderbijlpark. There are about 4 Private Schools in Vanderbijpark, Namely: El Shaddai School, Emmanuel Christian School, Vaal Primary School and Santa Maria Junior School.

Secondary Education

Secondary Schools located in Vanderbijlpark are Hoër Tegniese Skool Carel de Wet, Hoërskool Driehoek, Prestigious Aurete, Hoërskool Suiderlig (formerly Hoër Handelskool Lettie Fouché), Suncrest High, Hoërskool Transvalia, The Vaal High School, Hoërskool Vanderbijlpark and Tsolo Secondary School.

Tertiary Education

The Vaal Triangle Campus of the North-West University is located in Vanderbijlpark. This campus is situated on the banks of the Vaal River and has student numbers exceeding 3,000.

The main campus of Vaal University of Technology is located in Vanderbijlpark, about 1 km from the NorthWest University.

Qualitas Career Academy,  a national private college has its largest campus in SE4. It caters for full-time and part-time studies for students as well as corporate training and consulting services for businesses and government departments.

The Computer Training institute (CTI) has a satellite campus in central Vanderbijlpark.

Sedibeng College serves students from Qwaqwa and neighbouring Lesotho.

The Vanderbijlpark residential area has numerous homes and flats that are rented by students studying at the above-mentioned institutions.

Entertainment

Vanderbijlpark is home to the Emerald Casino Resort, Emfuleni Golf Course, and the recently constructed Vaal Malll and with the Pont de Vaal wine estate, hotel and restaurant right around the corner. There are public swimming facilities in the suburbs of SE 2 and CW 6. The Vaal Horse Race Course is about 3 km from the city.

Demographics

According to the 2011 Census, Vanderbijlpark occupied an area of 178 km². The population was 95,840, which can be broken down as follows: 54.44% White, 42.52% Black, 1.27% Coloured and 0.89% Asian. The population density was 539 persons per km² (1,400 persons per mi²).

Notable residents

Ray Jennings, former coach of the South African cricket team, was born in Vanderbijlpark. Behati Prinsloo, Namibian supermodel, was also born in Vanderbijlpark and lived there briefly before moving to Namibia. Shaun Sowerby, former Springbok rugby and Natal Sharks captain, was from Vanderbijlpark. He attended Oliver Lodge Primary school from 1985–1991, then attended Sasol High from 1992-1996. Francois Pienaar, captain of the 1995 IRB World Cup-winning Springbok rugby team, was from Vanderbijlpark. Diaan Lawrenson (known for her role as Paula in local soapie "7de Laan", is also from Vanderbijlpark.

Town twinning

Vanderbijlpark is town-twinned with:

 Eindoven, Netherlands.