Chas Everitt International - Property in Kempton Park

• The ever expanding area of Glen Marais boasts a fast growing business development area as well as sopping centres.
• In a 5km radius we have three shopping centres with a well equipped Virgin Active Gym, a specialist cycling shop, a pharmacy, Woolworths food store, two full service banks, a variety of restaurants, filling stations and so much more.
• The two private schools, Medical Centre, and different churches serve the community well.
• The elite security estate of Blue Gill and Glen Erasmia adds value to the area, not only monetary speaking but also as far as quality of living is concerned.
• This is a beautiful, well balanced area to live in and grow.
• Glen Marais is one of the up market areas of Kempton Park. The suburb is divided into areas of secure villages, townhouse complexes and residential properties.
• Glen Marais has a large cross section of churches, schools and shopping centres. The growth potential is the area is great and it seems that Kempton Park central is moving out that way.

• Reflects this vibrant economy reflected by the volume of property sales in the area. An important feature to note is that the area is utilized for families buying their first home in the area and then upgrading as the families needs increase by buying larger properties, but staying in the area.
• If you are looking for a suburb that is filled with a variety of colorful people & cultures you need not look any further. Centrally located & close to a lot of amenities, kinder gardens, schools both English & Afrikaans, and a shopping mall. Easy access to all byways and highways and only a plus minus 30 minute drive to Johannesburg International Airport.

• There’s no doubt that a lot of thought goes into choice of area, with caution, foresight and knowledge. An investment in property can be very rewarding. So you want to know if the value in your area grows, and what the benefits are in the area you currently live in or planning to move to. If you take a good look at this specific neighborhood, you will see visible improvements, road closures are coming into affect more and more, new developments are being build and home owners are improving their homes on a continuous basis. It’s definitely a nice looking area to call home. The area is popular for creating an intimate and friendly environment which will emphasize family living. South African property buyers are very security conscious and this area of Kempton Park is a community standing together against crime.
• Areas change with changing lifestyle considerations, but in this part of the world there’s residential options to meet almost any need. Big enough for a large family and also those situated for single buyers, it’s a residential area which provides accommodation for new entrants in the market, the densification of the node from a residential perspective has also attracted the necessary amenities which include, neighborhood shopping facilities,. Schools, crèches, restaurants, take out restaurants and garages.
• Good characteristics of this location can be summarized as follow: The area offers good accessibility to places of work, schools, entertainment and retail. There is definitely sine level of cohesion within the area. · The area provides an active property market.
• This residential area will provide secure living.
• It will meet all lifestyle requirements.
• Property investors are looking at this area in terms of affordability and central location.

• Edleen is a suburb outside the major metropolitan centre of Kempton Park. Cool and fresh in the winter and hot in the summer month. Only 15 minutes from Johannesburg International Airport and 5 minutes from Kempton Park country club featuring a full 18 hole golf course, rugby stadium (Barnard Stadium) and other indoor sport.
• Edleen is a family neighborhood characterized by family living. It offers kinder garden, pre-primary and primary schools. It also consists of doctor consulting rooms, retirement clusters and all branches of South Africa’s largest chain stores only a few minutes away. Edleen can boast a developing service industry of lawyers and estate agencies.

Bed & Breakfasts: Sun Manor
Beauty Salon & Hairdressers: The head & body factor, Nail options, Hair trends, Gents hairdresser, La femme
Butchery: Edleen butchery, Modderfontein butchery
Hardware & Paint: Jack’s Paint, Horn’s Hardware, Pendula Paints
Chemist: Link Chemist
Restaurant & Pub: Flame Grill , Hungry Hunter

Postnet
Other: Florist, Jumbo Bottle store, Gym, Home Industries, Video Shop, Edleen Fruit & veg, Edleen Supermarket

It is fascinating to rediscover the accidents of fortune which led to the birth of Kempton Park, located as it is, in the heart of South Africa's vibrant industrial and mining areas. Even before the 25th August 1903, which has been established as the official birth date of Kempton Park, the forces of fate were at work, playing a major role determining the destiny of the town. Prior to the Great Trek of the 1830's, the area upon which Kempton Park now stands was known only to hunters and nomad cattle farmers. With the advent of the Voortrekkers one is able to trace the first sign of land settlement and administration. The "Natalse Gouvernement of Zuid-Afrikaansche Maatskappy" received a request from settlers "oversijde van de Drakensbergen" (the other side of the Drakensberg) who enquired whether they enjoyed the same rights to the possession of land as the Natal settlers.

On April 1st 1840 the Natal Volksraad decided that settlers on the west side of the Drakensberg were each entitled to two farms and a plot of land. After the annexation of Natal in 1843, the Transvaal area became the scene of great dispute until 1858 when the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (Z.A.R.) was formed under official constitution. Title deeds were issued to existing settlers to legalise their occupation of land. The first seeds of the Kempton Park story were planted when, on 25 October 1859, the Z.A.R. issued a title deed for the farm Zuurfontein 369, in the district of Pretoria, to Johannes Stephanus Marais. The land was inspected on 12 December 1859 an declared to be "about 3 000 morgen" in area. Another settler in this part of the world was Cornelius Johannes Beukes, in whose name the farm Rietfontein 32 IR, just northwest of Zuurfontein, was registered on 17 March 1865. These two farms form a substantial part of what is today Kempton Park, and the families and descendants of the original owners have played a part in the affairs of the town ever since.

Marais married his neighbour's daughter Jacoba Aletta Maria Dorothea Beukes and not long afterwards, on 27 December 1869, inherited Beukes' farm Rietfontein as well. At the age of 50, in 1873, Johannes Stephanus Marais died tragically from a gangrenous leg after falling from his horse. It thus came about that his widow Jacoba became the owner of the two farms and these were registered in her name on 23 March 1874 (with the exception of a tiny piece which her husband had previously sold to a young man called Daniel Riekert). In those days farm life was fairly exacting. Each farm had to be self-sufficient to a large degree for there were no nearby towns and wild game wandered at will across the flat highveld plains. Managing two farms and bringing up a young family was clearly a difficult, if not impossible task for the widow Marais and it is not surprising to find that she remarried and in due course her land was divided up. Her son Cornelius Johannes Marais acquired the farm Rietfontein. The farm Zuurfontein was divided four ways as follows: One portion to Daniel Jacobus Christoffel Riekert who was married to Engela Susanna Marais. One portion to Jan Adriaan Duvenhage who was married to E.M.M.S.G. Marais. One portion to Theunis Hasie Duvenhage who was married to M.A.H.M. Marais. The fourth portion of Zuurfontein, on which the spotlight was later to fall, became the property of Jacoba Marais' second husband, Matthys Jacobus Buitendag on 29 May 1890.

But there was a third major development which was to determine the future of our town as fate moved once more into the affairs of Zuurfontein. This was the arrival of "the dynamite factory". The Witwatersrand gold was discovered to be available in rich quantities at a depth below the surface which required tunneling and blasting on a great scale to extract the precious metal. Dynamite was an essential requirement for the burgeoning gold industry to the south of Zuurfontein and rival importers began to compete with each other for the supply of dynamite to the mines. The Z.A.R. was determined to keep control over the supply of explosives and on 31 December 1887 a sole concession was granted to Edouard Lippert to establish a company called the Zuid-Afrikaansche Maatskappy van Ontplofbare Stoffen. For five years, operating under the mantle of an explosives manufacturing company, Lippert's enterprise imported blocks of explosives from France, machined and packed the explosives into cartridges and sold them to the mines at an enormous profit. A storm of protest arose from the mining industry and the dynamite concession became an international issue involving the British and French Governments.

To overcome the difficulties the Z.A.R. summarily cancelled Lippert's concession and assumed for itself the sole right to import, manufacture and supply dynamite. In conjunction with the largest dynamite manufacturer in Europe, the German-owned Nobel Trust*, a new company was formed in 1894 - Zuid-Afrikaansche Fabrieken voor Ontplofbare Stoffen Beperkt. * The founder of the Nobel Trust, the world renowned Alfred Nobel, who was the pioneer of dynamite manufacture, died in 1896, largely unaware of the fact that this new South African factory was to become the largest manufacturer of dynamite in the world. On his death he left a sum of £2 000 000 for international prizes for the advancement of science, literature, medicine, and world peace - The Nobel Prize Awards.

A stretch of land, the farms Modderfontein and Klipfontein, northwest of Zuurfontein, was chosen as a suitable site for the dynamite factory. It was well clear of inhabited areas, accessible to the goldfields and had the advantage of natural contours which provided ideal dam sites - necessary for the large quantities of water to be used in acid plants. Within a remarkably short time, "the dynamite factory" (as it was to be commonly known) became a reality. A contingent of specialists from Europe, mainly German, began the highly technical task of erecting the world's largest dynamite factory. A great deal of machinery, equipment, raw material and supplies was required. While the first builders and carpenters had walked the 10 kilometres to Modderfontein on foot, clearly a railway link to the main Pretoria line was an urgent necessity and Zuurfontein station became the logical link-up point. Zuurfontein was now sharply defined on the map of progress. Although a Z.A.R. Volksraad resolution (82 of 1889) precluded the government from paying compensation for land expropriated for the purposes of establishing a railway line, this did not apply to the envisaged private link and the Nobel company was obliged to negotiate with the local landowners, including the Buitendag family at Zuurfontein. The stage was set for the entry of the central figure in the plot, the founder of Kempton Park, Carl Friedrich Wolff.

Carl Friedrich Wolff was born on Christmas eve 1851 in Kempten, the capital of the Bavarian district Allgaü in South Germany. After school and an early training in the iron and steel industry, he moved to London and in 1873, embarked on a financial career. In 1875 his company, Adolph Mosenthal & Co. transferred him to South Africa where he took command of the accounting division in the Port Elizabeth branch. In 1880 he was transferred to Bloemfontein where he married Maria Fichardt, granddaughter of Carl Wuras, a noted missionary. In 1888, Wolff was transferred to Pretoria to establish a branch office. He became a leading figure among the German community and was elected as chairman of the local German Club. From Pretoria he moved to Johannesburg to open another branch office and became a founder member and the first chairman of the German Club in the city.

Because of his German origin, Carl Friedrich Wolff was a natural choice as a go-between for the Z.A.R. in their transactions with the Nobel Trust, who were building the dynamite factory. The Nobel company had established the Zuid-Afrikaansche Fabrieken voor Ontplofbare Stoffen and had appointed Wolff as local director in South Africa (although he apparently retained his connections with his English employers). The Nobel Trust exercised complete financial control over the dynamite factory and Wolff's major role appears to have been as negotiator with the Z.A.R. government and local landowners. During the establishment of the dynamite factory and the delicate negotiations which evolved as a result of the private rail link from the factory to Zuurfontein, Wolff played a prominent part.

The exciting events taking place at this time can well be imagined. Gold fever had gripped the Witwatersrand and the dynamite factory was a vital industrial necessity. Land speculation was rife, community development was beginning to take shape and Carl Wolff, at the peak of his career, was right in the heart of the drama.

Establishing the rail link was of prime importance and successful negotiation with the owners of the farm Zuurfontein, the Buiendags, was crucial The Buitendag's great complaint was that the existing railway line already divided their property and some 113 morgen on the east side of the farm was completely cut off from the main property. The new railroad to the dynamite factory would further divide their property and disrupt their farming operations.