Germiston, Gauteng

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Coordinates: 26°13′4″S, 28°10′2″E

This article is about Germiston in Gauteng, South Africa. For the Germiston in Scotland, see Germiston, Glasgow.

Germiston is a city in the East Rand of Gauteng in South Africa.

It was established in the early days of the gold rush when two prospectors, John Jack from the farm of Germiston near Glasgow and August Simmer from Vacha in Germany, struck paydirt on the farm of Elandsfontein. Both men made fortunes and the town sprung up next to the mine. In 1921 the world's largest gold refinery, the Rand Refinery, was established at Germiston.

Germiston is now part of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality which includes much of the East Rand, also the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Area.

The city is also home to the WesBank Raceway motorsports facility.

Notable people to come from Germiston include: Andre Nel (South African cricket fast bowler), Andre Watson (Rugby Referee), Pierre Isse (Bafana Bafana Defender), Dr Sydney Brenner, winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Ernie Els (professional golfer), Albert Johanneson (Professional Footballer and first black player to play in the FA Cup), Ted Grant (Trotzkyist politician and theorist) and Helen Suzman (anti-apartheid activist and politician).

Apparently the house wherein Daisy Louisa De Melker lived (and murdered her husbands) is also located in Germiston.

There is also an underpass beneath the mainline East Rand railway which regularly used to get hit by vehicles driven by numpties who did not know the difference between the height of their trucks and the distance between the road surface and the underside of the railway line.