Greylingstad
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Greylingstad is a small farming town west of Standerton in Mpumalanga, South Africa. During the Boer War the Scottish Rifles built a number of small forts overlooking the town and the farms beyond the hills. The Scottish Rifles laid out the initials "SR" on the hill overlooking the town, and it was always clearly visible from the main street of Greylingstad.
In the 1950's and 1960's the town had a flourishing farming community and two well known local grocery shops, that of the Melmans, Joe and his son George, and that of the Hendrik Morsner. The O’Connell’s owned the two other two café’s in town and did brisk business with the passing traffic stopping for refreshments.
The local coffee shop was owned by Aunt Tina Fourie, who ran it on her own. She also did hair perms and the like after hours, and was also living behind the cafe. The farmers always converged there for a cup of tea or coffee during their visits to the town. People like Doors Kriek and the Volschenks were frequent customers. The local lads used to trade in their empty Coca Cola & Sparletta bottles for sweets!
The local Mobil garage was owned by Clarence Hulley, a champion shot, who lived with his wife in an apartment above the garage. He kept the local vehicles serviced and going. Joe Melman also had a garage, but rarely did any repairs; he mostly sold tyres and Shell fuel. Another key business was the local farmer's co-op, where they sold their maize and bought farming supplies.
The town’s primary school, ‘Greylingstad Laerskool’, only had 5 class rooms. The school had great play grounds and about 120 pupils from grade 1 to standard 5 in the good years.
A major change came about in 1962 when ESCOM (now called ESKOM) erected a 88kV substation and the town, which had about 300 residents at the time, was connected to the main electricity grid. Mrs Susan Botha, chairperson of the local council, was the key driver to get electricity supplied to the town, and negotiated the supply with ESCOM.
When the main road between Johannesburg and Durban was upgraded in the 60's, a bypass was built around Greylingstad, and this effectively starved the small businesses in town.
Today it is a ghost town, with many vacant buildings and houses, in a varying state of disrepair.
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