Vereeniging is an important industrial city in Gauteng province in South Africa. The name Gauteng replaced PWV (Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging) in 1995. Vereeniging lies on the Vaal River, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Johannesburg.
Iron and steel works were established in Vereeniging in 1911, and power stations in 1913. Heavy steel manufacturing and power generation from local coal are the main industries.
In 1880, a geologist named George Stow discovered coal deposits in the area. This discovery led to the formation of a company called De Zuid Afrikaansche en Oranje Vrystaatsche Koelen en Mineralen Mijn Vereeniging, which gave the town its name. Vereeniging is the Dutch word for company.
Vereeniging includes the community of Sharpeville, which was a separate Black African township under South Africa’s racial segregation system called apartheid. In 1960, police shot and killed 69 antiapartheid protesters in Sharpeville. The massacre set off rioting and demonstrations throughout South Africa and prompted a wave of international protest against the South African government. Today, the Sharpeville massacre is seen as a key event in the antiapartheid struggle. South Africa repealed most of its remaining apartheid laws in the early 1990’s. Soon afterward, Sharpeville was merged with Vereeniging.
In 2000, most of the Vereeniging urban area, including Sharpeville, was incorporated into the local municipality of Emfuleni. The municipality also includes the communities of Vanderbijlpark, Evaton, and Sebokeng as well as other communities and rural areas. Emfuleni has a population of 945,650.
