To continue...(History of the Vaal Triangle) First Industry The first industry to become established in the town dates back to 1882 when building bricks were first made from the clay deposits near the coal workings. A fireclay found under the coal seams led to the erection of a factory to produce fireclay bricks, the first bricks being produced in 1891. In 1903 the company began manufacturing salt glazed earthenware pipes and fittings for sewer reticulation. The company (now called Vereeniging Refractories) was at one time one of the major manufacturers of refractory products in South Africa. Railway Links Sammy Marks (Picture attached) was to play an important role in the growth of Vereeniging in its early days. He managed to persuade Kruger to route the railway from the Cape into the Transvaal via Vereeniging instead of Potchefstroom. In November 1892, the railway line from Bloemfontein to Johannesburg was completed and the first train from the Cape crossed the new bridge over the Vaal River and steamed into Johannesburg. In the same year, a railway siding was built which was to supply railway services to a large number of industries over the next hundred years. The Growth of Vereeniging The coal mines and water from the Vaal River were vital ingredients which enhanced the growth of the town, especially after the 1886 discovery of gold in Johannesburg. Prospectors flocked to this newly established gold mining town and Vereeniging became its main source of coal. After the Boer War, it was a time for consolidating the existing industries. Apart from the coal and clay industries, the only other industry in the early 1900’s was a grain milling industry which supplied the needs for the town. One significant event which had an impact on the future of the area was the building of the weir by Leslie( Leslie street named after him) in 1905. This impoundment dammed back the water for a distance of 8 miles and, for the first time, Vereeniging was assured of a ‘reasonable and continuous’ supply of water. Although this weir was originally built to supply the irrigation needs for the development of the plantations and farmlands of Maccauvlei, it was later used to supply the water requirements of the Victoria Falls Power Station erected in 1911. Vereeniging, which acquired the status of a major municipality in 1912, now had the key elements for industrial expansion – coal, water and electric power – and was poised to become the hub of the industrial centre of South Africa The Steel Industry In 1911, Horace Wright purchased 15000 ton of scrap iron and together with Sammy Marks formed the Union Steel Corporation of South Africa (Usco - now Malesela Taihan Electric Cable). The site chosen for the steelworks was on the banks of the Vaal River and in September 1913, the first steel ingot was cast and rolled. This was the beginning of Mark’s dream to establish a steel industry on the African sub continent. Usco) which was to transform Vereeniging from a colliery village into a major centre for steel and engineering industries. World War I saw the collieries and the steelworks pressed into war production efforts and this led to the expansion of the works in 1917 with the installation of a new 20 ton melting furnace. Usco survived the depression following the end of the war and the steel crisis in 1927. The corporation began to manufacture new production lines in the world wide depression of the early 1930’s and went on to become one of the world’s leading manufacturers of hollow-drill steel. Stewart and Lloyds, the tube making company, came to Vereeniging in 1927 and together with Usco became the primary industries which attracted many ancillary industries. A few years prior to the outbreak of the Second World War, McKinnon Chain and African Cables were established in Peacehaven, Vereeniging. During World War II, the global conflict created a new and more pressing need for steel. By 1943, construction began on establishing Iscor’s (now Mittal Steel SA) second fully integrated steel mill at Vanderbijlpark and within a few years, the desolate Vanderbijlpark landscape was transformed into one of the world’s most modern steel works. Power The growth of industry in the Vaal Triangle required power. Marks agreed to supply land, coal and water for the erection of a power station on the Transvaal bank of the Vaal River next to Leslie’s Weir, and in 1912, the Vereeniging Power Station came into operation. It was to expand to four times its original size over the years and at one point, enjoyed the status of being the biggest power generation plant in the British Empire. The Victoria Falls and Transvaal Power Company built a further four power station in the region to exploit its abundance of coal and water. These were, the Klip Power Station in 1936, the Vaal Power station in 1945, the Taaibos station in 1948 and finally the Highveld Power Station in 1959. The complex had a total combined maximum generating capacity of 1813 megawatts. Financing of the Vaal and Taaibos power stations was through the Electricity Supply Commission (Escom), a public utility established in 1922. Escom took over the VFP Company in 1948. None of these power stations are in existence today as a new power station, Lethabo, came into full production in 1990 with a generating capacity double that of the earlier five combined. The Lethabo power station can produce enough electricity to power three cities the size of today’s Johannesburg. It consumes 40,000 tons of coal per day and provides 9.5% of the country’s electricity needs Water Johannesburg, one of the few big cities in the world not to be located on a river, was and still is, dependent on the Vaal River for its water supplies. In 1914, the Rand Water Board adopted the Vaal Development Scheme that involved the construction of the Barrage 25 miles downstream of the Vereeniging Railway Bridge, an intake station, and the provision of a purification and pumping works at Vereeniging. These plans had to be shelved due to the advent of World War I and it was almost 10 years later in 1923 when Rand Water Board completed the Scheme. Since water had to be lifted about 380 metres from the Vaal River to the higher regions of Johannesburg and surrounding areas (then known as the Witwatersrand), considerable pumping energy was required and a booster pumping station was built at Zwartkopjes, south of Johannesburg. By 1932, the demand for water again exceeded supply. Construction of a larger dam was necessary and in 1938, the Vaal Dam was completed at the confluence of the Vaal & Wilge rivers. Today, it is South Africas biggest dam by area and the fourth largest by volume. The thirst for water continued and as the Vereeniging purification works expanded to its limits, a new, larger purification works was constructed at Zuikerbosch in the early 1950’s. Drought conditions necessitated that a continuous supply of water be maintained in the Vaal Dam and two recent Schemes, the Tugela Vaal Scheme and the Lesotho Highlands Scheme have ensured that a minimum level of water is maintained in the Vaal Dam. Vanderbijlpark The Second World War precipitated an increase in the nation’s steel production beyond the capacity of the works in Pretoria and Dr. Hendrik van der Bijl, a technical adviser to the government, was persuaded to purchase a site from Vereeniging Estates at a place downstream of the Rand Water Boards intakes. This was the establishment of Iscor’s giant steelworks. Plans were not only made for the works, but also to house the Iscor workers with all facilities such as hospitals, schools, parks etc. The town, named Vanderbiljpark, was formally proclaimed in 1949 and achieved municipal status in 1952. Dr. van der Bijl’s other contributions to the Vaal Triangle region were the flotation of the Vanderbijl Engineering Corporation, Vecor (now Dorbyl Heavy Engineering - DHE), to provide for the country’s heavy engineering needs and Amcor (now Samancor) to exploit mineral deposits and process them into ferroalloys for the steel industry Sasolburg A few years later, the South African Coal Oil and Gas Corporation (Sasol) was formed. The company was established due to South Africa’s lack of crude oil reserves and dependency on imports. It developed world-leading technology for the conversion of low grade coal into oil. The town of Sasolburg like its neighbouring town of Vanderbijlpark, was established as a planned model town in 1954, providing housing and facilities for its employees. Fuel production ceased in 1990 at the Sasolburg plant (Sasol One) but continues at its Secunda Mpumalanga plants (Sasol Two & Sasol Three) with a capacity of 150,000 barrels per day or 32% of the country’s oil consumption. Today, the Sasolburg site is a synthetic petrochemical plant producing synthetic rubber, plastics, fertilizers and secondary chemicals. Coal has gradually been replaced by gas piped from fields in Mozambique. Sasolburg is also home two other heavy industries, Dow Sentrachem (plastics) and Omnia (fertilizers). Together with Total SA and the National Iranian Oil Company, South Africa’s only inland refinery (Natref) was established in Sasolburg in 1960. Imported petroleum was refined and cracked to produce ethylene for plastics, and pipeline gas was supplied in increasing quantities to industry. A New Era A profound restructuring of the South African economy has occurred since the election of the first democratic government in 1994. A new trade regime and industrial policy geared the country away from highly protective productive sectors towards a global market-oriented transformation based on price competitiveness. Coupled with this, turbulence in world steel markets impacted negatively on the Vaal’s local economy. The need to operate in global markets and the progressive reduction in trade barriers, forced local manufacturing and steel firms to reduce their labour intensity and costs in order to respond and become internationally competitive. The knock-on effect to this stream-lining, has been the downward trend in manufacturing activities. The Vaal is slowly emerging from this painful period of restructuring. The skills and infrastructures that made this region so dominant in the 20th century still remain. The revival of the local economy is echoing that of the resurging national economy. Iscor, is now part of the worlds biggest steel producer, Arcelor Mittal Steel. Their head offices have been relocated from Pretoria to Vanderbijlpark and even though the increase in production over the last ten years has been slowed due to the recent global financial crises, the region is still ripe for inward investment. The Vaal is a giant, ready to awaken from its slumber... Dont MISS out the chapters ha ke kena KASI. AWEH!!!
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 07:26:27 +0000
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