Packaging Services Vereeniging

In 1879, George William Stow was commissioned by the Orange Free State government to look for coal deposits in the Bethlehem district[2]:17 With no deposits found he moved northwards to Maccauvlei on the Vaal River and then crossed the river to the Transvaal side. On the farm Leeuwkuil, he found a coal deposits twelve feet thick.[2]:17 But the Orange Free State government believed that it was too far away and there was a lack of transport so turned down the idea of mining.[2]:17 Stow settled in Kimberley in order to find a job where he met Samuel Marks who realized after hearing the formers story, the opportunity for coal at the Kimberley diamond fields for energy generation.[2]:17 Marks formed the De Zuid Afrikaanshe en Oranje Vrystaatsche Kolen and Mineralen Vereeniging (South African and Orange Free State Coal and Mineral Association) and sent Stow to purchase the farms where the coal was found.[2]:17 On the 25 November 1880 he purchased the farm Leeuwkuil for £5,000 and 12,000 acres.[2]:18 Marks' agent J.G. Fraser would purchase the farm Klipplaatdrift of 6,000 acres from Karl August Pistorius in October 1881 for £15,500. This was opposite the farm Maccauvlei.[2]:18 From 1881, coal was taken by ox-wagon to Kimberley and by 1882 there was so much development that there was a need to survey a village on the two farms and the Volksraad agreed naming it after the company's shortened name Vereeniging.[2]:18

• Gerald Raymond Bosch, played Fly-Half for The Springboks 1974 -1976
• Bles Bridges, an Afrikaans country singer, stayed in Vereeniging until his death in 2000.
• F.W. de Klerk was first elected to the South African parliament in 1969 as the member for Vereeniging.
• Francois Pienaar, Springboks rugby legend
• Charl Schwartzel (the 2011 US Masters champion), Morné Morkel and Albie Morkel attended Vereeniging High.
• Leon Schuster, actor, comedian, filmmaker, presenter and singer
• Deon Dreyer, a cave diver who perished in Bushman's Hole in 1994, was raised in Vereeniging.
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