Germiston is another city on the East Rand that benefits from being located conveniently close to the OR Tambo International Airport as well as being a popular dormitory town for Johannesburg.
The city has a number of historic buildings. Among these are the St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church which was built in 1905 and St Boniface Church designed by Sir Herbert Baker, which was built in 1910 (this is the second church on the site, as the Anglican Parish was founded in 1897). The church also houses the historic 1910 English Romantic Norman and Beard Organ.
The city is an industrial centre with steel manufacture and distribution being the largest industries. It has large railway workshops, a large glassworks, engineering companies, gas distribution firms and many other light and heavy industries.
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Germiston is located on Gauteng's East Rand and forms part of the Ekuhurleni Metropolitan Municipality. It was established in the early days of the gold rush when two prospectors, John Jack from the farm Germiston near Glasgow and August Simmer from Vacha in Germany, struck paydirt on the farm of Elandsfontein. Both men made fortunes and the town sprang up next to the mine. In 1921 the world's largest gold refinery, the Rand Refinery was established.
