[Excerpt from the book ‘The Greek community in South Africa’]
The discovery
of gold in 1886 in the Witwatersrand changed the economic fortune of the
formerly impoverished Transvaal. The city of Johannesburg was founded as a gold
mining town in the same year and attracted migrants from Europe including a few
Greeks. Within 10 years it would be the largest city in the entire Southern
Africa. In 1908, the three Greek associations existed in the city amalgamated
and the Hellenic community of Johannesburg was established. Within the
following days more than 200 members were enrolled. Some of the pioneers of the
community were Ioannis Chrisovelonis, Theodore Mentis, Kostas Phitidis,
Menelaos Fardoulis, Dimitris Binos, Gerasimos Marinakis, S. Michalopoulos,
Peter Demetrios, Kyriakos Stathakis, Pergioudakis and others.
