The Johannesburg Reformed Church (GKSA) was the second congregation of the Reformed Churches in Southern Africa (GKSA) on the Witwatersrand after the Krugersdorp Reformed Church (GKSA), founded only a month earlier.
On April 1, 1943, the congregation merged with the Johannesburg West Reformed Church (GKSA) (founded on December 13, 1930) and took on the latter's name. On October 22, 1950, Johannesburg West re-seceded and the main Johannesburg congregation was restored, and in 1952 it was renamed to Johannesburg-Mayfair. In 1986, Johannesburg-Mayfair, the Johannesburg East Reformed Church (GKSA) (founded February 29, 1924), and the Johannesburg Central Reformed Church all merged under the Johannesburg Reformed Church (restored) banner, but most of the suburbs that had been part of Johannesburg-Melville stayed in Johannesburg West. In 1997, Johannesburg-Melville was reformed from a merger of Johannesburg (restored) and the Johannesburg North Reformed Church (GKSA) (founded on March 1, 1924). In 1998, Johannesburg West and the Delarey Reformed Church merged as the Bergbron Reformed Church. Finally, Johannesburg-Melville was absorbed by the Randburg Reformed Church (GKSA) in 2002, joined by the Randburg East Reformed Church the following year.
Background
The many GKSA members in the Johannesburg area had no congregation of their own for 10 years after the city's foundation in 1886. A pastor from Pretoria served the area, where a number of members purchased a few farms on Mint Road in Fordsburg to build a church for £719. This church was destroyed by a dynamite explosion on February 19, 1896, but the Relief Committee paid the congregation £750 in compensation.
The General Conference of the Transvaal GKSA on March 16–17, 1896 in Heidelberg authorized the secession of Krugersdorp and Johannesburg congregations from the Rustenburg Reformed Church (GKSA). On April 25, Krugersdorp's formal foundation ceremony was attended by the Rev. Johannes de Ridder, elders H.P. Steyn and Ammi Venter (Rustenburg); and the Rev. J.L. Murray and elders J.A. Bezuidenhout and G.A. van der Walt (Potchefstroom).
The Rev. P.S. Snyman of Heidelberg was chosen as the consulent. Elder S. Potgieter, assigned by the church council to buy farms from the government for a church building, acquired two plots: Vrye Gunst near what is now Piet Retief and Nooitgedacht in the Rustenburg area. Plots 15-17 and 136 were thus bought from the South African Republic (ZAR) government in October 1899. In May 1904, the eight-year-old congregation finally had a functioning church and parsonage, but financial troubles still dogged it, and the Krugersdorp council meeting of October 20, 1896, already fielded requests to remerge with the Johannesburg congregation.
Johannesburg congregation founding
The Johannesburg congregation was established with 200 confirmed charter members on May 23, 1896. The general conference authorizing its foundation was attended, other than the aforementioned, by the Rev. Petrus Postma and elders R. Turkstra and P.P. Jordaan (absent upon notice) of the Pretoria Reformed Church (GKSA) and the Rev. Snyman (consulent of Krugersdorp) and elders S.J.S. du Preez and W.H. Ackermann.
Its size is shown by the founding charter's article 4: “The Johannesburg congregation includes members living in the following farms and towns: Boksburg, Elandsfontein, Germiston, Rietfontein, Jeppestown, Doornfontein, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, Ophirton, Turffontein, Booysens, Langlaagte, Maraisburg, Florida, [and] Auckland Park.” The congregation was divided into four districts led by the following brothers: Tjaart van der Walt, Jacob Petrus Kruger, Petrus Carolus Duvenhage, and Johannes Coetsee (elders); and Johannes Lodewikus Venter, Pieter Stoker, Andries Gerhardus Nienaber, and Louis Stephanus Steyn (deacons).
The first pastor candidate interviewed, Rev. Snyman, declined, but the Rev. Marthinus Postma accepted and was invested on August 28, 1897. Church and parsonage construction were the main struggles during the local land rush, and the land of the former first church on Mint Road was no exception, ultimately sold with the sites in Fordsburg for £1,050.
The rebuilt second church near the old site was built during the lifetime of the Rev. Willem Johannes de Klerk (1875-1943) and would be sold after the Rev. Postma's death in 1926. It served the congregation until the 1930 merger with Johannesburg West. By 1897, the Johannesburg congregation had 350 confirmed and 700 baptized members.