GPW_AR_2013_Final_v10.pdf

lay his hands on old, dilapidated machines, which he repaired suf ½ ciently to continue with the printing of private documents and newsletters. General Piet . oubert continuously collected donations and utilised the funds for upgrading Cilliers’ existing rundown machines and to purchase new equipment, thus allowing him to maintain a printing facility of reasonable proportion throughout the war. After the war ended, the House of Assembly authorised government to establish a proper GPW on 4 . uly 1888, to procure the necessary equipment for such a plant, and also to appoint printing staff on a permanent basis. In view of this, the printing works, which Cilliers successfully maintained during the war, was purchased by government to serve as a basic facility for further development in accordance with the resolution taken by the House of Assembly. On 1 August 1888, the new GPW commenced with its duties under the supervision of PWT Bell, who was appointed as the ½ rst government printer in South Africa.The printing works operated from premises situated between Church Street and Bureau Street in the centre of Pretoria, with a staff complement consisting of two clerks, six typesetters and two machine operators. On the afternoon of 14 March 1891, the building caught ½ re after being struck by lightning. Whilst the GPW staff attempted to put out the ½ re, the police and ½ re brigade arrived at the scene.The chief of local police and the ½ re chief, however, could not agree on who was in charge of the limited ½ re ½ ghting equipment.The disagreement quickly turned ugly and the two of ½ cials became involved in a ½ st ½ ght in the middle of Church Street. Being fairly evenly matched, the two men continued to ½ ght for several minutes after which the ½ re chief, apparently a southpaw, managed to ½ nally put the police chief down. Unfortunately, by this time, the entire GPW building was completely incinerated. Government decided to rebuild the building in a project, which was completed on 29 May 1891. Continuous expansion of printing operations during the following years, necessitated government to seek alternative premises to house the printing works and subsequently eight stands, located in / och Street, Pretoria (today, Bosman Street) were purchased from the late estate of AH Nelmapius during 1894. A tender was awarded to a building contractor, W . Geerts, to erect the buildings for an amount of 20,940 pounds and construction commenced during the same year. The building project was completed during 1897, at a final cost of 24,504 pounds, and remains the head office of the GPW until this day.

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GPW ANNUAL REPORT 2012 | 2013