👻 HAUNTED PLACE · EXP. Nº9475 ACTIVE

St Catherine's School, Germiston

Name: St Catherine's School, Germiston
Address: Germiston, Gauteng, ZA

St Catherine's School, Germiston is a location reputed to be haunted in Germiston, Gauteng, ZA. Its reputation comes from reported apparitions, unexplained phenomena and eyewitness accounts gathered over time.

Where is St Catherine's School, Germiston?

Location: Germiston, Gauteng, ZA
Type: School / university
Coordinates: -26.239, 28.181
Testimonies: 0
Last updated: 2026-08-31

LOCATION

Why is St Catherine's School, Germiston said to be haunted?

St Catherine's School in Germiston has a ghost with a name, a house and a date. Patrick, the story goes, was first seen on the night of 17 August 1972, when a janitor cleaning the school hall was chased into the quad by a grey shape with glowing red eyes, and again in a wave of sightings through 1977. The date is the problem. Followed backwards, the story gets younger rather than older. Its oldest datable appearance is a Wikipedia edit of June 2009 with no date, no janitor and no red eyes, only rumours from 'towards the end of the 70s'; someone claiming to attend the school deleted it in 2010 as false. The janitor, the exact day and the red eyes were added anonymously in 2016, removed three minutes later, and restored in 2017 with a book citation whose ISBN the same editor rewrote twelve minutes afterwards. What the building really holds is better documented: a Dominican convent school of 1908, primary-only from 1968 to 2001, desegregated after a 1976 ruling of the Catholic bishops, and carrying a blue plaque filed under Apartheid and Struggle Heritage.

St Catherine's School, Germiston, Germiston, Gauteng, South Africa — The cloistered courtyard of St Catherine's School, Germiston, in 2019. The Dominican convent school opened in 1908; the face-brick buildings around this quad date from 1948. Image: Waldo Mocke · CC BY-SA 4.0

What is the history of St Catherine's School, Germiston?

St Catherine's is the oldest school in Germiston, and it was a convent before it was anything else. In 1908 the Dominican Sisters of St Catherine of Siena, from Newcastle in the Colony of Natal, opened it to serve the children of the miners and merchants of a gold town then twenty-two years old. The land was bought from the Simmer and Jack mining company, near the Rose Deep Mine, on Hardach Street in central Germiston. By the school's own account it was the first convent on the East Rand and the first high school in Germiston. The founder was Mother Rose Niland, whose name the school attached to a bell tower in 2022. By the 1940s the original quarter of Germiston was turning industrial and the town's population was drifting north and south away from it. In 1948 the school moved to the newly laid-out suburb of Parkhill Gardens, onto the site it still occupies at 31 Piercy Avenue. The new buildings were designed by the architect Clinch — the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation's plaque calls him Bernard Clinch, the Wikipedia article calls him Brendan Joseph Clinch — who used face-brick in different colours in what the plaque describes as the Collegiate style. That is the building in the photographs: a quadrangle with a covered walkway, a Marian grotto set into the brick and a circular rose bed. Then comes the decision that governs everything the ghost story claims to describe. Towards the end of 1968, St Catherine's agreed with its sister school St Dominic's in Boksburg to take primary pupils only: girls up to Standard 5, now Grade 7, and boys up to Standard 1, now Grade 3. In 1970 the Transvaal Education Department recognised and registered its pre-primary school. From that point until 2001 there was no high school at St Catherine's at all. Anyone inside those buildings in 1972 or in 1977 who was not a member of staff was a child of thirteen or younger, and any boy among them was nine or younger. The second decision is the one the heritage plaque commemorates. In January 1976 the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference declared all Catholic schools multiracial and open to all races. The school's own history says it has had multiracial education "from the seventies to the present day"; the Johannesburg Heritage Foundation is more precise and records that the bishops' rejection of racial segregation "led to St Catherine's being open to all races since 1979". The plaque, conferred in 2021, is filed on the Heritage Portal under three categories: Apartheid, Schools and Struggle Heritage. It is worth holding those two dates together, because the ghost story places its wave of sightings in exactly the years between them. The rest is recovery. In May 1985 the principal, Sister Aelred O'Donovan, proposed extending the school to take boys up to Grade 7, and a fully co-educational senior primary opened in January 1986. In 1991 the Sisters moved out of their living quarters into a private house, freeing rooms for classes. An adjacent property was bought in 1995. In March 1998 three members of the board — Mr Navsa, Mr Bischof and Sister Flora — met the teaching staff to discuss reopening the high school; the first Grade 8 intake since 1968 arrived in 2001 and matriculated in 2005. The Paul Hartley Wing followed in 2004 and 2006, four classrooms in the north-east wing became the Anton Bischof Wing in 2012, a new pre-school opened the same year, the Aelred O'Donovan wing was completed at the end of 2018, and a STEAM Centre was opened on 23 September 2022 by the Archbishop of Johannesburg, Buti Tlhagale, with its plaque unveiled by the regional prioress, Sister Stephany Thiel. The school reported 601 pupils in 2024.

Timeline: the documented record of St Catherine's School, Germiston

1908 The Dominican Sisters of St Catherine of Siena, from Newcastle in Natal, found the school on Hardach Street in central Germiston, on land bought from the Simmer and Jack mining company near the Rose Deep Mine. The founder is Mother Rose Niland. By the school's own account it is the first convent on the East Rand and the first high school in Germiston.
1948 With the old quarter of Germiston industrialising, the school moves to the new suburb of Parkhill Gardens, to 31 Piercy Avenue. The architect Clinch builds in multicoloured face-brick in what the heritage plaque calls the Collegiate style. This is the quadrangle, chapel and hall in which the ghost story is later set.
End of 1968 St Catherine's agrees with St Dominic's, Boksburg, to take primary pupils only: girls to Standard 5 (Grade 7), boys to Standard 1 (Grade 3). The high school closes and will not reopen for thirty-three years. Every account of the 1972 and 1977 hauntings is therefore set in a primary school.
January 1976 The Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference declares all Catholic schools multiracial and open to all races. The Johannesburg Heritage Foundation records that this rejection of racial segregation led to St Catherine's being open to all races from 1979.
2001 The board reopens the high school and the first Grade 8 intake since 1968 arrives; they matriculate in 2005 with a 100 per cent pass.
18 June 2009 The oldest datable appearance of the legend. An editor adds to Wikipedia that 'towards the end of the 70s' rumours circulated about a ghost 'named Patrick in honour of St Patrick's house', haunting the chapel, hall and older classrooms. There is no date, no janitor, no red eyes and no source.
30 March 2010 An editor signing as Life in General deletes the whole passage, with the edit summary: 'Removed false information - I attend this school and no such rumour exists.' It is the only statement in the record by someone claiming a connection to the school.
19 September 2016 An anonymous address adds the detailed version for the first time: 1972, a cleaner working after hours, a grey apparition with glowing red eyes, a wave of sightings until 1977, a hooded figure and a wailing sound. It cites nothing and is removed three minutes later.
6 June 2017, 20:43 Another anonymous address restores the story with the exact date 17 August 1972, the word 'janitor' replacing 'cleaner', quotation marks around the descriptions, and a footnote to a book: Johan Vermeulen, Haunted Histories: South Africa, Human & Rousseau, 1998, p. 87.
6 June 2017, 20:55 Twelve minutes later the same address edits one thing: the ISBN, from 9780792806 to 9780792708. The first fails its check digit, the second passes. No catalogue consulted holds any such book, while a control search in the same catalogue finds comparable South African titles.
18 June 2017 The Wayback Machine archives the school's history page, five days after the date on which Wikipedia says it was consulted to support the claim that paranormal stories persist. The 849-word page contains the words ghost, Patrick, paranormal, haunted and spook zero times; the control word school appears twenty-six times.
2021 The Johannesburg Heritage Foundation confers a blue plaque on the school. The Heritage Portal files the record under three categories: Apartheid, Schools and Struggle Heritage.
23 September 2022 The school opens its STEAM Centre, officiated by the Archbishop of Johannesburg, Buti Tlhagale, with the plaque unveiled by the regional prioress, Sister Stephany Thiel. The head of school, Dennis Maritz, tells Germiston City News the centre 'will position St Catherine's as a leading independent school on the East Rand'.
August 2026 The school is open and enrolling, publishing term dates and running booked Visitor Mornings for prospective families. Neither its history page nor its current website mentions the ghost.

Is there a rational explanation for St Catherine's School, Germiston?

One part of the story checks out immediately, and it is the part that explains the rest. St Patrick's really is one of the school's three houses, alongside St Catherine's and St Dominic's. A ghost named after a house is school furniture rather than a biography: the name comes from the institution's own filing system, not from anybody who died. Everything else about Patrick can be dated, and dating it is what takes it apart. The 289 revisions of the school's Wikipedia article were downloaded through the MediaWiki API and read in order. The paper trail runs the wrong way. Going backwards in time the story does not become older and better attested; it becomes vaguer and then it disappears. The oldest version is dated 18 June 2009. It says only that "towards the end of the 70s, rumours started circulating about a school ghost that has been named Patrick in honour of St Patrick's house", said to haunt the chapel, the hall and some of the older classrooms. There is no date, no janitor, no red eyes and no source. Another editor expanded the list of rooms on 29 September 2009, still with no source. Then, on 30 March 2010, an editor signing as Life in General deleted the passage with the edit summary: "Removed false information - I attend this school and no such rumour exists." That is the only person in this entire record who states a connection to the school, and their testimony is a denial. The cinematic version arrives on 19 September 2016 from an anonymous address: 1972, a cleaner working after teaching hours, an amorphous grey apparition with glowing red eyes, a wave of sightings until 1977, a hooded figure in flowing robes, a wailing sound. It cited nothing and was removed three minutes later. On 6 June 2017 a different anonymous address restored it, and this time it came fully dressed: an exact day, 17 August 1972; the American word "janitor" where the 2016 text had said "cleaner"; quotation marks around "spook", "glowing red eyes" and "grey, hooded figure swaddled in flowing robes"; and a footnote to a book, Johan Vermeulen, Haunted Histories: South Africa, Human & Rousseau, 1998, page 87. Twelve minutes later, at 20:55, the same address made one further edit, and it changed one thing: the ISBN, from 9780792806 to 9780792708. The first of those fails its check digit; the second passes it. That is not what happens when somebody copies a number off a title page. The book leaves no trace in the catalogues. In Open Library a title search for "Haunted Histories" returns 128 records and none is a South African volume by Vermeulen; an author search for Johan Vermeulen returns two works, a 1914 Dutch chemistry dissertation and a 1970 Afrikaans paper on group theory. As a control on the same catalogue and in the same session, Arthur Goldstuck's 1990 collection of South African urban legends is found without difficulty, so the catalogue and the query both work. The imprint does not fit either: Human & Rousseau, a real Cape Town publisher, issues its books under the 0-7981 prefix, not 0-7927. The closing claim, that "stories of paranormal happenings at the school persist to the present", is footnoted to the school's own history page, consulted according to the citation on 13 June 2017. The Wayback Machine archived that page five days later, on 18 June 2017. It runs to 849 words and contains the words ghost, Patrick, paranormal, haunted and spook exactly zero times between them; as a control, the word school appears twenty-six times and convent four times in the same document. The school has never made the claim that is footnoted to it, and its current site does not make it either. Finally, the story does not fit the building it is set in. In 1972 and in 1977 St Catherine's had no high school; it had been primary-only since the end of 1968 and would not admit a Grade 8 again until 2001. The pupils who are said to have watched a robed figure glide through the hall and the basement were children of thirteen and under. None of this proves that nobody at St Catherine's ever told a ghost story; schools generate them, and the 2009 text is evidence that by then something was being repeated about a presence named after St Patrick's house. What the record will not support is the specific, quotable, dated account that circulates today. Its earliest datable appearance is 2016, its source appeared in 2017 and cannot be found, and every version of it now online — including the copies on social media — reproduces the Wikipedia wording verbatim.

Can you visit St Catherine's School, Germiston?

St Catherine's is a working independent school with around six hundred children on the premises, and that is the single most important thing to know about it: this is private property occupied by minors. There is no public access, no tour, no open day for the curious and nothing to see from the pavement. It is not a site to visit, and turning up to look for Patrick would be trespassing on a primary school. For the record, the address is 31 Piercy Avenue, Parkhill Gardens, Germiston 1414, Gauteng, in the City of Ekurhuleni, roughly fifteen kilometres east of central Johannesburg and close to OR Tambo International Airport. The switchboard is +27 (0)11 827 4102 and the general enquiries address is [email protected]. It is a Catholic co-educational day school running from Grade 000 to Grade 12, following the Independent Examinations Board syllabus, and as of August 2026 it is open, enrolling and publishing term dates for the year. The only legitimate way onto the property for a member of the public is the admissions route. The school runs Visitor Mornings on selected Fridays from 08h00 to 09h00 during term, by prior booking through its website, and offers a small number of Grade 8 scholarships each year by examination and interview. Those mornings exist for families genuinely considering enrolling a child. Using them as a way into a ghost story would be an abuse of them, and the school has never promoted the ghost in any case: neither its history page nor its current site mentions Patrick at all. What can be appreciated without setting foot inside is the reason the place is on a heritage list. The Johannesburg Heritage Foundation conferred a blue plaque on the school in 2021, and the entry is public on the Heritage Portal, filed under Apartheid, Schools and Struggle Heritage. The fabric it refers to is the 1948 face-brick complex by the architect Clinch. If you want to understand this building, that record is the thing to read, and it can be read from anywhere.

Sources consulted

Reviewed by V. Serrano on 2026-08-13 · How we verify our content

St Catherine's School, Germiston

Where is St Catherine's School, Germiston?

Why is St Catherine's School, Germiston said to be haunted?

What is the history of St Catherine's School, Germiston?

Timeline: the documented record of St Catherine's School, Germiston

Is there a rational explanation for St Catherine's School, Germiston?

Can you visit St Catherine's School, Germiston?

Sources consulted

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St Catherine's School, Germiston

Where is St Catherine's School, Germiston?

Why is St Catherine's School, Germiston said to be haunted?

What is the history of St Catherine's School, Germiston?

Timeline: the documented record of St Catherine's School, Germiston

Is there a rational explanation for St Catherine's School, Germiston?

Can you visit St Catherine's School, Germiston?

Sources consulted

💬 Field testimonies (0)

Add your testimony

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