On 9 January 1935, the Grand Council of the Federation of British Industries passed a resolution for a proposal to hold an Empire Exhibition in Johannesburg in 1936 in conjunction with the Golden Jubilee of the city.

Africa: Basutoland, Bechuanaland, Kenya, Nigeria, Nyasaland, Rhodesia, South Africa, Seychelles, Swaziland, Tanganyika, Uganda, Zanzibar America: Canada, Trinidad Asia: Ceylon Europe: Great Britain Oceania: Australia, New Zealand There was a Palestine temple exhibition showing models of the Tabernacle of Moses, temples of Hadrian, Herod, Justinian, Solomon and Zrubabel, the mosque of Omar and a panorama of Jerusalem.

[7] The Victoria Falls and Transvaal Power Company (now Eskom) sponsored the building of an art deco tower made of reinforced concrete which overlooked the main axis of the fair.

This remained standing after the fair and after a period of use as the north tower of a cable car system became a tuck shop and security office for the University of the Witwatersrand's west campus.

[citation needed] There were rockeries designed by Pieter Hugo Naudé,[12] an Afrikaner restaurant[13] and the first ice rink in South Africa.