Rosettenstein arrived in South Africa from East Prussia and surveyed the land and sold stands after gold was discovered on the Witwatersrand.

The area began as a refuge for Johannesburg's elites looking to escape the chaos and noise of the newly minted mining town.

[5] Between 1924 and 1972, over 50 000 white Portuguese-speaking immigrants moved to the Greater Rosettenville area, mostly from Portugal, but also from Madeira and Mozambique, which was then a Portuguese colony.

[10] In a historic occasion, Nelson Mandela, recently released from prison, met with Jewish leaders at the suburb's long-established South Eastern Hebrew Congregation, an Orthodox synagogue in June 1990.

Initially the congregation held Shabbat services and minor festivals in a private house belonging to a local Jewish man, Mr Weiss.

[14] Rosettenville is famously known as a place where the celebrated Anglican school, St Peter's College, where the likes of ANC President Oliver Tambo, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Jonas Gwangwa, Hugh Masekela, Peter Abrahams, Henry Makgothi and others did part of their high school education.