Johannesburg, Gauteng
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Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
, classified as a
megacity A megacity is a very large city, typically with a population of more than 10 million people. Precise definitions vary: the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs in its 2018 "World Urbanization Prospects" report counted urban ...
, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to
Demographia Wendell Cox is an American urban policy analyst and proponent of the use of the private car over rail projects. He is the principal and sole owner of Wendell Cox Consultancy/Demographia, based in the St. Louis metropolitan region and editor of thre ...
, the Johannesburg–
Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...
urban area (combined because of strong transport links that make commuting feasible) is the 26th-largest in the world in terms of population, with 14,167,000 inhabitants. It is the
provincial Provincial may refer to: Government & Administration * Provincial capitals, an administrative sub-national capital of a country * Provincial city (disambiguation) * Provincial minister (disambiguation) * Provincial Secretary, a position in Can ...
capital and largest city of
Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...
, which is the wealthiest province in South Africa. Johannesburg is the seat of the
Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...
, the highest court in South Africa. Most of the major South African companies and banks have their head offices in Johannesburg. The city is located in the mineral-rich
Witwatersrand The Witwatersrand () (locally the Rand or, less commonly, the Reef) is a , north-facing scarp in South Africa. It consists of a hard, erosion-resistant quartzite metamorphic rock, over which several north-flowing rivers form waterfalls, which ...
range of hills and is the centre of large-scale gold and diamond trade. The city was established in 1886 following the discovery of gold on what had been a farm. Due to the extremely large gold deposit found along the
Witwatersrand The Witwatersrand () (locally the Rand or, less commonly, the Reef) is a , north-facing scarp in South Africa. It consists of a hard, erosion-resistant quartzite metamorphic rock, over which several north-flowing rivers form waterfalls, which ...
, within ten years, the population had grown to 100,000 inhabitants. A separate city from the late 1970s until 1994,
Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...
is now part of Johannesburg. Originally an acronym for "South-Western Townships", Soweto originated as a collection of settlements on the outskirts of Johannesburg, populated mostly by native African workers from the gold mining industry. Soweto, although eventually incorporated into Johannesburg, had been separated as a residential area for blacks only (no whites allowed), who were not permitted to live in other White designated suburbs of Johannesburg. Lenasia is predominantly populated by English-speaking South Africans of
Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...
descent. These areas were designated as non-white areas in accordance with the segregationist policies of the South African government known as
apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
. It was one of the host cities of the official tournament of the
2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...
—and it hosted the
final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...
. The
metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural center for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big c ...
is an alpha global city as listed by the
Globalization and World Cities Research Network The Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) is a think tank that studies the relationships between world cities in the context of globalization. It is based in the geography department of Loughborough University in Leicestershi ...
. In 2019, the population of the city of Johannesburg was 5,635,127, making it the
most populous city The United Nations uses three definitions for what constitutes a city, as not all cities in all jurisdictions are classified using the same criteria. Cities may be defined as the city proper, cities proper, the extent of their urban area, or th ...
in South Africa. In the same year, the population of Johannesburg's
urban agglomeration An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities, t ...
was put at 8,000,000. Land area of the municipal city () is large in comparison with those of other major cities, resulting in a moderate population density of .


Etymology

Controversy surrounds the origin of the name. There were quite a number of people with the name "Johannes" who were involved in the early history of the city. Among them is the principal clerk attached to the office of the surveyor-general Hendrik Dercksen, Christiaan Johannes Joubert, who was a member of the
Volksraad The Volksraad was a people's assembly or legislature in Dutch or Afrikaans speaking government. Assembly South Africa *Volksraad (South African Republic) (1840–1902) *Volksraad (Natalia Republic), a similar assembly that existed in the Natalia Re ...
and was Republic's chief of mining. Another was Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger (better known as
Paul Kruger Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger (; 10 October 1825 – 14 July 1904) was a South African politician. He was one of the dominant political and military figures in 19th-century South Africa, and President of the South African Republic (or ...
), president of the South African Republic (ZAR) from 1883 to 1900. Johannes Meyer, the first government official in the area is another possibility. Precise records for the choice of name were lost. Johannes Rissik and Johannes Joubert were members of a delegation sent to
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
to obtain mining rights for the area. Joubert had a park in the city named after him, and Rissik has his name for one of the main streets in the city where the historically important albeit dilapidated
Rissik Street Post Office The Rissik Street Post Office was built in 1897 during the time of Paul Kruger. Built and designed by President Paul Kruger's architect Sytze Wierda the Post Office was at one time the tallest building in Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ...
is located. The
City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
is also located on Rissik Street.


History

The region surrounding Johannesburg was originally inhabited by San hunter-gatherers who used stone tools. There is evidence that they lived there up to ten centuries ago. Stone-walled ruins of Sotho–Tswana towns and villages are scattered around the parts of the former
Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name Transvaal. * South African Republic (1856–1902; af, ...
in which Johannesburg is situated. By the mid-18th century, the broader region was largely settled by various
Sotho–Tswana The Sotho-Tswana people are a meta-ethnicity of southern Africa and live predominantly in Botswana, South Africa and Lesotho. The group mainly consists of four clusters; Southern Sotho (Sotho), Northern Sotho (which consists of the Bapedi, ...
communities (one linguistic branch of Bantu-speakers), whose villages, towns, chiefdoms and kingdoms stretched from the
Bechuanaland Protectorate The Bechuanaland Protectorate () was a British protectorate, protectorate established on 31 March 1885, by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (later the United Kingdom, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) in So ...
(what is now
Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...
) in the west, to present day
Lesotho Lesotho ( ), officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a country landlocked country, landlocked as an Enclave and exclave, enclave in South Africa. It is situated in the Maloti Mountains and contains the Thabana Ntlenyana, highest mountains in Sou ...
in the south, to the present day Pedi areas of the
Limpopo Province Limpopo is the northernmost Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The capital and largest city in the province is Polokwane, while th ...
. More specifically, the stone-walled ruins of
Sotho–Tswana The Sotho-Tswana people are a meta-ethnicity of southern Africa and live predominantly in Botswana, South Africa and Lesotho. The group mainly consists of four clusters; Southern Sotho (Sotho), Northern Sotho (which consists of the Bapedi, ...
towns and villages are scattered around the parts of the former Transvaal province in which Johannesburg is situated. Many Sotho–Tswana towns and villages in the areas around Johannesburg were destroyed and their people driven away during the wars emanating from Zululand during the late 18th and early 19th centuries (the
mfecane The Mfecane (isiZulu, Zulu pronunciation: ̩fɛˈkǀaːne, also known by the Sesotho names Difaqane or Lifaqane (all meaning "crushing, scattering, forced dispersal, forced migration") is a historical period of heightened military conflict a ...
or difaqane wars), and as a result, an offshoot of the Zulu kingdom, the
Ndebele Ndebele may refer to: *Southern Ndebele people, located in South Africa *Northern Ndebele people, located in Zimbabwe and Botswana Languages * Southern Ndebele language, the language of the South Ndebele *Northern Ndebele language Northern ...
(often referred to as the Matabele, the name given them by the local Sotho–Tswana), set up a kingdom to the northwest of Johannesburg around modern-day Rustenburg.


Gold rush and naming of the city

The main Witwatersrand gold reef was discovered in June 1884 on the farm Vogelstruisfontein by Jan Gerritse Bantjes, son of
Jan Bantjes Jan Gerritze Bantjes (Beaufort West, 8 July 1817 – Potchefstroom, 10 March 1887) was a Voortrekker whose exploration of the Natal and subsequent report were the catalyst for mobilising the Great Trek. He was also the author of the treaty betwee ...
, that triggered the
Witwatersrand Gold Rush The Witwatersrand Gold Rush was a gold rush in 1886 that led to the establishment of Johannesburg, South Africa. It was a part of the Mineral Revolution. Origins In the modern day province of Mpumalanga, gold miners in the alluvial mines of B ...
and the founding of Johannesburg in 1886. The discovery of gold rapidly attracted people to the area, making necessary a name and governmental organisation for the area. Jan, Johan and Johannes were common male names among the Dutch of that time; two men involved in surveying the area for the best location of the city, Christian Johannes Joubert and Johann Rissik, are considered the source of the name by some. Johannes Meyer, the first government official in the area is another possibility. Precise records for the choice of name were lost. Within ten years, the city of Johannesburg included 100,000 people. In September 1884, the Struben brothers discovered the Confidence Reef on the farm Wilgespruit near present-day Roodepoort, which further boosted excitement over gold prospects. The first gold to be crushed on the Witwatersrand was the gold-bearing rock from the Bantjes mine crushed using the Struben brothers stamp machine. News of the discovery soon reached Kimberley and directors Cecil Rhodes with Sir Joseph Robinson rode up to investigate rumours for themselves. They were guided to the Bantjes camp with its tents strung out over several kilometres and stayed with Bantjes for two nights. In 1884, they purchased the first pure refined gold from Bantjes for £3,000. Incidentally, Bantjes had since 1881 been operating the Kromdraai Gold Mine in the Cradle of Humankind together with his partner Johannes Stephanus Minnaar where they first discovered gold in 1881, and which also offered another kind of discovery—the early ancestors of all mankind. Some report Australian George Harrison as the first to make a claim for gold in the area that became Johannesburg, as he found gold on a farm in July 1886. He did not stay in the area. Gold was earlier discovered some to the east of present-day Johannesburg, in Barberton.
Gold prospectors Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
soon discovered the richer gold reefs of the
Witwatersrand The Witwatersrand () (locally the Rand or, less commonly, the Reef) is a , north-facing scarp in South Africa. It consists of a hard, erosion-resistant quartzite metamorphic rock, over which several north-flowing rivers form waterfalls, which ...
offered by Bantjes. The original miners' camp, under the informal leadership of Col
Ignatius Ferreira Colonel Ignatius Ferreira, (5 July 1840, Grahamstown, Cape Colony – 13 May 1921, Kranspoort, Louis Trichardt district, Transvaal) was a South African soldier, fortune hunter, miner and farmer of Portuguese descent. He is more commonly kno ...
, was located in the Fordsburg dip, possibly because the water was available there, and because of the site's proximity to the diggings. Following upon the establishment of Johannesburg, the area was taken over by the Transvaal government who had it surveyed and named it Ferreira's Township, today the suburb of
Ferreirasdorp Ferreirasdorp (or Ferreirastown) is an inner-city suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa located in Region F of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. First known as Ferreira's Camp ( af, Ferreiraskamp) and later Ferreira's Township, i ...
. The first settlement at Ferreira's Camp was established as a tented camp and which soon reached a population of 3,000 by 1887. The government took over the camp, surveyed it and named it Ferreira's Township. By 1896, Johannesburg was established as a city of over 100,000 inhabitants, one of the fastest growth cities ever. Mines near Johannesburg are among the deepest in the world, with some as deep as .


Rapid growth, Jameson Raid and the Second Boer War

Like many late 19th-century mining towns, Johannesburg was a rough and disorganised place, populated by white miners from all continents, African tribesmen recruited to perform unskilled mine work, African women beer brewers who cooked for and sold beer to the black migrant workers, a very large number of European prostitutes, gangsters, impoverished Afrikaners, tradesmen, and the " AmaWasha", Zulu men who surprisingly dominated laundry work. As the value of control of the land increased, tensions developed between the
Boer Boers ( ; af, Boere ()) are the descendants of the Dutch-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape Colony, Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controll ...
–dominated Transvaal government in Pretoria and the British, culminating in the
Jameson Raid The Jameson Raid (29 December 1895 – 2 January 1896) was a botched Raid (military), raid against the South African Republic (commonly known as the Transvaal) carried out by British colonial administrator Leander Starr Jameson, under the emplo ...
that ended in fiasco at
Doornkop Doornkop (literally "thorn hill") is a ridge and locality on the western outskirts of Soweto in the Gauteng Province, South Africa. Battles It is the spot where Dr Leander Starr Jameson was defeated on 2 January 1896 following the Jameson Raid ...
in January 1896. In the
Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...
(1899–1902) saw British forces under Field Marshal Frederick Sleigh Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts, occupy the city on 30 May 1900 after a series of battles to the south-west of its then-limits, near present-day Krugersdorp. Fighting took place at the Gatsrand Pass (near Zakariyya Park) on 27 May, north of Vanwyksrust—today's Nancefield, Eldorado Park and Naturena—the next day, culminating in a mass infantry attack on what is now the waterworks ridge in Chiawelo and Senaoane on 29 May. During the war, many African mineworkers left Johannesburg creating a labour shortage, which the mines ameliorated by bringing in labourers from China, especially southern China. After the war, they were replaced by black workers, but many Chinese stayed on, creating Johannesburg's Chinese community, which during the apartheid era, was not legally classified as "Asian", but as "Coloured". The population in 1904 was 155,642, of whom 83,363 were
whites White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view. Description of populations as " ...
.


Post-Union history

In 1917, Johannesburg became the headquarters of the
Anglo-American Corporation Anglo American plc is a British listed multinational mining company with headquarters in London, England. It is the world's largest producer of platinum, with around 40% of world output, as well as being a major producer of diamonds, copper, n ...
founded by
Ernest Oppenheimer Sir Ernest Oppenheimer (22 May 1880 – 25 November 1957), KStJ was a diamond and gold mining entrepreneur, financier and philanthropist, who controlled De Beers and founded the Anglo American Corporation of South Africa. Career Ernest Oppenhei ...
which ultimately became one of the world's largest corporations, dominating both gold-mining and diamond-mining in South Africa. Major building developments took place in the 1930s, after South Africa went off the gold standard. In the late 1940s and early 1950s,
Hillbrow Hillbrow () is an inner city residential neighbourhood of Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is known for its high levels of population density, unemployment, poverty, prostitution and crime. In the 1970s it was an Apartheid-design ...
went high-rise. In the 1950s and early 1960s, the apartheid government constructed the massive agglomeration of townships that became known as
Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...
. New freeways encouraged massive sub
urban sprawl Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city." Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted growt ...
to the north of the city. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, tower blocks (including the
Carlton Centre The Carlton Centre is a 50-storey skyscraper and shopping centre located on Commissioner Street in central Johannesburg, South Africa. At , it is the third tallest building in Africa after The Leonardo, also in Johannesburg, and the Iconic T ...
and the
Southern Life Centre The Southern Life Centre is an international style skyscraper in the Central Business District of Johannesburg, South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Af ...
) filled the skyline of the central business district. Under the system of ''apartheid'' (Afrikaans for "apartness", or "separate development" although the system was founded by the British), a comprehensive system of racial separation was imposed upon South Africa starting in 1948. For its growth, the economy of Johannesburg depended upon hundreds of thousands of skilled white workers imported from Europe and semi- and un-skilled black workers imported from other parts of Southern Africa. Though they worked together they were forced by the government to live separately. Work was considered to be an exception to ''apartheid'' in order to keep Johannesburg functioning as South Africa's economic capital.Brogan, Patrick ''The fighting never stopped: a comprehensive guide to world conflicts since 1945'', New York: Vintage Books, 1989 page 86. In the 1950s, the government began a policy of building townships for black families (prior to this unskilled workers were asked to work on "single status" in male-only hostels at the mines and had to commute to see their families in whatever province they originated) outside of Johannesburg to provide workers for Johannesburg.
Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...
, a township founded for black workers coming to work in the gold mines of Johannesburg, was intended to house 50,000 people, but soon was the home of ten times that number as thousands of unemployed rural blacks came to Johannesburg for employment and an income to send back to their villages.Brogan, Patrick ''The fighting never stopped: a comprehensive guide to world conflicts since 1945'', New York: Vintage Books, 1989 page 92. It was estimated that in 1989, the population of Soweto was equal to that of Johannesburg, if not greater. In March 1960, Johannesburg witnessed widespread demonstrations against ''apartheid'' in response to the
Sharpeville massacre The Sharpeville massacre occurred on 21 March 1960 at the police station in the township of Sharpeville in the then Transvaal Province of the then Union of South Africa (today part of Gauteng). After demonstrating against pass laws, a crowd of ...
.Brogan, Patrick ''The fighting never stopped: a comprehensive guide to world conflicts since 1945'', New York: Vintage Books, 1989 page 80. On 11 July 1963, the
South African Police The South African Police (SAP) was the national police force and law enforcement agency in South Africa from 1913 to 1994; it was the ''de facto'' police force in the territory of South West Africa (Namibia) from 1939 to 1981. After South Afr ...
raided a house in the Johannesburg suburb of
Rivonia Rivonia is a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa in the Sandton area. It is located in Region E of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. Rivonia is one of the most affluent residential and business suburbs of Johannesburg, and re ...
where nine members of the banned
African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a Social democracy, social-democratic political party in Republic of South Africa, South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when ...
(ANC) were arrested on charges of planning sabotage. Their arrest led to the famous
Rivonia Trial The Rivonia Trial took place in South Africa between 9 October 1963 and 12 June 1964, and led to the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela and the others among the accused who were convicted of sabotage and sentenced to life at the Palace of Justice ...
. The nine arrested included one Indo-South African, one coloured, two whites and five blacks, one of whom was the future president
Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...
.Brogan, Patrick ''The fighting never stopped: a comprehensive guide to world conflicts since 1945'', New York: Vintage Books, 1989 page 91. At their trial, the accused freely admitted that they were guilty of what they were charged with, namely of planning to blow up the hydro-electric system of Johannesburg to shut down the gold mines, but Mandela argued to the court that the ANC had tried non-violent resistance to ''apartheid'' and failed, leaving him with no other choice. The trial made Mandela into a national figure and a symbol of resistance to ''apartheid''. On 16 June 1976, demonstrations broke out in Soweto over a government decree that black school-children be educated in Afrikaans instead of English, and after the police fired on the demonstrations, rioting against ''apartheid'' began in Soweto and spread into the greater Johannesburg area. About 575 people, the majority of whom were black, were killed in the Soweto uprising of 1976. Between 1984 and 1986, South Africa was in turmoil as a series of nationwide protests, strikes and riots took place against ''apartheid'', and the black townships around Johannesburg were scenes of some of the fiercest struggles between the police and anti-''apartheid'' demonstrators. The central area of the city underwent something of a decline in the 1980s and 1990s, due to the high crime rate and when property speculators directed large amounts of capital into suburban shopping malls, decentralised office parks, and entertainment centres.
Sandton City Sandton City is a large shopping mall situated in Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa. It was built and owned by property development company Rapp and Maister, in partnership with brothers Hilliard and Eli Leibowitz, and was later taken over by ...
was opened in 1973, followed by Rosebank Mall in 1976, and Eastgate in 1979. During the 1990s, the city faced rapid growth of crime throughout large parts of the city. Some areas of skyscrapers were abandoned, many residents left their homes, and businesses moved out. Some historical buildings in central areas were destroyed by fires that spread relentlessly.


21st century

Like many cities around the world, there is an increasing focus on the rejuvenation of the inner city of Johannesburg. One of these initiatives is the Maboneng District located on the south-eastern side of the CBD. Originally a hub for art, it has expanded to include restaurants, entertainment venues and retail stores as well as accommodation and hotels. Maboneng calls itself "a place of inspiration—a creative hub, a place to do business, a destination for visitors and a safe, integrated community for residents. A beacon of strength in Africa's most economically prosperous city". After being destroyed in 2008 to make way for a motor showroom by Imperial Holdings, the iconic Rand Steam Laundries are now being redeveloped as an exact replica, by the order of the Johannesburg Heritage Council. Apart from one filtration shed, there is nothing left on the site after being destroyed. The site will consist of a precinct. On 12 May 2008, a series of riots started in the township of
Alexandra Alexandra () is the feminine form of the given name Alexander (, ). Etymologically, the name is a compound of the Greek verb (; meaning 'to defend') and (; GEN , ; meaning 'man'). Thus it may be roughly translated as "defender of man" or "prot ...
, in the north-eastern part of Johannesburg, when locals attacked migrants from
Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...
, Malawi and
Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...
, killing two people and injuring 40 others. These riots sparked the
xenophobic Xenophobia () is the fear or dislike of anything which is perceived as being foreign or strange. It is an expression of perceived conflict between an in-group and out-group and may manifest in suspicion by the one of the other's activities, a ...
attacks of 2008. The 2019 Johannesburg riots were similar in nature and origin to the 2008 xenophobic riots. A completely refurbished
Soccer City First National Bank Stadium or simply FNB Stadium ( af, ENB-stadion), also known as Soccer City ( af, Sokkerstad) and The Calabash, is an association football (soccer) and Rugby union stadium located in Nasrec, bordering the Soweto area of Joha ...
stadium in Johannesburg hosted the
2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...
final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...
.


Geography


Topography

Johannesburg is located in the eastern plateau area of South Africa known as the
Highveld The Highveld (Afrikaans: ''Hoëveld'', where ''veld'' means "field") is the portion of the South African inland plateau which has an altitude above roughly 1500 m, but below 2100 m, thus excluding the Lesotho mountain regions to the south-east of ...
, at an elevation of . The former
Central Business District A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...
is located on the southern side of the prominent ridge called the
Witwatersrand The Witwatersrand () (locally the Rand or, less commonly, the Reef) is a , north-facing scarp in South Africa. It consists of a hard, erosion-resistant quartzite metamorphic rock, over which several north-flowing rivers form waterfalls, which ...
(English: White Water's Ridge) and the terrain falls to the north and south. By and large the Witwatersrand marks the watershed between the
Limpopo Limpopo is the northernmost province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The capital and largest city in the province is Polokwane, while the provincial legislature is ...
and
Vaal The Vaal River ( ; Khoemana: ) is the largest tributary of the Orange River in South Africa. The river has its source near Breyten in Mpumalanga province, east of Johannesburg and about north of Ermelo and only about from the Indian Ocean. I ...
rivers as the northern part of the city is drained by the
Jukskei River The Jukskei River is one of the largest rivers in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is the southernmost river in the Crocodile River (West) basin. Course The Jukskei begins in Ellis Park in Johannesburg. Its original spring was on the former Doornfo ...
while the southern part of the city, including most of the Central Business District, is drained by the
Klip River The Klip River is the main river draining the portion of Johannesburg south of the Witwatersrand, and its basin includes the Johannesburg CBD and Soweto. The mouth of the river is at Vereeniging where it empties into the Vaal River, which is a tri ...
. The north and west of the city has undulating hills while the eastern parts are flatter. Johannesburg may not be built on a river or harbour, but its streams contribute to two of southern Africa's mightiest rivers, the
Limpopo Limpopo is the northernmost province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The capital and largest city in the province is Polokwane, while the provincial legislature is ...
and the
Orange Orange most often refers to: *Orange (fruit), the fruit of the tree species '' Citrus'' × ''sinensis'' ** Orange blossom, its fragrant flower *Orange (colour), from the color of an orange, occurs between red and yellow in the visible spectrum * ...
. Most of the springs from which many of these streams emanate are now covered in concrete and canalised, accounting for the fact that the names of early farms in the area often end with "fontein", meaning "spring" in Afrikaans. Braamfontein, Rietfontein, Zevenfontein, Doornfontein, Zandfontein and Randjesfontein are some examples. When the first white settlers reached the area that is now Johannesburg, they noticed the glistening rocks on the ridges, running with trickles of water, fed by the streams—giving the area its name, the Witwatersrand, "the ridge of white waters". Another explanation is that the whiteness comes from the quartzite rock, which has a particular sheen to it after rain. The site was not chosen for its streams, however. The main reasons the city was founded where it stands today was because of the gold. Indeed, the city once sat near massive amounts of gold, given that at one point the Witwatersrand gold industry produced forty per cent of the planet's gold.


Parks and gardens

Parks and gardens in Johannesburg are maintained by Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo. City Parks is also responsible for planting the city's many green trees, making Johannesburg one of the 'greenest' cities in the world. It has been estimated that there are six million trees in the city with the number growing every year—1.2 million on pavements and sidewalks, and a further 4.8 million in private gardens. City Parks continues to invest in planting trees, particularly those previously disadvantaged areas of Johannesburg which were not positive beneficiaries of apartheid Johannesburg's urban planning.
Johannesburg Botanical Garden The Johannesburg Botanical Garden is located in the suburb of Emmarentia in Johannesburg, South Africa. The gardens grew out of a large rose garden that was established in 1964 (becoming known locally as the "Rose Garden") and subsequently expand ...
, located in the suburb of
Emmarentia Emmarentia (which usually encompasses Emmarentia Ridge and Emmarentia Ext. 1) is a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa. History Emmarentia lies on land that once made up the Braamfontein Farm, one of many large farms that make what is Johannesbu ...
, is a popular recreational park. Johannesburg and environs also offer various options to visitors wishing to view
wildlife Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animal species (biology), species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous ...
, in addition to the
Johannesburg Zoo The Johannesburg Zoo is a zoo in Johannesburg, South Africa. The zoo is dedicated to the accommodation, enrichment, husbandry, and medical care of wild animals, and houses about 2000 individuals of 320 species. Established in 1904, it has trad ...
, one of the largest in South Africa. The Lion Park nature reserve, next to Lesedi Cultural Village, is home to over 80 lions and various other game, while the
Krugersdorp Nature Reserve Krugersdorp Game Reserve is a 1500 Ha Game Reserve, located near the town of Krugersdorp, South Africa, approximately 40 minutes drive from central Johannesburg. It is a "small, intimate reserve that offers visitors a true African safari experie ...
, a 1500 ha
game reserve A game reserve (also known as a wildlife preserve or a game park) is a large area of land where wild animals live safely or are hunted in a controlled way for sport. If hunting is prohibited, a game reserve may be considered a nature reserve; ...
, is a forty-minute drive from the city centre. The De Wildt Cheetah Centre in the
Magaliesberg The Magaliesberg (historically also known as ''Macalisberg'' or ''Cashan Mountains'') of northern South Africa, is a modest but well-defined mountain range composed mainly of quartzites. It rises at a point south of the Pilanesberg (and the Pil ...
runs a successful breeding program for
cheetah The cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus'') is a large cat native to Africa and central Iran. It is the fastest land animal, estimated to be capable of running at with the fastest reliably recorded speeds being , and as such has evolved specialized ...
,
wild dog A free-ranging dog is a dog that is not confined to a yard or house. Free-ranging dogs include street dogs, village dogs, stray dogs, feral dogs, etc., and may be owned or unowned. The global dog population is estimated to be 900 million, of w ...
and other
endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...
. The Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve, situated in the "Cradle of Humankind" on 1200 ha of "the typical
highveld The Highveld (Afrikaans: ''Hoëveld'', where ''veld'' means "field") is the portion of the South African inland plateau which has an altitude above roughly 1500 m, but below 2100 m, thus excluding the Lesotho mountain regions to the south-east of ...
of Gauteng" also runs a breeding programme for endangered species including Bengal tigers, Siberian tigers and the extremely rare
white lion The white lion is a rare color mutation of the lion, specifically the Southern African lion. White lions in the area of Timbavati are thought to have been indigenous to the Timbavati region of South Africa for centuries, although the earliest r ...
. To the south, from the city centre, is the
Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve Klipriviersberg Nature Reserve is a nature reserve consisting of veld and koppies (hills) run by the Johannesburg City Parks. It is located south of Johannesburg, in an area of . Home to many species of flora and bird life, it is also home t ...
home to large mammals and hiking trails.


Climate

Johannesburg is situated on the highveld plateau, and has a
subtropical highland climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ( ...
(
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...
''Cwb''). The city enjoys a sunny climate, with the summer months (October to April) characterised by hot days followed by afternoon thundershowers and cool evenings, and the winter months (May to September) by dry, sunny days followed by cold nights. Temperatures in Johannesburg are usually fairly mild due to the city's high elevation, with an average maximum daytime temperature in January of , dropping to an average maximum of around in June. The
UV index The ultraviolet index, or UV index, is an international standard measurement of the strength of the sunburn-producing ultraviolet (UV) radiation at a particular place and time. It is primarily used in daily and hourly forecasts aimed at the general ...
for Johannesburg in summers is extreme, often reaching 14–16 due to the high elevation and its location in the subtropics. Winter is the sunniest time of the year, with mild days and cool nights, dropping to in June and July. The temperature occasionally drops to below freezing at night, causing
frost Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor in an above-freezing atmosphere coming in contact with a solid surface whose temperature is below freezing, and resulting in a phase change from water vapor (a gas) ...
. Snow is a rare occurrence, with snowfall having been experienced in the twentieth century during May 1956, August 1962, June 1964 and September 1981. In the 21st century, there was light sleet in 2006, as well as snow proper on 27 June 2007 (accumulating up to in the southern suburbs) and 7 August 2012. Regular cold fronts pass over in winter bringing very cold southerly winds but usually clear skies. The annual average rainfall is , which is mostly concentrated in the summer months. Infrequent showers occur through the course of the winter months. The lowest nighttime minimum temperature ever recorded in Johannesburg is , on 13 June 1979. The lowest daytime maximum temperature recorded is , on 19 June 1964.


Demographics

According to the 2011 South African National Census, the population of Johannesburg is 4,434,827 people, making it the most populous city in South Africa (it has been the most populous city in South Africa since at least the 1950s). From the 2001 census, the people live in 1,006,930 formal households, of which 86% have a flush or
chemical toilet A chemical toilet collects human excreta in a holding tank and uses chemicals to minimize odors. They do not require a connection to a water supply and are used in a variety of situations. These toilets are usually, but not always, self-containe ...
, and 91% have
refuse Waste (or wastes) are unwanted or unusable materials. Waste is any substance discarded after primary use, or is worthless, defective and of no use. A by-product, by contrast is a joint product of relatively minor economic value. A waste produ ...
removed by the municipality at least once a week. 81% of households have access to running water, and 80% use electricity as the main source of energy. 29% of Johannesburg residents stay in informal dwellings. 66% of households are headed by one person. Johannesburg's
urban agglomeration An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities, t ...
spreads well beyond the administrative boundary of the
municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
. The population of the whole area has been estimated to be variously at 7,860,781 in 2011 by "citypopulation.de", or 9,115,000 in 2018 by
Demographia Wendell Cox is an American urban policy analyst and proponent of the use of the private car over rail projects. He is the principal and sole owner of Wendell Cox Consultancy/Demographia, based in the St. Louis metropolitan region and editor of thre ...
(for "Johannesburg-East Rand", 41st highest in the world). The area of this urban agglomeration was put by Demographia to be 2,590 km2, 31st largest in the world. Johannesburg's suburbs are the product of
urban sprawl Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city." Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted growt ...
and are regionalised into north, south, east and west, and they generally have different personalities. Greater Johannesburg consists of more than five hundred suburbs in an area covering more than . Although black Africans can be found throughout Johannesburg and its surrounding area, greater Johannesburg remains highly racially segregated. Within the Metropolitan Municipality, the old centre, established in 1886 and given city status in 1928, has been listed in recent censuses as a "main place". , this main place had a population of 957,441 and an area of 334.81 km2. Some authors consider the metropolitan area to include most of Gauteng province. The UN's Population Division in 2016 estimated the metropolitan area population to be 9,616,000. Blacks account for 73% of the population, followed by
whites White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view. Description of populations as " ...
at 18%,
coloured Coloureds ( af, Kleurlinge or , ) refers to members of multiracial ethnic communities in Southern Africa who may have ancestry from more than one of the various populations inhabiting the region, including African, European, and Asian. South ...
s at 6% and
Asians Asian people (or Asians, sometimes referred to as Asiatic people)United States National Library of Medicine. Medical Subject Headings. 2004. November 17, 200Nlm.nih.gov: ''Asian Continental Ancestry Group'' is also used for categorical purpos ...
at 4%. 42% of the population is under the age of 24, while 6% of the population is over 60 years of age. 37% of city residents are unemployed. 91% of the unemployed are Black African. Women comprise 43% of the working population. 19% of economically active adults work in wholesale and retail sectors, 18% in financial, real estate and business services, 17% in the community, social and personal services and 12% are in manufacturing. Only 0.7% work in mining.


Religion

53% belong to mainstream Christian churches, 24% are not affiliated with any organised religion, 14% are members of African Independent Churches, 3% are Muslim, 1% are Jewish and 1% are
Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
. Among the
places of worship A place of worship is a specially designed structure or space where individuals or a group of people such as a congregation come to perform acts of devotion, veneration, or religious study. A building constructed or used for this purpose is somet ...
, they are predominantly
Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
churches and temples:
Zion Christian Church The Zion Christian Church (ZCC) is one of the largest African-initiated churches operating across Southern Africa, and is part of the African Zionism movement. The church's headquarters are at Zion City Moria in Limpopo Province (old Northern ...
,
Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa The Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa (AFM) is a classical Pentecostal Christian denomination in South Africa. With 1.2 million adherents, it is South Africa's largest Pentecostal church and the fifth largest religious grouping in South Af ...
,
Assemblies of God The Assemblies of God (AG), officially the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, is a group of over 144 autonomous self-governing national groupings of churches that together form the world's largest Pentecostal denomination."Assemblies of God". ...
,
Baptist Union of Southern Africa The Baptist Union of Southern Africa is a Baptist Christian denomination in South Africa. It is affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance and the Evangelical Alliance of South Africa. The headquarters is in Roodepoort in Gauteng province Histo ...
(
Baptist World Alliance The Baptist World Alliance (BWA) is the largest international Baptist organization with an estimated 51 million people in 2022 with 246 member bodies in 128 countries and territories. A voluntary association of Baptist churches, the BWA account ...
),
Methodist Church of Southern Africa The Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA) is a large Wesleyan Methodist denomination, with local churches across South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini, and a more limited presence in Mozambique. It is a member church of the Wo ...
(
World Methodist Council The World Methodist Council (WMC), founded in 1881, is a consultative body and association of churches in the Methodist tradition. It comprises 80 member denominations in 138 countries which together represent an estimated 80 million people; this ...
),
Anglican Church of Southern Africa The Anglican Church of Southern Africa, known until 2006 as the Church of the Province of Southern Africa, is the province (Anglican), province of the Anglican Communion in the southern part of Africa. The church has twenty-five dioceses, of whi ...
(
Anglican Communion The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other ...
),
Presbyterian Church of Africa The Presbyterian Church of Africa was founded in 1898 by Rev. James Mzimba, who broke from the Church of Scotland. He was born in Ngquakai, and his father was a deacon in the Presbyterian Church. Mzimba become a pastor, and was ordained in 1875. He ...
(
World Communion of Reformed Churches The World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) is the largest association of Calvinist churches in the world. It has 230 member denominations in 108 countries, together claiming an estimated 80 million people, thus being the fourth-largest Chris ...
),
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Johannesburg The Roman Catholic Archiocese of Johannesburg ( la, Ioannesburgen(sis)) is the Metropolitan See for the Ecclesiastical province of Johannesburg in South Africa. History * June 4, 1886: Established as Apostolic Prefecture of Transvaal from the A ...
(
Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
) and the
Johannesburg South Africa Temple The Johannesburg South Africa Temple is the 36th operating temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). History In April 1981, LDS Church leaders announced the building of a temple in Parktown, Johannesburg, South Afr ...
(
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The c ...
). There are also
Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
mosques,
Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
temples, A Sikh Gurudwara (Sikh Temple) in Sandton and a large number of synagogues.


Languages

32% of Johannesburg residents speak
Nguni languages The Nguni languages are a group of closely related Bantu languages spoken in southern Africa by the Nguni peoples. Nguni languages include Xhosa, Zulu, Ndebele (sometimes referred to as "Northern Ndebele"), and Swazi. The appellation "Nguni" d ...
at home, 24% speak
Sotho languages Sotho may refer to: *Sotho people (or ''Basotho''), an African ethnic group principally resident in South Africa, Lesotho and southern Botswana *Sotho language (''Sesotho'' or ''Southern Sotho''), a Bantu language spoken in southern Africa, an offi ...
, 18% speak English, 7% speak
Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...
and 6% speak
Tshivenda Venda or Tshivenda is a Bantu language and an official language of South Africa. It is mainly spoken by the Venda people in the northern part of South Africa's Limpopo province, as well as by some Lemba people in South Africa. The Venda lang ...
. 29% of adults have graduated from high school. 14% have higher education (University or
Technical school In the United States, a technical school is a type of two-year college that covers specialized fields such as business, finance, hospitality, tourism, construction, engineering, visual arts, information technology and community work. Associa ...
). 7% of residents are completely
illiterate Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, hum ...
. 15% have primary education.


Education

Johannesburg has a well-developed higher education system of both
private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...
and
public universities A public university or public college is a university or college that is in owned by the state or receives significant public funds through a national or subnational government, as opposed to a private university. Whether a national university ...
. Johannesburg is served by the public universities
University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( o ...
and the University of Johannesburg. University of Johannesburg was formed on 1 January 2005, when three separate universities and campuses—Rand Afrikaans University, Technikon Witwatersrand, and the Johannesburg campuses of Vista University—were merged. The new university offers education primarily in English and
Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...
, although courses may be taken in any of South Africa's official languages. The
University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( o ...
is one of the leading universities in Africa, and is famous as a centre of resistance to
apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
. It is attached to the world's third largest hospital, the Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, located in
Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...
. The University of Pretoria's business school the Gordon Institute of Business Science is located in Illovo, Johannesburg. Many private colleges are also situated in Johannesburg, such as Damelin, CTI Education Group, CTI, Lyceum College and the Monash University, South Africa campus, South African campus of Monash University (six of the other campuses are in Australia, while the eighth is in Malaysia), as well as the Midrand Graduate Institute which is located in Midrand. Johannesburg also has one of several film schools in the country, one of which has won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Student Film in 2006. The South African School of Motion Picture and Live Performance, or AFDA for short, is situated in Auckland Park. Johannesburg also has three teacher-training colleges and a technical college. There are numerous kindergartens, primary schools and high schools in the region.


Economy

Johannesburg is the economic and financial hub of South Africa, producing 16% of South Africa's gross domestic product, and accounts for 40% of Gauteng's economic activity. In a 2008 survey conducted by Mastercard, Johannesburg ranked 47 out of 50 top cities in the world as a worldwide centre of commerce (the only city in Africa). Mining was the foundation of the
Witwatersrand The Witwatersrand () (locally the Rand or, less commonly, the Reef) is a , north-facing scarp in South Africa. It consists of a hard, erosion-resistant quartzite metamorphic rock, over which several north-flowing rivers form waterfalls, which ...
's economy, but its importance is gradually declining due to dwindling reserves and service and manufacturing industries have become more significant to the city's economy. While gold mining no longer takes place within the city limits, most mining companies still have their headquarters in Johannesburg. The city's manufacturing industries extend across a range of areas and there is still a reliance on heavy industries including steel and cement plants. The service and other industries include banking, IT, real estate, transport, broadcast and print media, private health care, transport and a vibrant leisure and consumer retail market. Johannesburg has Africa's largest stock exchange, the JSE Limited, JSE although it has moved out of the central business district. Due to its commercial role, the city is the seat of the provincial government and the site of a number of government branch offices, as well as consular offices and other institutions. The Witwatersrand urban complex is a major consumer of water in a dry region. Its continued economic and population growth has depended on schemes to divert water from other regions of South Africa and from the highlands of
Lesotho Lesotho ( ), officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a country landlocked country, landlocked as an Enclave and exclave, enclave in South Africa. It is situated in the Maloti Mountains and contains the Thabana Ntlenyana, highest mountains in Sou ...
, the biggest of which is the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, but additional sources will be needed early in the 21st century. The container terminal at City Deep, Gauteng, City Deep is known to be the largest "dry port" in the world, with some 50% of cargo that arrives through the ports of Durban and Cape Town arriving in Johannesburg. The City Deep area has been declared an IDZ (industrial development zone) by the Gauteng government.


Retail

Johannesburg's largest shopping centres, measured by gross leasable area (GLA, the uniform measure of centre size as determined by the International Council of Shopping Centers) are Sandton City, Eastgate, Mall of Africa, Westgate and Cresta. Melrose Arch is one of its most prestigious. Other centres include Hyde Park Corner (shopping centre), Hyde Park Corner, Rosebank, Gauteng, Rosebank, Southgate Shopping Centre, Southgate, The Glen Shopping Centre, Johannesburg South, and Clearwater Mall. There were also plans to build a large shopping centre, known as the Zonk'Izizwe Shopping Resort, in Midrand, but these have been indefinitely delayed due to the opening of Mall of Africa. "Zonk'Izizwe" means "All Nations" in Zulu language, indicating that the centre will cater to the city's diverse mix of peoples and races. Also a complex named Greenstone in Modderfontein has been opened. Cradlestone Mall is a new mall named for its location which is close to the Cradle of Humankind, a World Heritage Site.


Law and government


Government

Upon the creation of the Metropolitan Municipality in 2000 the city was subdivided into eleven regions, simply named Region 1 to Region 11. These were reorganized in 2006 into the current seven regions named alphabetically Region A to Region G, as shown on the nearby map. the seven regions are: * ''Region A'': Diepsloot, Kya Sand; * ''Region B'': Randburg, Rosebank, Emmarentia, Greenside, Melville, Northcliff, Rosebank, Parktown, Parktown North; * ''Region C'': Roodepoort, Constantia Kloof, Northgate; * ''Region D'': Doornkop, Soweto, Dobsonville, Protea Glen; * ''Region E'': Alexandra, Wynberg, Sandton; * ''Region F'': Inner City; * ''Region G'': Orange Farm, Ennerdale, Lenasia. In the 2016 municipal elections, the ruling party, the ANC, lost their majority in Johannesburg for the first time since taking power in 1994, claiming only 44.12% of the vote. The Economic Freedom Fighters and Democratic Alliance both agreed to vote for the DA mayoral candidate, Herman Mashaba, who was sworn into power as the first Democratic Alliance mayor of Johannesburg on 22 August 2016. The ANC returned to the city's executive on 4 December 2019 following the election of its regional chair, Geoff Makhubo, to the mayoralty. Makhubo died on 9 July 2021 and Eunice Mgcina was appointed acting mayor. A new mayor, Jolidee Matongo, was elected unopposed on 10 August 2021. Matongo died in a car accident in September 2021 and Mpho Moerane was elected to succeed him.


Crime

After the Group Areas Act was scrapped in 1991, Johannesburg was affected by urban blight. Thousands of poor black people, who had been forbidden to live in the city proper, moved into the city from surrounding black townships like
Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...
and many immigrants from economically beleaguered and war torn African nations flooded into South Africa. Many buildings were abandoned by landlords, especially in high-density areas, such as
Hillbrow Hillbrow () is an inner city residential neighbourhood of Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is known for its high levels of population density, unemployment, poverty, prostitution and crime. In the 1970s it was an Apartheid-design ...
. Many corporations and institutions, including the JSE Securities Exchange, stock exchange, moved their headquarters away from the city centre, to suburbs like Sandton. Reviving the city centre is one of the main aims of the municipal government of Johannesburg. Drastic measures have been taken to reduce crime in the city. These measures include closed-circuit television on street corners. As of 11 December 2008, every street corner in Johannesburg central is under high-tech Closed-circuit television, CCTV surveillance. The CCTV system, operated by the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD), is also able to detect stolen or hijacked vehicles by scanning the number plates of every vehicle travelling through the central business district (CBD), then comparing them to the eNaTIS database. The JMPD claims that the average response time by police for crimes committed in the CBD is 60 seconds. Crime levels in Johannesburg have dropped as the economy has stabilised and begun to grow. Between 2001 and 2006, R9-billion (US$1.2 billion) has been invested in the city centre. Further investment of around R10-billion (US$1.5 billion) is expected in the city centre alone by 2010. This excludes development directly associated with the 2010 FIFA World Cup. In an effort to prepare Johannesburg for the
2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...
, local government enlisted the help of Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City, to help bring down the crime rate, as the opening and closing matches of the tournament were played in the city. Murders in the Johannesburg municipality amounted to 1,697 in 2007 according to the South African Medical Research Council, a rate of 43 per 100,000 inhabitants. In 2016 that number had sharply declined to 29.4 per 100,000 inhabitants, placing the murder rate at more than half of that of Cape Town and even below the national average.


Culture

Johannesburg is a cultural hub in South Africa and has a wide variety of cultural venues, making it a prominent area for many creative and cultural industries. Johannesburg is home to the National School of Arts, The University of Witwatersrand's School of the Arts and the South African Ballet Theatre, as well as the Johannesburg Art Gallery and other prominent cultural landmarks, such as the Mary Fitzgerald Square and numerous other museums, theatres, galleries and libraries. The Johannesburg City Library is located in the Central Business District of Johannesburg.


Museums and galleries

Specialist museums cover subjects such as Africana, costume, design, fossils, geology, military history, medical, pharmacy, photography and transportation networks such as railways. Gold Reef City, a living museum, was originally part of the Crown Mines Complex, where gold was mined to a depth of . The Market Theatre (Johannesburg), Market Theatre stages plays, comedy shows, and musical performances. The following is a list of some of the museums and galleries that can be found in Johannesburg. * AECI Dynamite Factory Museum ::The AECI Dynamite Factory Museum, housed in the 1895 residence of a mining official, records the history of explosives, with particular emphasis on their use in the mining industry. * Adler Museum of Medicine ::History of Medicine, brainchild of Dr Cyril Adler, was formally inaugurated 1962. The museum's role was to collect and preserve for posterity all material that would illustrate the history of medicine in general and of South Africa in particular. * Apartheid Museum * Constitution Hill, Johannesburg. * Hector Pieterson Museum * James Hall Transport Museum * Johannesburg Art Gallery. * Madiba Freedom Museum :: Named after the former President Mandela's clan, the museum's theme is Mzabalazo and charts South Africa's journey to democracy. * MuseuMAfricA. * Origins Centre Museum ::Located on the campus of the
University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( o ...
in Braamfontein, this museum contains some excellent examples of southern African rock art and the origins of humankind. * Bernberg Fashion Museum :: Bernberg Fashion Museum is primarily a museum collection, consisting of objects, and explains why and how clothing has changed and how the fashions of the past influence those of today. * South African National Museum of Military History * Zoology Museum :: The Zoology Museum is the only natural history museum in Johannesburg which is unusual because all the other major cities in South Africa have large public natural history museums. It has retained a unique character as the display specimens are exhibited in finely crafted teak cabinets which allow the viewer to engage directly with scores of objects at close range.


Entertainment and performing arts

Johannesburg hosts many of South Africa's premier music events, such as RAMFest's Johannesburg leg, In the City (South African festival), In The City and many international tours. Several critically acclaimed musical acts come from Johannesburg, such as Kongos (band), Kongos, Johnny Clegg, Zebra & Giraffe, Man As Machine, The Parlotones, and Shortstraw, ShortStraw. The Joburg Theatre complex hosts drama, opera and ballet.


Public art

Public art ranges from sculptures to murals to pieces by artists like William Kentridge and Gerhard Marx's Fire Walker. Many pieces are developed through community workshops, such as the Vilakazi Street sculptures. Others are functional, such as street furniture found in
Hillbrow Hillbrow () is an inner city residential neighbourhood of Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is known for its high levels of population density, unemployment, poverty, prostitution and crime. In the 1970s it was an Apartheid-design ...
and the city centre. As part of the Johannesburg Development Agency's (JDA) policy to make city areas desirable to potential investors, the organisation has identified public art as a way to improve the urban experience of the city. The JDA spends 1 percent of all projects of over R10-million on public art.


Architecture and urbanism

Johannesburg is home to some of Africa's tallest structures, such as the Sentech Tower, Hillbrow Tower, the
Carlton Centre The Carlton Centre is a 50-storey skyscraper and shopping centre located on Commissioner Street in central Johannesburg, South Africa. At , it is the third tallest building in Africa after The Leonardo, also in Johannesburg, and the Iconic T ...
and Ponte City Apartments. The Johannesburg city skyline has most of the tallest buildings on the continent and contains most international organisations such as IBM, Absa Group, Absa, BHP, Willis Group, First National Bank (South Africa), First National Bank, Nedbank and Standard Bank. Many of the city's older buildings have been demolished and more modern ones built in their place. North of the CBD is
Hillbrow Hillbrow () is an inner city residential neighbourhood of Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is known for its high levels of population density, unemployment, poverty, prostitution and crime. In the 1970s it was an Apartheid-design ...
, the most densely populated residential area in southern Africa. Northwest of the CBD is Braamfontein, a secondary CBD housing many offices and business premises. The CBD is predominated by four styles of architecture, being Colonial architecture, Victorian Colonial, Edwardian Baroque, Art Deco and Modernism. The city is often described as Africa's economic powerhouse, and contentiously as a modern and prosperous African city. Johannesburg, like many metropolises, has more than one central business district (CBD), including, but not limited to, Sandton, Rosebank and Roodepoort in addition to the original CBD. Some tend to include Benoni and Germiston as well. Due to its many different central districts, Johannesburg would fall under the multiple nuclei model in human geography terms. It is the hub of South Africa's commercial, financial, industrial, and mining undertakings. Johannesburg is part of a larger urban region. It is closely linked with several other satellite towns. Randburg and Sandton form part of the northern area. The east and west ridges spread out from central Johannesburg. The Central Business District covers an area of . It consists of closely packed skyscrapers such as the
Carlton Centre The Carlton Centre is a 50-storey skyscraper and shopping centre located on Commissioner Street in central Johannesburg, South Africa. At , it is the third tallest building in Africa after The Leonardo, also in Johannesburg, and the Iconic T ...
, Marble Towers, Trust Bank Building, Ponte City Apartments,
Southern Life Centre The Southern Life Centre is an international style skyscraper in the Central Business District of Johannesburg, South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Af ...
and 11 Diagonal Street. Johannesburg's city centre retains its elements of a rectangular grid pattern that was first officially recorded in 1886. Streets are narrow and filled with high rises built in the mid- to late 1900s. Old Victorian–era buildings first built in the late 1800s have been torn down long ago. The 1900s brought along with it the introduction of many different architectural styles and structures. The Johannesburg Art Gallery and Supreme Court Building being two examples. These were important Beaux-Arts structures, with the style put in place by (at the time) colonial parent, the British Empire. South Africa didn't borrow architectural techniques exclusively from Britain, however. They were also inspired by American models and styles, having built several structures like the ESKOM Building and the Corner House to emulate the prowess of New York City, located in the United States.


Sports

Johannesburg's most popular sports by participation are association football, cricket, rugby union, and running. Early each Sunday morning, tens of thousands of runners gather to take part in informal runs organised by several athletic clubs. The city has several football clubs in the Premier Soccer League (PSL) and the National First Division. In the PSL, the top Johannesburg teams are all fierce rivals and include Kaizer Chiefs F.C., Kaizer Chiefs (nicknamed ''Amakhosi''), Orlando Pirates F.C., Orlando Pirates (nicknamed the ''Buccaneers''), Moroka Swallows F.C., Moroka Swallows and Wits University F.C., Wits University (nicknamed the ''Clever Boys''). They are based at the city's FNB Stadium, FNB, Orlando Stadium, Orlando, Dobsonville Stadium, Dobsonville and Bidvest Stadium, Bidvest stadiums. Several large-scale league and cup games are played at
Soccer City First National Bank Stadium or simply FNB Stadium ( af, ENB-stadion), also known as Soccer City ( af, Sokkerstad) and The Calabash, is an association football (soccer) and Rugby union stadium located in Nasrec, bordering the Soweto area of Joha ...
the venue of the
2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...
final. First Division teams are Jomo Cosmos and FC AK. Katlehong City and Alexandra United, play at Alexandra Stadium, Alexandra and Reiger Park stadium respectively. Cricket is one of the more popular sports. In cricket, the Highveld Lions represent Johannesburg, the rest of Gauteng as well as the North West Province, North West at the Wanderers Stadium which was the venue for the 2003 Cricket World Cup Final in which Australia national cricket team, Australia successfully defended their title against India national cricket team, India. Wanderers Stadium hosted what many cricket fans consider the greatest ever One Day International cricket, ODI match in which South Africa successfully chased down 434 runs. They take part in the first-class cricket, first class SuperSport Series, the limited overs cricket, one-day MTN Domestic Championship and the Twenty20 Ram Slam T20 Challenge. Johannesburg also hosted matches from and the final of the 2007 ICC World Twenty20, in which India beat Pakistan national cricket team, Pakistan in the final. The Lions (United Rugby Championship), Lions, formerly the Cats, represent Johannesburg, North West (South African province), North West and Mpumalanga in the United Rugby Championship competition, which includes teams from South Africa, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. The Golden Lions compete in the Currie Cup, which they have won on ten occasions. They are housed at Ellis Park Stadium, which also hosted the World Rugby, IRB 1995 Rugby World Cup Final, in which the South African Springboks defeated the New Zealand All Blacks. The city's Ticketpro Dome and the Ellis Park Arena hosted two of the three NBA Africa Game (disambiguation), NBA Africa Games.


Infrastructure


Transportation

Johannesburg is a young and sprawling city, with its public transportation built in its infancy, geared towards private motorists, and lacks a convenient public transportation system. The City though has invested a large percentage of its budget toward an effective integrated public transportation system. A significant number of the city's residents are dependent on the city's informal minibus taxis.


Roads

Johannesburg shares a network of Metropolitan Routes in Johannesburg, metropolitan routes with Krugersdorp and Ekurhuleni. The fact that Johannesburg is not near a large navigable body of water has meant that ground transportation has been the most important method of transporting people and goods in and out of the city. One of Africa's most famous "beltways" or ring roads/orbitals is the Johannesburg Ring Road. The road is composed of three freeways that converge on the city, forming an loop around it: the N3 Eastern Bypass (South Africa), N3 Eastern Bypass, which links Johannesburg with Durban; the N1 Western Bypass (South Africa), N1 Western Bypass, which links Johannesburg with
Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...
and Cape Town; and the N12 Southern Bypass (South Africa), N12 Southern Bypass, which links Johannesburg with Witbank, eMalahleni and Kimberley, Northern Cape, Kimberley. The N3 road (South Africa), N3 was built exclusively with asphalt, while the N12 (South Africa), N12 and N1 road (South Africa), N1 sections were made with concrete, hence the nickname given to the N1 Western Bypass, "The Concrete Highway". In spite of being up to 12 lanes wide in some areas, the Johannesburg Ring Road is frequently clogged with traffic. The Gillooly's Interchange, built on an old farm and the point at which the N3 Eastern Bypass and the R24 (Gauteng), R24 Airport Freeway intersect, is the busiest interchange in the Southern Hemisphere. It is claimed that the N1 is the busiest road in South Africa. Johannesburg has the most freeways connected to it. It has the N1 road (South Africa), N1, N3 road (South Africa), N3, N12 road (South Africa), N12, N14 road (South Africa), N14, N17 road (South Africa), N17, R21 (Gauteng), R21, R24 (Gauteng), R24 and the R59 (Free State), R59, all leading to Johannesburg. The M1 (Johannesburg), M1 and M2 road (Johannesburg), M2 freeways were built to direct traffic towards the city centre. These two freeways are congested due to mass urbanisation.


Bus and taxi transit

Johannesburg is served by a bus fleet operated b
Metrobus
, a corporate unit of the City of Johannesburg. It has a fleet consisting of approximately 550 single and double-decker buses, plying 84 different routes in the city. This total includes 200 modern buses (150 double-deckers and 50 single-deckers), made by Volvo, Scania AB and Marcopolo/Brasa in 2002. Metrobus' fleet carries approximately 20 million passengers per annum. In addition, there are a number of private bus operators, though most focus on the inter-city routes, or on bus charters for touring groups. The city's main bus terminus is situated in Gandhi Square, where passengers can also obtain information regarding the Metrobus service from the walk-in customer information desk. In 2010, in order to create an efficient public transport system the Rea Vaya bus rapid system was developed/built. The buses run on their own dedicated bus lanes on the main trunk and complementary routes. The buses also have large feeder routes that run on ordinary roads. The Rea Vaya works on a smartcard payment system, on entering the station or bus the passenger taps his/her smartcard onto the validator/scanner and taps out at the next station with the calculated amount. The routes cover both the southern and northern suburbs with the main trunk route running from Soweto to Sandton and Rosebank, and the feeder and complementary routes covering most of Johannesburg, with the notable exceptions of Midrand and Centurion. A subsequent expansion (phase 1-C;1-D) will cover these areas. In 2017, the Rea Vaya bus rapid transit was recorded to be making huge losses recovering only about 40 per cent of the operating costs and relying heavily on government subsidies. Johannesburg has two kinds of taxis, taxicab, metered taxis and Minibus taxi#Minibus taxi, minibus taxis. Unlike many cities, metered taxis are not allowed to drive around the city looking for passengers and instead must be called and ordered to a destination. The Gauteng Provincial Government has launched a new metered taxi programme in an attempt to increase the use of metered taxis in the city. The minibus "taxis" are the ''de facto'' standard and essential form of transport for the majority of the population. Since the 1980s, the minibus taxi industry has been severely affected by Taxi wars in South Africa, turf wars.


Airports

Johannesburg is served principally by O. R. Tambo International Airport (formerly Johannesburg International Airport and before that Jan Smuts Airport) for both domestic and international flights. Lanseria Airport, located to the north-west of the city and closer to the business hub of Sandton, is used for commercial flights to Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Botswana, and Sun City, North West, Sun City. Other airports include Rand Airport and Grand Central Airport. Rand Airport, located in Germiston, Gauteng, Germiston, is a small airfield used mostly for private aircraft and the home of South African Airways' first Boeing 747-200 ZS-SAN and also 747SP ZS-SPC and now serves as an aviation museum. Grand Central is located in Midrand and also caters to small, private aircraft.


Rail

The Metrorail Gauteng commuter rail system connects central Johannesburg to
Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...
,
Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...
, and most of the satellite towns along the
Witwatersrand The Witwatersrand () (locally the Rand or, less commonly, the Reef) is a , north-facing scarp in South Africa. It consists of a hard, erosion-resistant quartzite metamorphic rock, over which several north-flowing rivers form waterfalls, which ...
. The railways transport huge numbers of commuters every day. However, the Metrorail infrastructure was built in Johannesburg's infancy and covers only the older areas in the city's south. The northern areas, including the business districts of Sandton, Gauteng, Sandton, Midrand, Gauteng, Midrand, Randburg, Gauteng, Randburg, and Rosebank, Gauteng, Rosebank, are served by the rapid railway, rail link Gautrain. A part of the Gauteng Provincial Government's Blue IQ Project, Gautrain has made provision for a rapid railway, rail link, running north to south, between Johannesburg and Pretoria, and west to east between Sandton and the OR Tambo International Airport. Construction of the Gautrain Rapid Rail started in October 2006 and was completed in June 2012. It consists of a number of underground stations, as well as above-ground stations. Stations on the north–south line include Johannesburg's Johannesburg Park Station, Park Station (underground), Rosebank (Gautrain station), Rosebank (underground), Sandton (Gautrain station), Sandton (underground), Marlboro (Gautrain station), Marlboro (above-ground and raised), Midrand (Gautrain station), Midrand, Pretoria railway station, Pretoria Station and Hatfield (Gautrain station), Hatfield. There is also a line from the O.R. Tambo International Airport (above-ground and raised) travelling to Sandton via Rhodesfield (Gautrain station), Rhodesfield (raised) and Marlboro. A 200-kilometre expansion is underway and will consist of 3 new lines and 18 new stations, and is expected to cost R18 billion and one-lines (Soweto Mamalodi) could take 4 years to build, most of the new stations will be in Johannesburg. The east–west line from the airport to Sandton opened in June 2010 in time for the
2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...
, while the north–south line opened on 2 August 2011, except for Park Station, which opened in 2012. The rail system was designed to alleviate traffic on the N1 (South Africa), N1 freeway between Johannesburg and Pretoria, which records vehicle loads of up to 300,000 per week day. An extensive bus feeder system has also been implemented, which allows access to the main stations from the outer suburbs, but is limited to a five-kilometre radius, which neglects the rest of the suburbs. This is the first new major railway system that has been laid in South Africa since 1977. In 2010, a Johannesburg-Durban High Speed Rail, high-speed rail link was proposed between Johannesburg and Durban. In 2020 the government announced plans for high-speed rail from Johannesburg to
Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...
.


Freight

City Deep Terminal is the name of Africa's largest dry port and was officially opened by the South African Railways Services (SARS) in 1977. The container terminal is connected to the Port of Durban, Port of Ngqurha, Port of Cape Town, as well as Southern Africa by road and rail. At least forty percent of container export/imports run on the Natal Corridor (Natcor) which is directly linked by rail to City Deep.


Telecommunication

Johannesburg has 4 major cellular telecommunications operators: Vodacom, MTN Group, MTN, Cell C, and Telkom Mobile. Vodacom's global headquarters is located in Midrand. It was formed in 1994, just after the South African elections of 1994.


Media

The city is home to several media groups which own a number of newspaper and magazine titles. The two main print media groups are Independent Newspapers and Naspers (Media24). The country's electronic media is also headquartered in the greater metropolitan region. ''Beeld'' is a leading Afrikaans newspaper for the city and the country, while the Sunday newspaper ''City Press (South Africa), City Press'' is the third largest selling newspaper in South Africa. ''The Sowetan'' is one of a number of titles catering for the black market although in recent years it competes against newly arrived Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloids. The ''Mail & Guardian'' is an investigative liberal newspaper while ''The Citizen (newspaper, South Africa), The Citizen'' is a tabloid-style paper, and ''The Star (South Africa), The Star'' is a local newspaper that mostly covers
Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...
-related issues. The ''The Sunday Times (South Africa), Sunday Times'' is the most widely read national Sunday newspaper. ''True Love'' is the most widely read women's magazine, catering primarily to the up-and-coming middle class black female market, and published by Media 24. ''The Times (South Africa), The Times'' is a national newspaper that covers current issues. Media ownership is relatively complicated, with a number of cross shareholdings which have been rationalised in recent years, resulting in the movement of some ownership into the hands of black shareholders. This has been accompanied by a growth in black editorship and journalism. Johannesburg has a number of regional radio stations such as 94.7 Highveld Stereo, Radiokansel / Radio Pulpit, Kaya FM, Radio 2000, YFM, Metro FM, 5FM, Jacaranda FM, SAfm, Phalaphala FM, Radio 702 and UJFM. The number of radio stations has increased in recent years as the government has sold off frequencies to private companies. Johannesburg is also the headquarters of state-owned broadcaster South African Broadcasting Corporation and pay-broadcast network Multichoice which distributes M-Net and DStv a digital satellite service, while etv (South Africa), eTV also has a presence in the city. The city has two television towers, the Hillbrow Tower and the Sentech Tower.


International relations


Twin towns – sister cities

Johannesburg is Sister city, twinned with: * Addis Ababa, Ethiopia * Birmingham, United Kingdom * London, United Kingdom * New York City, United States * Taipei, Taiwan * Windhoek, Namibia


Partner cities

Johannesburg is cooperating with: * Accra, Ghana * Kinshasa, DR Congo * Matola, Mozambique * Saint Petersburg, Russia * Val-de-Marne, France


Notes


References

* Felix Urban: ''Acoustic Competence. Investigating sonic empowerment in urban cultures. Johannesburg and Berlin.'' 1. Edition. Tectum, Baden-Baden 2016, . *''Johannesburg: The Elusive Metropolis''. Sarah Nuttall. Duke University Press. 9 January 2005. 210 pages. . *''Early Johannesburg, Its Buildings and People''. Hannes Meiring, Human & Rousseau. 1986. 143 pages. * ''Gold! Gold! Gold! The Johannesburg Gold Rush''. Eric Rosenthal, AD. Donker, 1970, * ''The Corner House: The Early History of Johannesburg''. Alan Patrick Cartwright. MacDonald. 1965. 295 pages.


External links

* * *
Johannesburg Tourism official website
* {{Authority control Johannesburg, Greater Johannesburg Populated places in the City of Johannesburg Cities in South Africa Provincial capitals in South Africa Populated places established in 1886 Populated places founded by Afrikaners