Ophirton is a suburb of
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
,
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 ...
. This
industrial suburb lies three kilometers to south-west of the Johannesburg
CBD. It is located in Region F of the
City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, adjacent to
Booysens.
History
Ophirton has it origin in 1888, not long after the creation of Johannesburg in 1886.
The suburb is situated on part of an old
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 ...
farm called ''Turffontein''.
It is named after the Paarl Ophir Gold Mining Company that owned the land.
[ It has its origins as a dusty residential suburb, that was surrounded by mine dumps, and occupied by the poorer classes.][ Chandler's Brewery was one of the early industrial business' in the suburb.][ Nowadays the suburb is mostly industrial but a few old residential houses remain.
]
References
Johannesburg Region F
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