Johannesburg
Johannesburg is a city in South Africa, where it serves as the de facto provincial capital of Gauteng.With a population of 1.48 million at the 1996 census (or 5 mill. for the greater metropolitan area), it is one of the largest cities in the world that is neither on the coast nor on a major river or waterway (three other such cities are Mexico City, Atlanta, and Phoenix). The demarcation of new municipal boundaries, which took effect in 2000, saw the city population officially rise to around 3 million, including former satellite towns of Sandton, Randburg, Roodepoort and Soweto.
The metropolitan area population for the city is now estimated at 6.2 million (based on projections for 2004 from the 1996 and 2001 census figures), while Thomas Brinkhoff (www.citypopulation.de) puts the urban agglomeration population at 7.85 million. This would make it the fifth-largest metropolitan area if it were in the United States, after New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington-Baltimore, and the third-largest city in Africa, after Cairo and Lagos. These figures exclude Pretoria and the Vaal Triangle, which together with the Johannesburg conurbation form the heart of Gauteng and could be classified as Africa's second megalopolis after Cairo-Alexandria. Johannesburg is almost larger than South Africa's second- and third-largest cities combined, Durban and Cape Town.
The fact that Johannesburg is not built near a large navigable body of water means that road transport has become essential. The city is largely dependent on massive road infrastructure for moving people around, with numerous multi-lane freeways that speed cars across the metropolitan area. The city has a ring road similar to the London Orbital (M25) or the I-285 in Atlanta, creating an 80-kilometre (50-mile) circumference around the city.
Its relatively dry landscape has not stopped local residents and the city council from planting an abundance of trees, and the city prides itself on being the city in the world with the largest number of planted trees — 6 million — which has created an artificial rainforest-like atmosphere, especially in the lush northern suburbs. This area is also home to the local zoo and a host of small dams, such as Zoo Lake and the Emmarentia Dam, a popular spot for the city's rowing fans who ply the waters in true Oxford/Cambridge style.
Johannesburg currently holds the record for the tallest building in Africa, the Carlton Centre, which is 222 metres tall, half the height of the Sears Tower in Chicago. A new skyscraper is being built in Sandton, which will be 140 metres tall and will open in 2005 (www.skyscraperpage.com). The city also has some of the largest shopping centres in South Africa, including Sandton City and Eastgate, both well in excess of 1 million ft².
Johannesburg is a dichotomy of wealth and poverty, of opulent First World and derelict Third World. Sometimes referred to as the New York of Africa, the city is a magnet for people from all over Africa who seek to carve out their own fortunes. Although not the largest city in Africa, it has by far the largest urban sprawl of any African city and is generally regarded as Africa's wealthiest city.
The fact that South Africa has won the bid to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup will have huge positive implications for the city. It is likely that both the opening and closing matches will be played at Soccer City, which will be upgraded. Plans are also afoot to create a new rapid rail-based transit system, called Gautrain. The north-south line will run between between Johannesburg and Pretoria, and the east-west line between the airport and Sandton, the financial and tourist centre of the city.
Johannesburg is located on the Continental Divide of Africa – a drop of rain falling on the crest of Pretoria Avenue in Hillbrow will find itself either flowing east to the Indian Ocean or west to the Atlantic Ocean.
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Johannesburg was founded after the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand in 1886. An Australian gold miner, George Harrison, stumbled across a rocky outcrop of the ore-bearing reef in March of that year, and so was born the world's greatest gold rush. Within a decade, Johannesburg had grown into a city of more than 100,000 inhabitants. The city was overrun by foreigners, gold-seekers from all over the world who came to find their fortunes in the new El Dorado. This infuriated the then predominantly Afrikaans government of the Republic of Transvaal, who saw the foreigners (or "uitlanders" in Afrikaans) as a threat to the stability of the area. Tensions between foreigners and local government precipitated the South Afican War of 1899-1902, and also resulted in the Jameson Raid of 1922. But Johannesburg has always been a poltical hotbed. Much of "The Struggle" (the name given to the collective efforts to free South Africa from Apartheid) was fought in and around Johannesburg, and as such the history of South Africa has always been inextricably linked to the city.
Although the city's own mines have long since been abandoned as ores ran out and new deposits were found elsewhere, it is still known in the Zulu language as eGoli, that is, the "place of gold". The "gold crescent" (roughly 120km long by 25km wide) around which Johannesburg grew is the source of more than half the mined gold in the world today. The mines produced tall "mine dumps" or man made mountains. These are what remains from the ore removed from the mines after the gold was extracted. The earlier of these mine dumps still contain some gold. The mine dumps have been "re-mined" to extract further gold through modern more efficient recovery techniques. A lobby formed to prevent the loss of the last of Johannesburg's mine dumps as these are part of the city's character.
Johannesburg is more a city of business than a tourist destination, and many tourists use the city to transit to the popular destinations such as Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and the Kruger Park. Even so, any trip to the city should include visits to Gold Reef City (a replica of the city circa 1895, with an underground gold mine tour), the Apartheid Museum (next to Gold Reef City), the Hector Petersen Memorial in Soweto (site of the 1976 Soweto Riots) and the lion park on the outskirts of Johannesburg.
Although it was a prosperous city throughout the 20th century, in the 1990s Johannesburg was affected by urban blight, as millions of poor, mostly black, people who had been kept out artificially by the policy of Apartheid, moved into the city from surrounding black townships such as Soweto. Crime levels soared and non-payment of rent led to apartment buildings being abandoned by landlords, especially in the high-density areas such as Hillbrow. Many leading corporations and institutions, including the JSE Securities Exchange (formerly the Johannesburg Stock Exchange), moved their headquarters to the northern suburb of Sandton. Reviving the city centre is one of the main aims of the municipal government of Johannesburg.
Johannesburg has an airport called Johannesburg International Airport, previously Jan Smuts International after Field Marshal Jan Smuts, soldier, politician, prime minister and statesman.
It is not known for certain who the "Johannes" (Afrikaans for "John") was after whom the city was named. Several candidates have been put forward over the years, including Johannes Rissik.
On March 28, 1994 Inkatha Freedom Party supporters (mainly Zulus) and African National Congress supporters battled in central Johannesburg killing 18.