Johannesburg was established in 1886,[18] following the discovery of gold, on what was once farmland. Within a decade, the population surged to over 100,000, driven by the large gold deposits found along the Witwatersrand.[19] Modern Johannesburg is an amalgamation of formerly separate cities,townships and settlements, reflectingapartheid-era spatial segregation policies.Soweto ("South-Western Townships"), designated a "blacks only" city until 1994, is one of the most historically significant areas for modern South Africa. Home to key anti-apartheid leaders, includingNelson Mandela andDesmond Tutu, it became the epicenter of the1976 Soweto Uprising, where student protests were met with brutal force.[20] In contrast,Lenasia is predominantly populated by English-speaking Indo-South Africans (people ofIndian andSouth Asian descent). Formerly "white-only" areas includeSandton, known as "Africa's richest square-mile",Randburg andRoodeport.[21]
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 theVolksraad and was the Republic's chief of mining. Another was Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger (better known asPaul Kruger), president of theSouth African Republic (ZAR) from 1883 to 1900.Johannes Meyer, the first government official in the area is another possibility.[22]
Precise records for the choice of name were lost. Johannes Rissik and Johannes Joubert were members of a delegation sent toEngland 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 dilapidatedRissik Street Post Office is located.[23][24] TheCity Hall is also located on Rissik Street.
The region surrounding Johannesburg was originally inhabited bySan hunter-gatherers who used stone tools. There is evidence that they lived there up to ten centuries ago.[25] Stone-walled ruins of Sotho–Tswana towns and villages are scattered around the parts of the formerTransvaal in which Johannesburg is situated.[26]
By the mid-18th century, the broader region was largely settled by variousSotho–Tswana communities (one linguistic branch of Bantu-speakers), whose villages, towns, chiefdoms and kingdoms stretched from theBechuanaland Protectorate (what is nowBotswana) in the west,[27] to present dayLesotho in the south,[28] to the present dayPedi areas of theLimpopo Province. More specifically, the stone-walled ruins ofSotho–Tswana 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 fromZululand during the late 18th and early 19th centuries (themfecane or difaqane wars),[29] and as a result, an offshoot of the Zulu kingdom, theNdebele (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.
The Langlaagte farm nearPaarlshoop, on theWitwatersrand – site of the first discovery of gold in 1886.Ferreirasdorp gold mine in 1886, the oldest part of Johannesburg[30][31] and where the first gold diggers initially settled.[32]
The main Witwatersrand gold reef was discovered in June 1884 on the farm Vogelstruisfontein byJan Gerritse Bantjes, son ofJan Bantjes. This triggered theWitwatersrand Gold Rush 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.[33] Within ten years, the city of Johannesburg included 100,000 people.[34]
In September 1884, the Struben brothers discovered theConfidence Reef on the farm Wilgespruit near present-day Roodepoort, which further boosted excitement over gold prospects.[35]: 254 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 and Sir Joseph Robinson rode up to investigate the 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.[citation needed]
In 1884, they purchased the first pure refined gold from Bantjes for £3,000. Incidentally, Bantjes had from 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.[citation needed] 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 remain in the area.[36]
On 3 October 1886 the name Johannesburg was first used. SurveyorJos de Villiers surveyed Johannesburg's first neighborhood, Randjeslaagte, between 19 October and 3 November that year.[37][38]
Gold was earlier discovered some 400 kilometres (249 miles) to the east of present-day Johannesburg inBarberton.Gold prospectors soon discovered the richer gold reefs of theWitwatersrand offered by Bantjes. The original miners' camp, under the informal leadership of ColIgnatius Ferreira, was located in the Fordsburg dip, possibly because water was available there, and because of the site's proximity to the diggings. Following 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 ofFerreirasdorp. The first settlement at Ferreira's Camp was established as a tented camp and which soon reached a population of 3,000 by 1887.[34] The government took over the camp, surveyed it and named it Ferreira's Township.[39] By 1896, Johannesburg was established as a city of over 100,000 inhabitants, one of the fastest growing cities ever.[34]
Part of the batch of the first commercial aerial photographs of South Africa, showing Johannesburg, captured from a balloon by Swiss photographer and balloonistSpelterini (1911). In the background goldmining activity can be seen.[40]
Mines near Johannesburg are among the deepest in the world, with some as deep as 4,000 metres (13,000 ft).[41]
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 were recruited to perform unskilled mine work, African women beer brewers 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.[42] As the value of control of the land increased, tensions developed between theBoer–dominated Transvaal government in Pretoria and the British, culminating in theJameson Raid that ended in fiasco atDoornkop in January 1896. TheSecond Boer War (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.[citation needed]
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.[43][44]
During the Boer 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 werewhites.[45]
In 1917, Johannesburg became the headquarters of theAnglo-American Corporation founded byErnest Oppenheimer 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.[citation needed][46] In the late 1940s and early 1950s,Hillbrow went high-rise. In the 1950s and early 1960s, the apartheid government constructed the massive agglomeration of townships that became known asSoweto. New freeways encouraged massive suburban sprawl to the north of the city.[citation needed] In the late 1960s and early 1970s, tower blocks (including theCarlton Centre and theSouthern Life Centre) filled the skyline of the central business district.
The system ofapartheid, 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.[47]
Stuttafords department stores in Johannesburg in 1957
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.[47]Soweto, 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.[48] It was estimated that in 1989, the population of Soweto was equal to that of Johannesburg, if not greater.[48]
In March 1960, Johannesburg witnessed widespread demonstrations against apartheid in response to theSharpeville massacre.[49] On 11 July 1963, theSouth African Police raided a house in the Johannesburg suburb ofRivonia where nine members of the bannedAfrican National Congress (ANC) were arrested on charges of planning sabotage. Their arrest led to the famousRivonia Trial.[48] The nine arrested included one Indo-South African, one coloured, two whites and five blacks, one of whom was the future presidentNelson Mandela.[50] 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.[50] The trial made Mandela into a national figure and a symbol of resistance toapartheid.[50]
Street scene in Johannesburg in 1970
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.[51] About 575 people, the majority of whom were black, were killed in theSoweto uprising of 1976.[49] 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.[52]
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 was opened in 1973, followed by Rosebank Mall in 1976, andEastgate in 1979.[53]
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.[54]
The end of apartheid saw the administrative unification of Johannesburg's apartheid-era city proper with surrounding townships and settlements into theCity of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. However, the spatial legacy of apartheid has proven difficult to overcome and Johannesburg remains among the most unequal cities in the world.[55]
In 2025, Johannesburg remained the world's fifth most dangerous city by crime rate.[56] Attempts to revive Johannesburg'sCBD, most notably in the Maboneng District, have failed to halt the rising crime rate and infrastructure deterioration in the inner city.[57][58] Abandoned buildings in the city'sHillbrow district have been increasingly captured by gangs and on 31 August 2023, at least 76 people died when a hijackedbuilding caught fire in Johannesburg.[59] In March 2025, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa launched a rescue plan to address the city's "rapidly declining infrastructure".[60]
Since 1994, Johannesburg has further seen increased incidents ofxenophobic violence against migrants from other African countries. On 12 May 2008, a series of riots started in the township ofAlexandra, in the north-eastern part of Johannesburg, when locals attacked migrants fromMozambique, Malawi andZimbabwe, killing two people and injuring 40 others. These riots sparked the nationwidexenophobic attacks of 2008, which saw 60 more killings and widespread destruction of immigrant properties.[61] The2015 and2019 Johannesburg riots similarly displayed outbreaks of mass violence against migrants.[62][63]
Satellite image of JohannesburgJanuary 2008 Johannesburg aerial view looking towards the south-east
Johannesburg is located in the eastern plateau area ofSouth Africa known as theHighveld, at an elevation of 1,753 metres (5,751 ft). The formerCentral Business District is located on the southern side of the prominent ridge called theWitwatersrand (English: White Water's Ridge) and the terrain falls to the north and south. By and large the Witwatersrand marks the watershed between theLimpopo andVaal rivers as the northern part of the city is drained by theJukskei River while the southern part of the city, including most of the Central Business District, is drained by theKlip River. 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, theLimpopo and theOrange. 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.[68]
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.[69]
Parks and gardens in Johannesburg are maintained byJohannesburg City Parks and Zoo.[70] 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.[71] 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, located in the suburb ofEmmarentia, is a popular recreational park.
Johannesburg and environs also offer various options to visitors wishing to viewwildlife, in addition to theJohannesburg Zoo, one of the largest in South Africa. TheLion Park nature reserve, next toLesedi Cultural Village, is home to over 80 lions and various other game, while theKrugersdorp Nature Reserve, a 1500hagame reserve, is a forty-minute drive from the city centre. The De Wildt Cheetah Centre[72] in theMagaliesberg runs a successful breeding program forcheetah,wild dog and otherendangered species. The Rhino & Lion Nature Reserve,[73] situated in the "Cradle of Humankind" on 1200 ha of "the typicalhighveld of Gauteng" also runs a breeding programme for endangered species including Bengal tigers, Siberian tigers and the extremely rarewhite lion.[citation needed] To the south, 11 kilometres (6.8 miles) from the city centre, is theKlipriviersberg Nature Reserve home to large mammals and hiking trails. Separating Lenasia and the Soweto suburbs is theOlifantsvlei Nature Reserve protected area.
An aerial photograph of summer rain clouds over Johannesburg. The city's climate experiences regular daily thunderstorms from November to March in the afternoons.
Johannesburg is situated on the highveld plateau, and has asubtropical highland climate (KöppenCwb). 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.[74] Temperatures in Johannesburg are usually fairly mild due to the city's high elevation, with an average maximum daytime temperature in January of 25.6 °C (78.1 °F), dropping to an average maximum of around 16 °C (61 °F) in June. TheUV index for Johannesburg in summers is extreme, often reaching 14–16 due to the high elevation and its location in the subtropics.[75]
Winter is the sunniest time of the year, with mild days and cool nights, dropping to 4.1 °C (39.4 °F) in June and July. The temperature occasionally drops to below freezing at night, causingfrost. 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 10 centimetres or 4 inches in the southern suburbs),[76] 7 August 2012,[77] and 10 July 2023.[78]
Regular cold fronts pass over in winter bringing very cold southerly winds but usually clear skies. The annual average rainfall is 713 millimetres (28.1 in), 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 −8.2 °C (17.2 °F), on 13 June 1979. The lowest daytime maximum temperature recorded is 1.5 °C (34.7 °F), on 19 June 1964.[79]
Climate data for Johannesburg (O. R. Tambo International Airport), elevation 1,695 m (5,561 ft), (1991–2020 normals, extremes 1951–1990)
According to the 2022South African National Census, the population of Johannesburg is 4,803,262 people,[86] making it the most populous city in South Africa (it has been the most populous city in South Africa since at least the 1950s).[87][88] From the 2001 census, the people live in 1,006,930 formal households, of which 86% have a flush orchemical toilet, and 91% haverefuse 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.[89] 66% of households are headed by one person.
Johannesburg'surban agglomeration spreads well beyond the administrative boundary of themunicipality. The population of the whole area has been estimated to be variously at 7,860,781 in 2011 by "citypopulation.de",.[8]Johannesburg's suburbs are the product ofurban sprawl and are regionalised into north, south, east and west, and they generally have different personalities.[90] Greater Johannesburg consists of more than five hundred suburbs in an area covering more than two hundred square miles (520 square kilometres).[69] Although black Africans can be found throughout Johannesburg and its surrounding area, greater Johannesburg remains highly racially segregated.[69]
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". As of 2011[update], this main place had a population of 957,441 and an area of 334.81 km2.[91][92][93] Some authors consider the metropolitan area to include most of Gauteng province.[94] TheUN's Population Division in 2016 estimated the metropolitan area population to be 9,616,000.[95]
Blacks account for 73% of the population, followed bywhites at 18%,coloureds at 6% andAsians 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.
53% belong to mainstream Christian churches, 24% are not affiliated with any organised religion, 14% are members ofAfrican Independent Churches, 3% areMuslim, 1% areJewish and 1% areHindu. There areMuslim mosques,Hindu temples, a Sikh Gurudwara (Sikh Temple) in Sandton and a large number of synagogues.
Johannesburg also has one of severalfilm schools in the country, one of which has won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Student Film in 2006.[105] The South African School of Motion Picture and Live Performance, orAFDA 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.
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.[citation needed] In a 2008 survey conducted byMastercard, Johannesburg ranked 47 out of 50 top cities in the world as a worldwide centre of commerce (the only city in Africa).[106]
Mining was the foundation of theWitwatersrand'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 thecity 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.[citation needed] Johannesburg has Africa's largest stock exchange, theJSE 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 ofLesotho, the biggest of which is theLesotho Highlands Water Project, but additional sources will be needed early in the 21st century.
The container terminal atCity Deep is known to be the largest "dry port" in the world,[107] with some 50% of cargo that arrives through the ports ofDurban andCape Town arriving in Johannesburg. The City Deep area has been declared an IDZ (industrial development zone) by the Gauteng government.[citation needed][108]
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.[citation needed] Other centres includeHyde Park Corner,Rosebank,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, inMidrand, but these have been indefinitely delayed due to the opening ofMall of Africa. "Zonk'Izizwe" means "All Nations" inZulu 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.[109] Cradlestone Mall is a new mall named for its location which is close to theCradle of Humankind, a World Heritage Site.
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 reorganised in 2006 into the current seven regions named alphabetically Region A to Region G, as shown on the nearby map.[110]
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.[111] The ANC returned to the city's executive on 4 December 2019 following the election of its regional chair,Geoff Makhubo, to the mayoralty.[112] Makhubo died on 9 July 2021 andEunice Mgcina was appointed acting mayor.[113] A new mayor, Jolidee Matongo, was elected unopposed on 10 August 2021.[114] Matongo died in a car accident in September 2021 andMpho Moerane was elected to succeed him.[115]
After theGroup Areas Act was scrapped in 1991, Johannesburg was affected byurban blight. Thousands of poor black people, who had been forbidden to live in the city proper, moved into the city from surrounding black townships likeSoweto and many immigrants from economically beleaguered and wartorn African nations flooded into South Africa. Many buildings were abandoned bylandlords, especially in high-density areas, such asHillbrow. Many corporations and institutions, including thestock exchange, moved their headquarters away from the city centre, to suburbs likeSandton.[116]
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 includeclosed-circuit television on street corners. As of 11 December 2008, every street corner in Johannesburg central is under high-techCCTV surveillance.[117] 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.[117]
Crime levels in Johannesburg have dropped as the economy has stabilised and begun to grow.[118] 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.[119] In an effort to prepare Johannesburg for the2010 FIFA World Cup, local government enlisted the help ofRudy Giuliani, formerMayor 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.[120]
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.[121] In 2016 that number had sharply declined to 29.4 per 100,000 inhabitants, placing the murder rate at more than half of that ofCape Town and even below the national average.[122]
Johannesburg is a cultural hub in South Africa[123] and has a wide variety of cultural venues, making it a prominent area for many creative and cultural industries.[123] Johannesburg is home to the National School of Arts, The University of Witwatersrand's School of the Arts and the South African Ballet Theatre,[123][124] as well as cultural precincts such asMary Fitzgerald Square[123] and numerous other museums, theatres, galleries and libraries.[123] TheJohannesburg City Library is located in the Central Business District of Johannesburg.[125]
The Johannesburg Art Gallery (JAG) is widely considered among the most notable collections of fine art on the African continent, featuring European and African art from the 15th century to the present.[126][127]Wits Art Museum in Braamfontein specializes in historic and contemporary African art.[128] Johannesburg is further home to an array of noteworthy private collections and art galleries, largely located in the northern suburbs. These include theJoburg Contemporary Art Foundation (JCAF),Goodman Gallery,Gallery MOMO and theStandard Bank Art Gallery.
Specialist museums and collections cover subjects such as Africana, costume, design,fossils, geology,military history, medical,pharmacy, photography and transportation networks such as railways. Notably, theJames Hall Museum of Transport features the largest collection on the topic in Africa. Other specialist collections include the AECI Dynamite Factory Museum, the Adler Museum of Medicine, theCredo Mutwa Cultural Village, Madiba Freedom Museum, Bernberg Fashion Museum, and the Zoology Museum.
TheJoburg Theatre complex hosts drama, opera and ballet.
The Market Theatre Foundation houses the historicMarket Theatre in Newtown with various sized stages holding performances from theatre to music and dance. The foundation also oversees theMarket Theatre Laboratory andThe Market Photo Workshop – run training programmes for young creatives and presenting work to the public.
Public art ranges from sculptures to murals to pieces by artists likeWilliam Kentridge andGerhard Marx'sFire Walker. Many pieces are developed through community workshops, such as the Vilakazi Street sculptures. Others are functional, such as street furniture found inHillbrow and the city centre.[citation needed]
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.[142] The JDA spends 1 percent of all projects of over R10-million on public art.[143]
The city is often described as Africa's economic powerhouse, and contentiously as a modern and prosperous African city.[144] 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 themultiple nuclei model inhuman 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 andSandton form part of the northern area. The east and west ridges spread out from central Johannesburg. The Central Business District covers an area of 6 square kilometres (2 sq mi). It consists of closely packed skyscrapers such as theCarlton Centre,Marble Towers,Trust Bank Building,Ponte City Apartments,Southern Life Centre and11 Diagonal Street.
Johannesburg's city centre retains its elements of a rectangular grid pattern that was first officially recorded in 1886.[69] 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.[69] 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.[69] 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.[69]
Johannesburg's most popular sports by participation areassociation football,cricket,rugby union, andrunning. 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 thePremiership and theNational First Division. In the Premiership, the top Johannesburg teams are all fierce rivals and includeKaizer Chiefs (nicknamedAmakhosi) andOrlando Pirates (nicknamed theBuccaneers). They are based at the city'sFNB andOrlando stadiums. Several large-scale league and cup games are played atSoccer City the venue of the2010 FIFA World Cup final. First Division teams areJomo Cosmos andFC AK. Katlehong City and Alexandra United, play atAlexandra and Reiger Park stadium respectively.
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[when?] toward an effective integrated public transportation system. A significant number of the city's residents are dependent on the city's informal minibus taxis.[citation needed]
Johannesburg shares a network ofmetropolitan routes withKrugersdorp andEkurhuleni. 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 theJohannesburg Ring Road. The road is composed of three freeways that converge on the city, forming an 80-kilometre (50 mi) loop around it: theN3 Eastern Bypass, theN1 Western Bypass and theN12 Southern Bypass. TheN3 was built exclusively withasphalt, while theN12 andN1 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 (renamed George Bizos Interchange in 2021[146]), built on an old farm and the point at which the N3 Eastern Bypass and theR24 Airport Freeway intersect, is the busiest interchange in the Southern Hemisphere.[147] It is claimed[147][148] that the N1 is the busiest road in South Africa.
Johannesburg is served by a bus fleet operated by MetroBus, a corporate unit of the City of Johannesburg.[150][151] 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 byVolvo,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 inGandhi 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, theRea 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. Upon 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, theRea 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.[152]
Johannesburg has two kinds of taxis,metered taxis andminibus 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.[citation needed]
The minibus "taxis" are thede facto standard and essential form of transport for the majority of the population. Since the 1980s, the minibus taxi industry has been severely affected byturf wars.[153][154]
Johannesburg is served principally byO. 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 ofSandton, is used for commercial flights toCape Town,Durban,Port Elizabeth, Botswana, andSun City. Other airports includeRand Airport andGrand Central Airport. Rand Airport, located inGermiston, is a small airfield used mostly for private aircraft and the home ofSouth 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.
TheMetrorail Gautengcommuter rail system connects central Johannesburg toSoweto,Pretoria, and most of the satellite towns along theWitwatersrand. 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 ofSandton,Midrand,Randburg, andRosebank, are served by the rapidrail linkGautrain.
A part of the Gauteng Provincial Government's Blue IQ Project,Gautrain has made provision for a rapidrail link, running north to south, between Johannesburg and Pretoria, and west to east between Sandton and theOR 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'sPark Station (underground),Rosebank (underground),Sandton (underground),Marlboro (above-ground and raised),Midrand,Pretoria Station andHatfield. There is also a line from the O.R. Tambo International Airport (above-ground and raised) travelling to Sandton viaRhodesfield (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 the2010 FIFA World Cup, 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 theN1 freeway between Johannesburg and Pretoria, which records vehicle loads of up to 300,000 per week day.[155] 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.[156]
In 2010, ahigh-speed rail link was proposed between Johannesburg andDurban.[157] In 2020 the government announced plans for high-speed rail from Johannesburg toSoweto.[158]
City Deep Terminal is the name of Africa's largestdry 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.
Johannesburg has 4 major cellular telecommunications operators:Vodacom,MTN,Cell C, andTelkom Mobile. Vodacom's global headquarters is located inMidrand. It was formed in 1994, just after the South African elections of 1994.[159]
^Bhana, Deeksha (2018). "The Constitutional Court as the apex court for the common law of contract: Middle ground between the approaches of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal".South African Journal on Human Rights.34:8–32.doi:10.1080/02587203.2018.1432100.S2CID149346012.
^Mason, Revil (1986),Origins of Black People of Johannesburg and the Southern Western Central Transvaal, AD 300-1880, Archeological Research Unit (University of the Witwatersrand)
^"Chinatown Precinct Plan"(PDF). City of Johannesburg. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved10 May 2013.The oldest part of Johannesburg was first known as Ferreira's Camp and later Ferreiradorp.
^Africa, Statistics South (2011)."Main Place".www.statssa.gov.za. Statistics South Africa.Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved27 November 2017.
^"Ramfest 2013 line-up". Bizcommunity.com. 21 January 2013.Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. Retrieved5 March 2013.
^"Archived copy".www.drop-your-drink.com. Archived from the original on 12 February 2017. Retrieved17 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
Felix Urban:Acoustic Competence. Investigating sonic empowerment in urban cultures. Johannesburg and Berlin. 1. Edition. Tectum, Baden-Baden 2016,ISBN978-3-8288-3683-9.
Johannesburg: The Elusive Metropolis. Sarah Nuttall. Duke University Press. 9 January 2005. 210 pages.ISBN0-8223-6610-X.
Early Johannesburg, Its Buildings and People. Hannes Meiring, Human & Rousseau. 1986. 143 pages.ISBN0-7981-1456-8
Gold! Gold! Gold! The Johannesburg Gold Rush. Eric Rosenthal, AD. Donker, 1970,ISBN0-949937-64-9
The Corner House: The Early History of Johannesburg. Alan Patrick Cartwright. MacDonald. 1965. 295 pages.
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