‘There’s a train that comes from Namibia and Malawi. There’s a train that comes from Zambia and Zimbabwe. There’s a train that comes from Angola and Mozambique - from Lesotho from Botswana from Swaziland.’
These lines are from Hugh Masekela’s
quintessential anthem,
Stimela (steam engine), which profoundly captures the essence of the millions of
migrant laborers who, since 4 October 1886 (when the first claims were laid out), have mined the gold that built the economy of Johannesburg and South Africa.
The city today has progressed
far beyond the status of a mere
gold rush settlement, and has grown quickly into a
vibrant,
pulsating city that is now the
economic powerhouse of sub-Saharan Africa and the largest urban space in South Africa.
Johannesburg is the capital of South Africa’s province of
Gauteng, which means ‘
place of gold’ in Sesotho, while in the isiZulu language Johannesburg is known as
Egoli, which simply means ‘gold’.
While the city was built on the
richest gold reef in the world (it has produced 40% of all the world’s gold), these epithets are no longer quite fitting, as the last of Johannesburg’s mines ran out of gold-bearing ore in the 1970s.
The
towering yellow mine dumps that used to characterize the city are increasingly being flattened for development for new commercial, retail and industrial districts, but it is believed that a few will remain as a reminder of the city’s history.
Situated 550km (344 miles) from the nearest port, on a
vast inland plateau, 1,700m (5,700ft) high, Johannesburg’s climate is much milder and drier than its latitude would suggest. It is
sub-Saharan Africa’s greatest city, and at over 1,600sq km (620 sq miles) is one of the world’s largest inland cities.
Johannesburg straddles rows of
jagged quartzite ridges, beneath which a century of gold mining has produced a veritable
honeycomb of tunnels. Technology may have claimed the mine sands, but millions of trees have risen from the
sprawling suburbs and on satellite images, much of Johannesburg resembles a rainforest. This is an unexpected backdrop to a formidable array of
Victorian and
Edwardian architecture, as well as concrete, chrome and glass
skyscrapers and a tangle of highways.
Although the government is on a constant program to build more homes, in outlying
Soweto (an acronym for South West Township) and the other townships on the peripheral of Johannesburg, makeshift shacks of scrap bear testimony to the chasm between the fantastically wealthy and the desperately poor that still divides this city.
Since the breakdown of apartheid and the abolition of pass laws in the 1980s,
Jozi, Jo’burg or
Joeys to the locals, has undergone a
dramatic change. Black people, formerly excluded from living (legally) outside of townships, such as Soweto, moved into the downtown and inner-city areas.
The center of Johannesburg took on an African feel again with a
clamouring street life. Meanwhile the former privileged (white) citizens migrated outwards to the northern suburbs due to increased crime and squalor.
Today, while crime may have become synonymous with Johannesburg in the minds of many people, things are steadily improving thanks to the city’s
new police force, the Metro Police, and the ubiquitous security cameras that now feature on almost every street corner. In the future the city should be a lot safer to visit.
The authorities are also in the throes of cleaning and improving the city center. In Newtown street names have been changed and are now named after contemporary
South African musicians and
singers as opposed to apartheid stalwarts, Mary Fitzgerald Square has been paved, and streets have been pedestrianized to form
attractive precincts.
The Columbus World Travel Guide has been published for 26 years and is sold in over 90 countries worldwide.
Related Johannesburg Content
Word Travels is a comprehensive travel guide covering hundreds of cities and holiday resorts in more than 125 countries.
Related South Africa Content
The Columbus World Travel Guide has been published for 26 years and is sold in over 90 countries worldwide.
Word Travels is a comprehensive travel guide covering hundreds of cities and holiday resorts in more than 125 countries.
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