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Johannesburg

cities of South Africa

Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Jo'burg
Blason de Johannesbourg
Heraldic
Drapeau de Johannesbourg
Flag
Johannesbourg
Administration
Country Drapeau d'Afrique du Sud South Africa
Region Transvaal
Province Gauteng
Municipality Municipalities of Johannesburg
Mayor
Mandate
Geoff Makhubo (ANC)
2019-
Demographics
Gentile Johannesbourgeois
Population 4,434,827 hab. (2011)
Density 2,696 inches/km2
Geography
Coordinates 26° 12′ 16′ south, 28° 02′ 44′ east
Altitude 1,753 m
Area 164,500 ha = 1,645 km2
Location
Geolocation on the map: Gauteng
Voir sur la carte administrative de la zone Gauteng
City locator 14.svg
Johannesburg
Geolocation on the map: South Africa
Voir sur la carte administrative d'Afrique du Sud
City locator 14.svg
Johannesburg
Geolocation on the map: South Africa
Voir sur la carte topographique d'Afrique du Sud
City locator 14.svg
Johannesburg
Links
Website www.joburg.org.za

Johannesburg (in Afrikaans and English: Johannesburg, pronounced in Afrikaans: /j u ˈ a ɦ a n s b oe r /; in English: /d͡ ʒ ˈ h æ n ɪ s b ɜ /; in xhosa and zulu: eGoli) is a metropolis of South Africa, founded in 1886 in Transvaal. It is the capital of the province of Gauteng, the richest in the country. Johannesburg-Pretoria is one of the thirty largest metropolitan areas in the world, with more than twelve million inhabitants, and is one of the six world cities in Africa.

Located on the Witwatersrand gold deposit, Johannesburg is considered the country's economic capital; it is home to the South African stock exchange. The city is also host to the Constitutional Court, which has its headquarters in the Braamfontein district.

In 2000, it had approximately 710,000 inhabitants (4,434,827 inhabitants in the municipality), making it by far the most populated city in the country. With its agglomeration, it is the third most populated city in Africa. The city hosted the Earth Summit 2002, the second Earth Summit called the "Johannesburg Summit" for the associations and NGOs that held a summit parallel to that of the states, ten years after the "Rio Summit" of 1990.

Summary

  • 1 Toponymy
  • 2 History
    • 2.1 Boer period
    • 2.2 Within the South African Union
    • 2.3 Post-apartheid period
  • 1 Geography
    • 3.1 Situation
    • 3.2 Climate
  • 4 Demographics
  • 5 Administrative Organization
    • 5.1 Old Status
    • 5.2 New Status
    • 5.3 Mayors
  • 6 Urbanism
    • 6.1 Odonymia
    • 6.2 Suburbs
  • 7 Crime
  • 8 Economy
  • 9 Communications and media
  • 10 Architecture
  • 11 Parks
  • 12 Culture
    • 12.1 Museums
  • 13 Transport
    • 13.1 Airports
    • 13.2 Railway
    • 13.3 Gautrain
    • 13.4 Buses and taxis
    • 13.5 Motorways
  • 14 Education
  • 15 Places of worship
  • 16 Sports equipment
  • 17 International Relations
    • 17.1 Twinning
  • 18 People associated with the city
  • 19 Notes and References
  • 20 See Also
    • 20.1 Related Articles
    • 20.2 Filmography

Toponymy

The name "Johannesburg" means in Afrikaans and Dutch "the village (burg) of Johann". This first name refers to two characters from the South African Republic of Transvaal who played an important role in the founding of the city in 1886: Vice-President Christiaan Johannes Joubert and First Inspector General Johann Rissik.

The city of Johannesburg is locally known as Joburg, J'burg, The Wild City or Jozi. His Zulu name is eGoli which means "city of gold" (via gold), which gave his name to a famous television soap opera: Egoli: Place of Gold. Eddy Grant calls her Jo'anna in her song Gimme Hope Jo'anna.

History

The region around Johannesburg was originally inhabited by San hunters who used stone tools. It is proven that they lived there ten centuries ago. The ruins of the stone walls of the towns and villages of Sotho-Tswana are scattered around the parts of the ancient Transvaal in which Johannesburg is located.

By the mid-eighteenth century, the wider region was largely populated by various Sotho-Tswana communities (a language branch of speakers of Bantu), whose villages, towns, chiefdoms, and kingdoms stretch from present-day Botswana to the west today.

Many Sotho-Tswana towns and villages near Johannesburg were destroyed and their inhabitants were massacred during the wars that erupted during the expansion of the Zulu Kingdom (Mfecane) in the early nineteenth century.

From 1835 onwards, the first Boers, driven out by the British from the Cape region which they had occupied since the seventeenth century, began to flow during the Grand Trek.

Boer period

Johannesburg in 1896.

A tent camp is set up by Ignatius Ferreira in what will become Ferreirasdorp, the oldest part of the city, which in ten years becomes the main urban area of the Transvaal. The development of Johannesburg is linked to the discovery of gold in 1886 (hence its Zulu name: Goli means "the city of gold"). The city grew extremely rapidly, with the opening of a stock exchange, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, in particular, in 1887. In a decade, the city of Johannesburg had 100,000 inhabitants.

Like many mining towns in the late nineteenth century, Johannesburg was a rugged and disorganized place, populated by white miners from all continents, African tribes hired to do unskilled mining, African beer brewers who cooked and sold beer to black migrant workers, a huge number of European prostitutes, gangsters, impoverished Afrikaners, traders and other people. of "AmaWasha" zulus, which dominated the laundry work. As the value of land control increased, tensions arose between the Boer-dominated Transvaal government in Pretoria and the British, culminating in the Jameson Raid that led to the Doornkop fiasco in January 1896. During the Second Boer War (1899-1902) British forces led by Marshal Frederick Sleigh Roberts occupied the town on 30 May 1900 after a series of battles southwest of its then-boundary, near the present Krugersdorp.

The fighting took place at Gatsrand Pass (near Zakariyya Park) on May 27, north of Vanwyksrust - the current Nancefield, Eldorado Park and Naturena - the next day, leading to a massive infantry attack on the current Chiawelo and Senaoane water crest. May 29

During the war, many black African miners left Johannesburg, causing a labor shortage, which the mines compensated with labor from China, especially from southern China. After the war, they were replaced by black workers, but many Chinese stayed behind, creating the Chinese community in Johannesburg, which during the apartheid period was not legally classified as Asian, but as Colored. The population in 1904 was 155,642, of which 83,363 were white (53%).

Within the South African Union

Aerial view of Johannesburg in 1911. At the top of the photo, Joubert Parc and Park Station
Pritchard Street circa 1940

In 1917, Johannesburg became the headquarters of the Anglo American company founded by Ernest Oppenheimer, which eventually became one of the largest companies in the world, dominating both the gold and diamond mines in South Africa. Major real estate investments took place in the 1930s (Art Deco buildings), after the abandonment of the gold standard. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the Hillbrow neighborhood grew strongly. In 1951, under the new apartheid laws, the township of Soweto was designed to accommodate only black residents. New highways have encouraged the development of suburbs north of the city. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, skyscrapers (including the Carlton Center and the Southern Life Center) occupied the skyline of the central business district.

In March 1960, Johannesburg witnessed numerous anti-apartheid protests in response to the Sharpeville massacre. In July 1963, South African police raided a house in the outskirts of Johannesburg, Rivonia, where nine members of the banned African National Congress (ANC) were arrested on charges of sabotage. Among the nine arrested were an Indo-South African, two white and six black, one of whom was the future President Nelson Mandela.

On June 16, 1976, protests erupted in Soweto following a government decree that black schoolchildren be educated in Afrikaans, not English. After police shot at the protests, anti-apartheid riots started in Soweto and spread to the Johannesburg region. Around 575 people, mostly black, were killed in the Soweto riots in 1976. Between 1984 and 1986, South Africa was beset by a series of national demonstrations, strikes and anti-apartheid riots, and the black townships around Johannesburg were the scene of the most fierce battles between police and anti-apartheid protesters.

Post-apartheid period

Park Station in downtown in 2009.

The city center (Central Business District) began to decline in the 1980's and 1990's, owing to high crime rates, redirecting capital from property speculators to suburbs. The Sandton Shopping Center was opened in 1973, followed by the Rosebank Mall in 1976 and Eastgate in 1979.

On March 28, 1994, in the run-up to the 1994 elections, some fifty Inkatha Freedom Party protesters were killed by ANC guards during the Shell House massacre.

In the 2000s, the level of crime in Johannesburg fell, with the economy stabilizing and beginning to grow. Between 2001 and 2006, Rand 9 billion (US$1.2 billion) was invested in the city center. Additional investments of around Rand 10 billion (US$1.5 billion) are expected in the city center alone by 2010, not to mention development projects directly related to the 2010 World Cup. To prepare for Johannesburg's 2010 FIFA World Cup, the local government has called on Rudy Giuliani, a former mayor of New York, to help bring down the crime rate, as the tournament's opening and closing matches have taken place in the city.

On May 12, 2008, a series of riots began in the township of Alexandra in the northeast of Johannesburg when residents attacked migrants from Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, killing two and injuring 40. The riots triggered the xenophobic attacks of 2008. New riots in 2019 were similar in nature and origin to the 2008 xenophobic riots.

Geography

Situation

The largest city in the former Transvaal region, Johannesburg has been located in the new province of Gauteng since 1994.

Since Johannesburg was founded on particularly arid land following the discovery of a gold deposit, it is not crossed by any natural water stream, and has no drinking water nearby. This has forced the South African government to design a complex system for delivering drinking water from Lesotho to the heart of the metropolis.

The city is located some 31 miles south of Pretoria, the country's capital. South Africa has three capitals: Pretoria, administrative capital, Cape Town, parliamentary capital and Bloemfontein, legal capital.

Climate

Johannesburg has an oceanic climate tempered by its 1,650 m of altitude. It enjoys quite mild temperatures in the day (around 28° to 30° in summer and 10° to 20° in winter) but quite cold in the evening (around 15°C in summer and can go below zero in winter).

Johannesburg Weather Survey
Month jan. Feb. March April May June Jul August sep. oct. Nov Dec. year
Average minimum temperature (°C) 14.7 14.1 13.1 10.3 7.2 4.1 4.1 6.2 9.3 11.2 12.7 13.9 10.1
Average Temperature (°C) 19.5 19 18 15.3 12.6 9.6 10 12.5 15.9 17.1 17.9 19 15.5
Average Maximum Temperature (°C) 25.6 25.1 24 21.1 18.9 16 16.7 19.4 22.8 23.8 24.2 25.2 21.9
Precipitation (mm) 125 90 91 54 13 9 4 6 27 72 117 105 713
Source: Johannesburg/Jan Smuts Climate Normals 1961-1990


Demographics

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White urban culture.
A resident of Soweto.

According to the 2001 census, the population of the Johannesburg municipality is more than 3 million inhabitants for a territory of 1,644 km2 representing a density of 1,962 inhabitants /km²). Johannesburg alone has around 710,000 inhabitants. Its agglomeration covering a large part of the province of Gauteng now extends to Pretoria, with nearly 10,000,000 inhabitants, making it the fourth African agglomeration after Lagos, Kinshasa and Cairo.

The black population is approximately 73%, the white population is 16%, the Métis population is 6% and the Asian population is 4%.

By the end of apartheid, in the 1990's, whites had retreated to the northern suburbs. Soweto, the symbolic township, has become a refuge for the black middle class. The poorest converged to the inner city: Hillbrow, Berea or Yeoville. Thousands of poor families or African migrants seeking work crowd into slums but live daily at the mercy of eviction.

The city has 42% of its population under the age of 24 and 37% of its population unemployed. Of these, 91% are black.

Only 0.7% of the working population works in mines (compared to 19% in the services sector and 18% in the financial sector).

The most widely spoken language is Nguni (34%) followed by South Sotho (26%), English (19%) and Afrikaans (8%).

There are 7% illiterate, compared to 29% of graduates of the only secondary school (high school), while 14% of the population has attended university.

The city's population is predominantly Christian (53%), compared to 24% of atheists and agnostics, 14% of various African churches, 3% of Muslims, 1% of Jews and Hindus.

In May 2008, Johannesburg witnessed violent anti-immigrant riots in slums that killed more than 50 people, left thousands homeless and displaced thousands of illegal immigrants.

The population of the entire Johannesburg metropolitan area is 8 million, making it one of the 35 most populated metropolitan areas in the world.

Urban population in 2001

In the census of 9 October 2001, the populations of the different urban areas of the Johannesburg municipality were as follows:

urban area urban population 2001
Johannesburg 894,715
Soweto 772,148
Orange Farm 163,778
Roodepoort 147,308
Alexandra 139,484
Meadowlands 128,460
Randburg 123,109
Sandton 118,259
Ivory Park 103,371
Diepklof 93,638
Diepsloot 47,494
Midrand 28,500
Rabie Ridge 22,193
Tshepisong 20,271
Ebony Park 16,206
Poortjie 9,469
Mayabuye 8,864
Wheeler's Farm 7,948
Klipfontein View 3,144
Vlakfontein 821
Kempton Park 685
Total JOHANNESBOURG 2,855,379

Source: Superweb tool: interactive stats SA.

 

Administrative Organization

View of Nelson Mandela Bridge and Johannesburg city center from the central district of Braamfontein.

Old Status

Prior to 1994, the city of Johannesburg was divided administratively between eleven local authorities (seven white and four black or mixed-race). The seven white administrations self-financed at 90% and spent $93 per person, while the four black administrations self-financed at only 10% and spent only $15 per person.

The municipal demarcation of the city of Johannesburg was redefined in 1995 to include black neighborhoods and a post-apartheid municipal council was created. It adopts the motto "one city, one taxpayer" to mark its goal of treating the unequal distribution of income and taxes. The incomes of traditionally white and prosperous neighborhoods must be provided to the poorest neighborhoods. The city is divided into four districts, each with territorial autonomy and local authority under the control of a metropolitan central council. In addition, ridings are being changed to include wealthy neighborhoods like Sandton and Randburg, and poor neighboring townships like Soweto.

In 1999, Johannesburg appointed a manager for the city to improve its poor financial situation. The latter, together with the city council, is developing a strategic reform plan called "Igoli 2002". The city went from quasi-insolvency to a surplus of Rand 153 million (USD 23.6 million).

New Status

The city of Johannesburg is now being merged with the municipality created in 2000 and comprises eleven administrative regions.

Administrative regions of Johannesburg.

Before 2000, the mayor's office was mostly ceremonial. He was elected for one year among the councilors. Since 2000, it has really become an executive function and its holder, proposed by the provincial leadership of the majority party, is elected by the municipal council.

In the municipal elections on 1 March 2006, the ANC again won with 62% of the vote (136 seats), compared to more than one third of the votes for the Democratic Alliance (59 seats). In the 2011 municipal elections, the ANC was again the winner and chose Mpho Parks Tau (ANC) councilor to succeed Masondo. In August 2016, a non-ANC candidate, Herman Mashaba (Democratic Alliance), became mayor of the Johannesburg municipality, supported by six opposition parties (totaling 144 out of 270 seats), to block the ANC candidate, who came ahead in the municipal elections but did not obtain an absolute majority of the seats (45) % of the votes against 38 % in the DA). This is the first time since 1995 and the first time since the creation of the current unified metropolis in 2000 that the ANC does not control Johannesburg. In November 2019, Mashaba resigned. The ANC took over the city council and elected Geoff Makhubo on 4 December.

Mayors

List of successive mayors
Period Identity Label Quality
1995 2000 Isaac Mogase    
December 5, 2000 May 26, 2011 Amos Masondo ANC  
May 26, 2011 August 22, 2016 Mpho Parks Tau ANC  
August 22, 2016 November 27, 2019 Herman Mashaba DA  
December 4, 2019 In progress Geoff Makhubo ANC  
Details of the administrative regions of the municipality
  • Region 1: Diepsloot, Kya Sand
  • Region 2: Midrand, Ivory Park
  • Region 3: Bryanston, Douglasdale, Fourways, Randburg, Sandton, Strijdompark, Sunninghill, Woodmead
  • Region 4: Northcliff, Rosebank, Parktown
  • Region 5: Roodepoort, Constantia Kloof, Northgate
  • Region 6: Doornkop, Soweto, Dobsonville, Protea Glen
  • Region 7: Alexandra, Wynberg, Bruma
  • Region 8: Inner City
  • Region 9: Johannesburg South, City Deep, Aeroton, Southgate
  • Region 10: Meadowlands, Diepkloof
  • Region 11: Orange Farm, Ennerdale, Lenasia
 

Urbanism

Johannesburg has been undergoing renovations since the beginning of the 2000s, motivated by the organization of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

The most visible facet of this transformation is a reconquest of the city center by investors and the wealthiest. Empty and dilapidated office buildings are transformed into luxurious apartments and lofts. One of the symbols of this renewal is the new look at the Ponte City Tower; good address in the 1970s, it is gradually being abandoned to illicit activities and crime; in the 1990s, there was even talk of turning it into a prison, before returning to a more classic renovation project. The city tries to attract a rich clientele of white and black people, who are on their way to regaining the center of Johannesburg, after major renovations.

The municipality is encouraging this regenialization movement, also with a focus on safety. Though not perfect, the crime rate (or feeling of crime) seems to be declining. More than 300 security cameras help the police effectively, scrutinizing the entire city center and most hot spots. In order to clean up the city center, the city has forced the demolished buildings of their inhabitants to be evacuated by force. The latter cannot return once evicted, as the buildings have since been transformed into luxurious accommodation with unaffordable rent. The poor, mostly black, are forced into exile in dilapidated suburbs.

Odonymia

In the 21st century, the city experienced many changes in its name as to its streets.

Street Name Change
Original Names Street names modified in the 21st century Neighborhood/Suburbs
DF Malan Drive Beyers Naudé Drive Auckland Park, Melville, Roosevelt Park, Northcliff, Blackheath
Hofmeyr Street Richard Baloyi Street Alexandra
London Road Vincent Tshabalala Road Alexandra
Roosevelt Street Alfred Nzo Street Alexandra
Rooth Street Josias Madzunya Street Alexandra
Selborne Street Reverend Sam Buti Street Alexandra
Vasco da Gama Street Florence Moposho Street Alexandra
Lion Crescent Jape Vilankulu Crescent Alexandra
Harrow Road Joe Slovo Road Berea, Yeoville
Sauer Street Pixley Ka Isaka Seme street CBD
Bree Street Lillian Ngoyi street CBD
Jeppe Street Rahima Moosa street CBD
President Street Helen Joseph street CBD
Noord Street Sophie of Bruyn street CBD
Avenue Road Dolly Rathebe Road Newton
Becker Street Gerard Sekoto Street Newton
Bezuidenhout Street Miriam Makeba Street Newton
Goch Street Henry Nxumalo Street Newton
Minaar Street Mahlathini Street Newton
Park Road Barney Simon Road Newton
Pim Street Gwigwi Mrwebi Street Newton
Sydenham Street Noria Mabasa Street Newton
West Street Ntemi Piliso Street Newton
Wolhuter Street Margaret Mcingana Street Newton
Thabeta Street Hastings Ndlovu Street Orlando West
Hendrik Verwoerd Drive Bram Fischer Drive Randburg
Hans Strijdom Drive Malibongwe Drive Randburg
Old Potch Road Chris Hani Road Soweto
Roodepoort Road Elias Motsoaledi Road Soweto
Allum Extension - Broadway Extension - Kitchener Avenue - Bezuidenhout Avenue - Market Street - Main Road - Central Road - Paarlshoop Street - Deville Street - Newclare Road - Maraisburg Road - 10th Road - Lola Street - Kathleen Street - Hamberg Road - Hoofd Street, Main Reef Road Albertina Sisulu Road Bruma, Judith Paarl, Bezuidenhout Valley, Kensington, De Wetshof Extension 1 & 2, Fairview, Industrial and Industrial Extension 1, Johannesburg CBD, Mayfair, Mayfair West
 

Suburbs

The suburbs reflect the diversity of Johannesburg. To the north are the upscale districts represented by the business center in Sandton, Melrose, Four ways, Rivonia...

In the southwest, the famous Soweto township (SOuth WEst TOwnship) is a legacy of apartheid.

Crime

The building of the Johannesburg Court of Appeal.

Johannesburg is one of the safest cities in the world in peacetime, especially in the city center. The city is often cited in studies for having one of the highest homicide rates in the world. There's an average of 20 murders a day. Most of the population in the area is from the miserable townships, which also have high crime rates.

Middle- and upper-class people live in houses protected by high fences, equipped with barbed wire, electric wires, and monitored by private security companies. In poor neighborhoods like Hillbrow and surrounding townships, violence is high. Brick houses are not always protected by barbed wire fences. Steel sheet houses are generally unprotected.

Economy

In the 21st century, mining is no longer the main sector of the local economy. The expansion of services, as well as the construction of an international airport, has made Johannesburg a city of prime importance for African and global trade. Johannesburg (Gauteng) accounts for 40% of South Africa's GDP.

The legacy of apartheid has sustained a housing crisis for black people who are seriously affected by unemployment, which the government says is around 40%, fueling resentment against immigrants who are accused of raking jobs, lowering the cost of labor, and even increasing crime. Thabo Mbeki's government, which succeeded Nelson Mandela, underestimated the crisis in neighboring Zimbabwe. This crisis has precipitated three million illegal immigrants across the border. Income disparities and racial tensions create major insecurity in the downtown, deserted by white people, and abandoned by investors. This city center is currently trying to restructure itself around a new administrative and cultural district dedicated to tourism.

Communications and media

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Architecture

  • Johannesburg Town Hall.

  • High Court of South Africa, local division of Gauteng in 1988

  • Post of Rissik Street in 1988.

  • Rissik Street Post in 2011.

The city center (formerly the Central Business District, CBD) consists of around a hundred Art Deco buildings from the 1930s and 1940s. The most important are on Main Street, Commissioner Street (Federal Hotel and Broadcast House), Loveday and Commissioner (Union Castle Building). A dozen other Art Deco buildings could soon be demolished to make way for new administrative complexes. These are the buildings located on Beyers Naudé Square (formerly DF Malan) that had housed the Rand Water Board, Colonial Bank and Volkskas Bank.

Eight kilometers south of Johannesburg, instead of a former mine well operated from 1887 to 1971, is Gold Reef City, an amusement park based on the atmosphere of the city at the beginning of the 20th century when mining was expanding.

Parks

Johannesburg also has a 54-hectare zoo, which changed from a small public park in 1904 to a large park; its entrance is located on one of the most important avenue, which crosses Johannesburg from north to south, Jan Smuts Avenue. Opposite the zoo is a large park surrounding an artificial lake, Zoo Lake.

Culture

In 2004, South African artist Guy Tillim produced a series of photographs illustrating the abandonment of the city, entitled Jo'burg (2004).

Museums

Many museums are worth visiting (not an exhaustive list):

  • The Joburg Art Museum, (Joburg Art Gallery), one of the largest art galleries in the subcontinent.
  • The Museum Africa, mainly built around South African history and culture.
  • The Apartheid Museum, opened in 2001.
  • The James Hall Museum of Transport, the most comprehensive museum on transportation in South Africa.
  • The Hector Pieterson Memorial and Museum, collecting, retaining and interpreting documents relating to the memory, heritage and history of the national uprisings, beginning in 1976. Since its creation in 2002, it has developed a diverse collection of oral testimonies, historical documents and material culture related to the uprisings.
  • The Bensusan Museum of Photography, to discover the history, techniques and photographic material, but also the work of the photographers, especially concerning South Africa.
  • The Geology Museum and the Bleloch Geological Museum, to discover, in addition to the history of the planet, the geological heritage of South Africa.
  • The Origins Center, a museum presenting the history of the origins of mankind, but also of rock art in South Africa, located within the University of the Witwatersrand.
  • The Workers' Museum, whose exhibition, centered on the period 1900-1970, reveals the difficulties faced by migrant workers.
  • The Constitution Hill Museum, site of the famous Old Fort prison. The old cells were transformed into a museum; it is also possible to visit the old fort, the Constitutional Court and an art collection.
  • The museum of military history offers, among other things, a visit to a large collection of weapons and war vehicles.
  • Mandela House, Soweto.
  • The SAB World of Beer, museum of South African Breweries (brewery).
  • The ABSA Group Museum, dedicated to the history of the banking giant ABSA and the development of the currency in South Africa.
  • The Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research, also known as the James Kitching Gallery, a small museum of paleontology, located within the University of the Witwatersrand
  • The CE Moss Herbarium, a rich botanical museum with more than 100,000 specimens, located within the University of the Witwatersrand.
  • The Anthropology Museum and Resource Center, an anthropological museum located within the University of the Witwatersrand.
  • The Wits University Zoology Museum, the only natural history museum in Johannesburg, located within the University of the Witwatersrand.
  • The Adler Museum of Medicine, a museum of medicine that houses a remarkable collection of medical and pharmacological souvenirs, located within the University of Witwatersrand.

Transport

Johannesburg is connected to all major cities in the country by air or road.

Airports

OR Tambo International Airport (which was named Jan Smuts from 1952 to 1995) is the main gateway for foreign travelers to South Africa. With a state-of-the-art terminal, it has seen nine million passengers pass by a year, making it Africa's first airport. Since October 27, 2006, Johannesburg International Airport has been named Oliver Tambo. This decision, which followed a long controversy, was perceived by the opponents as a challenge to the government's argument in 1995 that the South African airports should now be given only geographical names.

The national airline South African Airways, with a large fleet of large carriers, has a very large global network to Europe, the Far East and Australia. It also serves several American cities, such as Washington and New York. Its subsidiary, South African Airlink, serves, like other low-cost companies, all South African cities.

The city is also connected to Johannesburg-Lanseria airport.

Railway

The Johannesburg City Rail connects central Johannesburg to Soweto, Pretoria, and most of the satellite towns along the Witwatersrand. It carries a large number of passengers every day.

However, its infrastructure dates back to the late 19th century and covers only the oldest areas in the south of the city. Johannesburg grew up largely in the north and none of the northern areas, including the business district, nor those of Sandton, Midrand, Randburg and Rosebank, are served by the railway.

Gautrain

Detailed article: Gautrain.

The Gautrain, a fast rail link, is designed to relieve traffic on the N1 motorway between Johannesburg and Pretoria, which has a daily traffic of 160,000 vehicles. Construction began in October 2006; the inauguration took place on june 8, 2010, a few days before the start of the football world cup. It connects Johannesburg to Pretoria, Sandton and Johannesburg International Airport. It has underground and aerial stations. It crosses Joubert Park, Rosebank, Sandton, Midrand and enters Pretoria. It is the first innovative railway system built in South Africa since 1977.

Buses and taxis

Johannesburg is served by a fleet of buses operated by Metrobus, a business association. It has a park of about 550 single buses, as well as double-decker buses, providing 84 different routes. This includes 200 modern buses (150 imperial buses and 50 single ones), manufactured by Volvo, Scania and Marcopolo/Brasa in 2002. The Metrobus fleet carries about 20 million passengers per year. The company also operates a number of open-top buses in the City Slicker, using them to make guided tours around the city.

In addition, there are a number of private operators who focus mainly on long distance bus routes and group trips.

There are also minibus taxis in Johannesburg which are the most popular mode of transport for the majority of the population. These taxis are often of poor quality and drivers are inexperienced. However, in view of the high demand, they are the main means of transport for the less favored.

Motorways

Johannesburg is at the heart of a complex motorway network that connects it to the capital Pretoria in 25 minutes, the country's second city, Cape Town, and the parliamentary capital, Bloemfontein, by the N1. The coastal towns of the Indian Ocean such as Durban, Port Elizabeth or East London are served by the N2. Other destinations, safari places, national parks, nature reserves... are located at the end of secondary highways.

Johannesburg, like Los Angeles, is a young city and suitable for private car transport. It lacks an adequate system of public transport. A significant number of the city's residents depend on taxis or informal minibuses.

The fact that Johannesburg was not built around a navigable river conditioned the mode of transport inside and outside the city; the majority of the transit of people and goods is by road.

The Johannesburg beltway is made up of three motorways that converge on the city, forming a 50-mile loop around it: the eastern N3 deviation, which connects Johannesburg to Durban; the western N1 deviation, which connects Johannesburg to Pretoria and Cape Town; the southern N12 deviation, which connects Johannesburg to Witbank and Kimberley. The device is frequently congested. The Gillooly interchange is considered the most frequented in the southern hemisphere.

Education

Grand Hall of the East Campus of the University of the Witwatersrand.

Of international renown, the University of the Witwatersrand (or Wits), established in Johannesburg since 1904, is a center of higher education offering medical, scientific and artistic training; it attracts students at the regional and national levels. The lessons are taught in English.

The University of Johannesburg was founded in 2005 as a result of the reunion of the Soweto and East Rand campuses of Vista University with the Rand Afrikaans University, and its merger with the Tecknikon Witwatersrand. The lessons are taught equally in English and Afrikaans, the result of a long struggle under apartheid to deliver education in English at the expense of Afrikaans, a language exclusively white and half-timbered in tradition.

Johannesburg is one of the few cities to have an epigraphic study center, whose work is based on the study of South African engravings. She takes part in the so-called epigraphic competitions that bring together the different schools of the same kind.

Primary and secondary education is organized in 12 years and is completed by obtaining a certificate of validation of acquired, similar to the French baccalaureate. The school year runs from February to November, and the big holidays cover December-January, summer. The priority of South African education is simultaneous learning of languages, science and sport. The uniform is required. Tuition is paid and not mixed.

Johannesburg also includes a large network of international schools and high schools supported by various countries including France, Germany, Portugal, the United States, Australia, Israel and Libya.

Places of worship

Among places of worship, there are mainly Christian churches and temples: Christian Church of Zion, Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa, Assemblies of God, Southern African Baptist Union (World Baptist Alliance), Methodist Church of Southern Africa (World Methodist Council), Anglican Church of Southern Africa (Anglican Communion), Presbyterian Church of Africa (World Communion of Reformed Churches), Archdiocese of Johannesburg (Catholic Church) .. There are also Muslim mosques and Hindu temples.

Sports equipment

The rugby stadium in XV Ellis Park is located in Johannesburg. The World Cup final was held there in 1995 with the Springboks winning over the All Blacks. President Nelson Mandela, the first black person in South Africa, presented the trophy to South African captain Francois Pienaar. Nelson Mandela was dressed in a national team jersey for the occasion with the captain's number 6.

The Soccer City stadium hosted the 2010 World Cup final on Sunday, July 11. It can accommodate nearly 95,000 spectators.

A 250 Series professional tennis tournament is held annually.

International Relations

Related article: List of twin cities in South Africa.

Twinning

The city of Johannesburg is twinned with:

  • Drapeau du Ghana Accra, Ghana
  • Drapeau de l'Éthiopie Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
  • Drapeau du Royaume-Uni Birmingham (United Kingdom)
  • Drapeau de la République populaire de Chine Xi'an (China)
  • Drapeau du Royaume-Uni London (United Kingdom)
  • Drapeau de la république démocratique du Congo Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of the Congo)
  • Drapeau du Mozambique Matola, Mozambique
  • Drapeau des États-Unis New York, United States
  • Drapeau de la Namibie Windhoek, Namibia
  • Drapeau de la France Val-de-Marne (France)

People associated with the city

Alphabetical order of the surname.

  • Peter Abrahams, English-language South African novelist (1919-2017).
  • Kevin Anderson, tennis player
  • Cyril Axelrod, deaf-blind Catholic priest.
  • Neil Bloomkamp, director of District 9, Elysium and Chappie.
  • Johnny Clegg died there on July 16, 2019.
  • Michael Coetzee, rugbyman.
  • Sharlto Copley, actor born in 1973.
  • Mary Crockett, pastor born in 1962
  • Ernie Els, a golfer born in 1969.
  • Dean Geyer, actor born in 1986.
  • Trevor Hall, rugbyman.
  • Wikus van Heerden, rugbyman.
  • Cariba Heine, Australian actress: she was born there in 1988.
  • Robert Hunter, a former South African cycling runner, is currently the sports director of the Cannondale-Garmin team.
  • Butch James, rugbyman.
  • Peter de Klerk, a car driver, died there in 2015.
  • Olaf Kolzig, former NHL goalkeeper born in 1970.
  • Shannon Kook-Chun, actor, was born there in 1987.
  • Charl McLeod, rugbyman.
  • Nelson Mandela 1st President of the Republic of South Africa died there on December 5, 2013.
  • Thuli Madonsela, a lawyer and mediator of the Republic of South Africa, was born there in 1962.
  • Barbara Masekela, born in a township of the city, teacher, poet, activist and South African ambassador.
  • Monica Mason, dancer and dance teacher born in 1941
  • Dave Matthews, musician and singer born in 1967.
  • Fiona Melrose, a South African novelist born in Johannesburg in 1973.
  • Steve Nash, a basketball player born in 1974.
  • Lauretta Ngcobo, a novelist, died there in 2015.
  • Robyn Orlin, the contemporary dance choreographer, was born there in 1955.
  • Joyce Piliso-Seroke, a South African feminist, was born there in 1933.
  • Colleen Piketh, born there on December 26, 1972, is an international South African bakery player.
  • Sasha Pieterse, actress, model, singer and dancer born in 1996.
  • Jackie Pretorius, a car driver, died there in 2009.
  • Tabita Rezaire contemporary artist and professor of feminist yoga
  • Lindy Rodwell, a zoologist, was born there in 1962.
  • Jonathan "JR" Rotem, American producer: he was born there in 1975.
  • Seether, rock band.
  • Doug Serrurier, a car driver, died there in 2006.
  • Troye Sivan, singer, actor and YouTubeur.
  • Phyllis Spira, a dancer, was born there in 1948.
  • Crisjan Van der Westhuizen, rugbyman.
  • Jake White, rugby coach born in 1963.
  • Justine Waddell, an actress born in 1976.

Notes and References

  1. (en) [1]South African Statistics
  2. Pronunciation in Afrikaans transcribed phonemically according to the API standard.
  3. Pronunciation in standard English transcribed phonemically according to the API standard.
  4. Louis Deroy and Marianne Mulon, Dictionary of Place Names, Le Robert, 1994 (ISBN 285036195X )
  5. (en) "How was Johannesburg named?", at joburg.org.za.
  6. "Johannesburg: equity and water, a geographical study — Geoconfluences", on geoconfluences.ens-lyon.fr (accessed January 7, 2016)
  7. Cwb climate
  8. Fabienne Pompey, "Xenophobic attacks are increasing in the slums of Johannesburg", in Le Monde du 05-2008, [read online]
  9. South Africa: thousands of foreigners flee racist attacks "Archived Copy" (September 6, 2008 version on the Internet Archive) AFP report of May 19, 2008
  10. "South Africa: the economic capital of Johannesburg moves to the opposition", on RFI
  11. (en) "Victory for DA as Herman Mashaba is elected Mayor of Johannesburg", on EWN, August 22, 2016
  12. "South Africa: Johannesburg Town Hall returns to the hands of the ANC", on Jeune Afrique, 5 December 2019
  13. New street names celebrate Joburg's shared past ... and future, September 16, 2014
  14. Sir Julius Jeppe (1859-1929) was a businessman and philanthropist who made a fortune in mining and real estate before being anoblized in 1922 for his role in the development of Johannesburg. In the suburbs of Johannesburg, Jeppestown and the Jeppe Boys High School, located in Kensington, bear its name.
  15. Former anti-apartheid activist and trade unionist from the Indian Transvaal community
  16. Sophie de Bruyn, a member of the colored community, participated in the 1956 women's march which took place in front of Union Buildings in Pretoria. Founding member of the South African Congress of Trade Unions, she became a parliamentarian, vice-president of the Gauteng Legislative Assembly and member of the Gender Equality Commission
  17. Hastings Ndlovu was a student of Orlando North Secondary School who was one of the leaders in the Soweto riots in 1976, in which he was fatally injured by the police. He was 17 years old.
  18. Ma Sisulu's name to be on 18 Joburg streets, IOL, September 10, 2008
  19. City honors MaSisulu, an activist par excellence, June 28, 2013
  20. "Johannesburg violent city", on geopolis.francetvinfo.fr, http://geopolis.francetvinfo.fr/ (accessed December 27, 2015)
  21. Claire Guillot, "Apartheid made me a photographer", Le Monde, January 17, 2009 (accessed November 3, 2016)
  22. http://www.joburg.org.za/
  23. Britannica, South Africa, britannica.com, USA, accessed 28 July 2019
  24. "Decentralized cooperation in South Africa", on ambafrance-rsa.org, 2013 — Website of the French Embassy in South Africa.

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