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      Johannesburg 



 





Johannesburg (pronounced /jō-hān'ĭs-bûrg'/) is the largest and most populous city in South Africa. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa. The city is one of the 40 largest metropolitan areas in the world, it is Africa's most advanced city, and one of Africa's only two global cities, the other being Cairo according to the Globalization and World Cities group's 1999 inventory, which classified it as a gamma world city). While Johannesburg does not form one of South Africa's three capital cities, it does house the Constitutional Court – South Africa's highest court.

Johannesburg is the source of a large-scale gold and diamond trade, due to its location on the mineral-rich Witwatersrand range of hills. Johannesburg is also served by O.R. Tambo International Airport, the largest and busiest airport in Africa and a gateway for international air travel to and from the rest of southern Africa. According to the 2007 Community Survey, The population of the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Area is almost eight million. The population of the municipal city is almost 4 million. Johannesburg's land area of 1,645 square kilometres (635 sq mi) is very large when compared to other cities, resulting in a population density of 2,364 inhabitants per square kilometre (6,123/sq mi). Johannesburg also encompasses Soweto to the south west, a township that the apartheid government established to accommodate the large number of migrant workers. It should be noted that Johannesburg and Pretoria are beginning to act as one functional entity, connecting the province of Gauteng together and forming one Megacity of roughly 10 million people.

Gauteng (as a city) is growing rapidly, due to mass urbanisation that is a feature of many developing countries. According to the State of the Cities Report, the urban portion of Gauteng – comprised primarily of the cities of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni (the East Rand) and Tshwane (greater Pretoria) – will be a polycentric urban region with a projected population of some 14.6 million people by 2015, making it one of the largest cities in the world.

History The region surrounding Johannesburg was originally inhabited by San tribes Rock paintings. By the 1200s, groups of Nthu people started moving southwards from central Africa and encrouched on the indigenous San population. White trekboers started entering the area from the Cape Colony after 1860. Gold was discovered in the 1880s and triggered the gold rush.

Gold was initially discovered some 400 km to the east of present-day Johannesburg, in Barberton. Gold prospectors soon discovered that there were even richer gold reefs in the Witwatersrand. Gold was discovered at Langlaagte, Johannesburg in 1886.

Johannesburg was a dusty settlement some 90km from the Transvaal Republic capital which was Pretoria. The town was much the same as any small prospecting settlement, but, as word spread, people flocked to the area from all other regions of the country, as well as from North America, the United Kingdom and Europe. See Charles van Onselen: New Nineveh and New Babylon. As the value of control of the land increased, tensions developed between the Boer government in Pretoria and the British, culminating in the South African War. The Boers lost the war and control of the area was ceded to the British. Controversy surrounds the origin of the name, as there were any number of people with the name "Johannes" who were involved in the early history of the city. The principal clerk attached to the office of the surveyor-general, Johannes Rissik, Christiaan Johannes Joubert, member of the Volksraad and the Republic's chief of mining, Paul Kruger, President of the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek (Transvaal). Rissik and Joubert were members of a delegation sent to England to attain mining rights for the area. Joubert had a park in the city named after him and Rissik street is today a main street where the (now delapidated) Post Office and City Hall are located.

Currently the Johannesburg Metropolitan Council is implementing a large scale Inner City Revival project, leading to some business moving back to the inner city.

Crime

According to the Johannesburg Victim Survey (1993–1997) the crime most afflicting the city's residents between 1993 and 1997 was burglary, with nearly a quarter of the respondents (24%) reporting this crime to the survey. The second most frequently reported incidents were violent crimes: mugging and robbery (16.5%) and assault (15.5%). The vast majority of assaults were of a serious nature, with 84% involving the use of a weapon.

After the Group Areas Act was scrapped in the early 1990s, Johannesburg was affected by urban blight. Thousands of poor, mostly black, people, who had been forbidden to live in the city proper, moved into the city from surrounding black townships like Soweto. Many immigrants from economically beleaguered and war torn African nations flooded into South Africa, with Johannesburg the most Northerly major city and therein a logical choice. Crime levels rose, and especially the rate of violent crime. Many buildings were abandoned by landlords, especially in high-density areas, such as Hillbrow. Many corporations and institutions, including the stock exchange, moved their headquarters away from the city centre, to suburbs like Sandton. By the late 1990s, Johannesburg was rated as one of the most dangerous cities in the world.

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 include closed-circuit television on street corners. Statistics show that crime levels in Johannesburg have dropped as the economy has stabilised and begun to grow. In an effort to prepare Johannesburg for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, local government has enlisted the help of former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani to help bring down the crime rate, as the opening and closing matches of the tournament will be played in the city.