60 Fun Facts About Johannesburg

What is Johannesburg's Zulu name, which refers to its founding mineral?

The city is also known colloquially as Jozi, Joburg or 'the City of Gold'; the Xhosa form is eGoli.

Johannesburg is the capital of which South African province?

It is the country's wealthiest province, and the city alone produces 16 per cent of South Africa's GDP.

Which of South Africa's highest institutions sits in Johannesburg?

Parliament sits in Cape Town and the executive in Pretoria; the Supreme Court of Appeal is in Bloemfontein.

What was the population of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality at the 2022 census?

The wider metropolitan area held about 15.1 million people, one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world.

The name Soweto is an abbreviation of what?

The collective name for the townships was chosen through a competition and officially adopted by the city council in 1963.

In which year did the city council officially adopt the name Soweto?

A competition to find a collective name had been launched in 1959, and William Carr had first proposed one in 1949.

Who first discovered a Witwatersrand gold reef, in June 1884 on the farm Vogelstruisfontein?

Rhodes rode up from Kimberley to see for himself, stayed two nights in Bantjes's camp and bought his first refined gold for £3,000.

How much did Cecil Rhodes pay Bantjes in 1884 for the first pure refined Witwatersrand gold?

It was the first commercial transaction in Witwatersrand gold; Rhodes and Sir Joseph Robinson had ridden 400 km from Kimberley to check the rumours.

George Harrison and George Walker are credited with finding the Main Reef outcrop in 1886 on which farm?

Harrison, an Australian, did not stay long in the area that became Johannesburg.

Bantjes's Kromdraai Gold Mine, worked from 1881, lay in which area, now a World Heritage Site?

The same landscape offered a different discovery: fossils of the early ancestors of humankind.

Johann Rissik and Christiaan Joubert, credited as the source of the city's name, were involved in what?

Precise records of the name's choice were lost; the first government official in the area, Johannes Meyer, is another candidate.

What was Johannesburg's first neighbourhood, surveyed by Jos de Villiers in October 1886?

The name Johannesburg was first used on 3 October 1886, and within ten years the city held 100,000 people.

The original miners' camp, led informally by Col Ignatius Ferreira, became which present-day suburb?

The tented camp in the Fordsburg dip had 3,000 people by 1887 before the Transvaal government surveyed it as Ferreira's Township.

Some mines near Johannesburg reach how deep?

They are among the deepest in the world; at one point the Witwatersrand produced forty per cent of the planet's gold.

At its peak, what share of the world's gold came from the Witwatersrand?

Gold mining no longer takes place inside the city limits, though most mining houses still keep their headquarters there.

What does 'Witwatersrand' mean in English?

Early settlers noticed glistening rocks running with water on the ridges; another theory credits the sheen of the quartzite after rain.

What does 'fontein', ending many farm names around the city, mean in the local Dutch-derived language?

Braamfontein, Doornfontein and Zandfontein are examples; most of the springs are now covered in concrete and canalised.

The Witwatersrand ridge marks the watershed between which two rivers?

The north of the city drains via the Jukskei River and the south, including the old CBD, via the Klip River.

Johannesburg sits on the Highveld plateau at what elevation?

The altitude keeps temperatures mild, with January maximums averaging 25.6 °C, but pushes the summer UV index to an extreme 14–16.

Which of these dates saw snow settle up to 10 cm in Johannesburg's southern suburbs?

Snow is rare; other 21st-century falls came on 7 August 2012 and 10 July 2023.

What is the lowest temperature ever recorded in Johannesburg, on 13 June 1979?

The lowest daytime maximum, 1.5 °C, came on 19 June 1964; winter nights regularly bring frost.

Roughly how many trees are estimated to grow in Johannesburg?

About 1.2 million line pavements and 4.8 million stand in private gardens.

The Johannesburg Botanical Garden is in which suburb?

It is maintained, with the city's parks and zoo, by Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo.

The Jameson Raid ended in fiasco in January 1896 at which place?

Tension between the Boer government in Pretoria and the British over the goldfields led on to the Second Boer War three years later.

Which British commander's forces occupied Johannesburg on 30 May 1900 during the Second Boer War?

The fighting took place to the south-west of the city, in areas that are now Chiawelo, Senaoane and Eldorado Park.

To ease a labour shortage during the Boer War, the mines brought in workers from which country?

Many stayed on, founding a community that under apartheid was legally classified not as 'Asian' but as 'Coloured'.

Which corporation, founded by Ernest Oppenheimer, made Johannesburg its headquarters in 1917?

It grew into one of the world's largest companies, dominating South African gold and diamond mining.

Soweto was intended to house how many people when it was built for black mineworkers?

It soon held ten times that number, and by 1989 its population was thought to equal or exceed Johannesburg's.

In June 1955 the Congress of the People adopted the Freedom Charter in which part of Soweto?

Walter Sisulu Square now marks the site.

Police arrested nine ANC members including Mandela in which Johannesburg suburb in July 1963?

The resulting trial made Mandela a national figure; the accused admitted planning sabotage against the city's hydro-electric system.

The accused in the 1963 trial admitted planning to blow up what, in order to shut down the gold mines?

Mandela argued that non-violent resistance had been tried and had failed, leaving no other choice.

The 1976 Soweto uprising began as a protest against schooling black children in which language?

About 575 people were killed as the rioting spread across greater Johannesburg.

Roughly how many people were killed in the Soweto uprising of 1976?

Twenty-three died on the first day alone, when police opened fire on 10,000 students marching to Orlando Stadium.

Which schoolboy killed on the first day of the 1976 Soweto uprising became its symbol, with a museum in his name?

Twenty-one of the twenty-three killed that day were black; two were white, including the humanitarian Melville Edelstein.

Soweto's Vilakazi Street is the only street to have housed which two Nobel Peace laureates?

Soweto TV's studios are on the same street.

Which suburb is known as 'Africa's richest square mile'?

A formerly whites-only area, it is now one of several business districts alongside Rosebank, Roodepoort and the original CBD.

Which shopping centre opened in 1973, part of the suburban mall wave that drained the CBD?

Rosebank Mall followed in 1976 and Eastgate in 1979.

The 2008 xenophobic riots that spread nationwide began on 12 May in which Johannesburg township?

Locals attacked migrants from Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, killing two; sixty more died in the attacks that followed across the country.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup final was played at which Johannesburg venue, the largest in Africa?

The closing ceremony the next day was the last public appearance of Nelson Mandela.

Which venue hosted the 1995 Rugby World Cup final, in which the Springboks beat the All Blacks?

It is home to the Lions and also staged one of the NBA Africa Games.

At which Johannesburg ground did South Africa chase down 434 in what many call the greatest ODI ever?

The same ground hosted the 2003 Cricket World Cup final, where Australia beat India.

Which Johannesburg football club is nicknamed Amakhosi?

Their fierce rivals Orlando Pirates are the Buccaneers; the two are based at FNB and Orlando stadiums.

O. R. Tambo International Airport was originally named after which South African statesman?

In between it was simply Johannesburg International Airport; Lanseria, to the north-west, serves the Sandton business hub.

What is the name of the rapid rail link connecting Johannesburg with Pretoria and O. R. Tambo airport?

The airport line opened in June 2010 in time for the World Cup and the north–south line in August 2011.

Rea Vaya, launched in 2010, is what kind of transport system?

Its buses run on dedicated lanes and passengers tap in and out with smartcards.

Along with the Sentech mast, which structure is one of Johannesburg's two television transmitters?

Ponte City Apartments and the Carlton Centre are among the other tall structures that give the city most of Africa's tallest buildings.

UJ, formed in 2005, merged Technikon Witwatersrand, Vista campuses and which older institution?

It teaches mainly in English and Afrikaans, while Wits remains famous as a centre of resistance to apartheid.

Chris Hani Baragwanath in Soweto, one of the world's largest medical centres, began life in 1941 as what?

It was named after John Albert Baragwanath, a Cornishman who owned the Wayside Inn nearby; the province bought it after the war for £1 million.

The City Deep container terminal is known as the world's largest what?

About half the cargo landing at Durban and Cape Town ends up in Johannesburg.

The biggest scheme diverting water to the thirsty Witwatersrand draws on the highlands of which country?

The Lesotho Highlands Water Project supplies the region, but further sources are expected to be needed.

What share of South Africa's gross domestic product does Johannesburg produce?

It also accounts for 40 per cent of Gauteng's economic activity and was the only African city in Mastercard's 2008 list of world commerce centres.

In 2025 Johannesburg hosted which summit, the first ever held under an African presidency?

The city had earlier hosted the BRICS summits of 2018 and 2023 and the 2015 African Union summit.

Under apartheid, Johannesburg's Chinese community was legally classified as what?

The community descended largely from labourers brought in for the mines during the Boer War.

The Metropolitan Municipality of 2000 was reorganised in 2006 into how many regions, named A to G?

The original 2000 structure had eleven regions numbered 1 to 11.

Which historic Newtown playhouse is run by a foundation that also trains young photographers?

Its stages host theatre, music and dance, and it was a home for protest theatre under apartheid.

In which year was Johannesburg's old centre, established in 1886, granted city status?

That 'main place' had a population of about 957,000 at the 2011 census.

Which Australian university opened a South African campus in Johannesburg in 2001?

Monash South Africa opened in Roodepoort in 2001; Monash sold the campus to the Independent Institute of Education in 2019 and it now trades as IIE MSA.

Which team retained the Cricket World Cup by beating India in the 2003 final at the Wanderers?

The same ground later staged the 434-run chase many call the greatest one-day match ever.

Johannesburg's Orlando Pirates football club is known by which nickname?

Their fierce city rivals Kaizer Chiefs are nicknamed Amakhosi.

Johannesburg has what type of climate under the Köppen classification?

Summers on the Highveld bring hot days followed by afternoon thundershowers.