Chas Everitt International - Property in Johannesburg South, Gauteng
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Johannesburg Southern suburbs: The south of Johannesburg offers good value for money, with homes to cater for the needs of all. Easily accessable to all major roads while providing stunning views, golf courses and shopping centres to name but a few.
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JOHANNESBURG is where the money is. And the action. It's the most powerful commercial centre on the African continent. It is an African city that works: the phones dial, the lights switch on, you can drink the water, there are multi-lane freeways, skyscrapers, conference centres, golf courses... Johannesburg is the capital of South Africa's smallest - and richest - province, called Gauteng, a Sesotho name meaning "Place of Gold". Gauteng makes up just 1,4% of South Africa's land area, but it is home to more than a fifth of the population and produces a third of the country's wealth. Gauteng is predominantly urban, consisting chiefly of industrial and mining satellite towns surrounding the twin cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria. Pretoria, South Africa's administrative capital (the legislative capital is Cape Town) is itself merging into Johannesburg's outer suburbs. Johannesburg is one of the world's few large metropolitan areas to be based on neither an ocean port nor a major river. The sea is a six hour drive to the east. The nearest major river. the Vaal River, is a two hour drive to the south. Ironically, the city is ranked as the biggest port in southern Africa, thanks to an export/import railway freight facility called City Deep. Johannesburg is, by city standards, a mere teenager. It started life in 1886 as a gold-rush shanty town, expected to last no more than a decade. But the gold proved so rich that disputes flared over who controlled Johannesburg, culminating in a war that changed military history - the Anglo-Boer war. By the nineteen twenties, the city had outpaced every rival to become Africa's major commercial centre Johannesburg is South Africa's most cosmopolitan city, home to diverse population groups and to languages from throughout Africa. South Africa itself has 11 languages, all of them spoken in Johannesburg. But tourists will find that English is the predominant language of government, business and the media, and can be understood by most people. |
GOLD
was discovered in Johannesburg in 1886. The town moved from tent town
to wood and iron shacks to bricks and mortar within a decade or two. These
stories tell that history, detailing the characters involved, how the
city got its name, and the earliest settlers in the region. Johannesburg's
earliest settlers were not the Boers but rather the descendants of Venda
people who settled north of the Soutpansberg around 1 000 years ago, on
two hills near a small town called Pontdrift 
