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Gauteng

Travel Guide > Gauteng

Gauteng is a young province with an old history dating back some 4 million years. It is in what is now Gauteng that the first recognisable hominids walked the Earth. The 220 000 year-old Tswaing Meteorite Impact Crater near Hammanskraal in Tshwane is the best-preserved small meteorite crater in the world. Modern humans have been living in the Gauteng region for thousands of years, first as hunter-gatherers, living off the bountiful Highveld game and later as nomadic pastoralists with flocks of sheep and goats.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century major changes took place in what was to become Gauteng. For a short period a migrant chief, Mzilikazi, the king of the Ndebele, ruled over this area. However, in the 1830s white emigrant farmers from the Cape Colony conquered his kingdom. As frontiersmen they established small, scattered villages and by the mid-1850s formed a republic, the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR), stretching from the Vaal River in the south to the Limpopo River in the north. The capital of this republic was named Pretoria.

With the 1886 discovery of gold the rural character of this frontier region changed forever. What now makes up the Johannesburg region became the new metropolis, not only of the ZAR, but also of the whole of southern Africa, attracting black and white rural migrants, who came in search of work and a better future. As the towns along the Witwatersrand grew, so did the informally segregated settlements of black people living and working in the urban areas. After the turn of the century and the conclusion of the South African War fought between the ZAR and its neighbouring ally the Orange Free State on the one hand, and Great Britain on the other, the new British local authorities implemented more stringent regulations to separate black and white.

By the mid-twentieth century these stringent policies were firmly entrenched as apartheid and when the National Party came to power in 1948 the Witwatersrand (as it was then known) was subjected to enforced racial segregation. As a result townships in outlying areas, such as Alexandra and Soweto (South Western Township) in Johannesburg, and Atteridgeville, Hammanskraal and Mamelodi in Tshwane, were developed to accommodate the black residents of Gauteng. These townships still reflect the policy of racial segregation and the anti-apartheid struggle, which contributes to the unique character of the province and its people.

From 1948 successive waves of black leaders led an increasingly militant campaign for democracy. Many of the top leaders of the African national Congress (ANC) were arrested at Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia in 1963 and tried at the infamous Rivonia Treason Trial in Pretoria. Despite these setbacks, the 1970s witnessed a strengthening of the liberation movement by an increasingly assertive labour force, represented largely by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu). In the 1980s the apartheid state had to face the militant youth and battles raged throughout Gauteng, particularly in the townships of Ekurhuleni – Thokoza, Vosloorus, Katlehong and Tembisa. Some of the signal events in South Africa’s liberation history took place in the townships of Gauteng: the Sharpeville massacre (1960) in Sedibeng; the Soweto uprisings (1976); and the assassination of Chris Hani (1993) in Dawn Park, Ekurhuleni.

With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the ban on the ANC, the Pan Africanist Congress and the South African Communist Party was lifted. Negotiations began, culminating in the first democratic elections in 1994. The recent history of Gauteng is a period filled with transformation and hope. In 1993 the Convention for Democratic South Africa (Codesa) – the groundbreaking negotiations that led to the adoption of the first draft of the South African Constitution – took place in Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni. In 1994 Pretoria’s Union Building played host to the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as the first president of a democratic South Africa. And in 1996 the final version of the Constitution was signed at Sharpeville in the Sedibeng region.

Gauteng Tourism Authority markets the business hub, exciting nightlife, adventures, outdoors, scenic wildlife and affordable tours of Gauteng, South Africa.

A vibrant, lively mix of energy and diversity, Gauteng is renowned for being South Africa’s and, indeed Africa’s, economic, financial, business and entertainment epi-centre. The smallest yet wealthiest province in South Africa – covering only 18 810 square kilometres – Gauteng is a unique fusion of democratic and traditional values. So take time to peel away perceptions of business suits and briefcases and discover there is more depth to Gauteng than meets the eye.

South Africa is known for its beautiful cities and diverse destinations - so why should you choose Gauteng as your meetings venue? Simply - as the country's business capital and gateway to the rest of the continent, no other province in South Africa can offer you quite as much.

http://www.visitgauteng.net