Some background to THE CITY OF GOLD

A very brief history of Johannesburg

The area around Johannesburg has been inhabited for at least 500 000 years, with its earliest residents being Stone Age hunter-gatherers living off the natural resources of the bushveld.

There are numerous iron furnace sites across Johannesburg, which were used by Tswana-speaking people at least 500 years ago.

Johannesburg’s big boom was kicked off by the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand in 1886, which led to a frenzied gold rush. The early prospectors’ and miners’ tented settlements laid the foundation for what would become Johannesburg.

In 1887, the city of Johannesburg was officially founded as a town under the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek.

During apartheid, Johannesburg was the home to significant resistance and protest activity, perhaps most notably the 16 June Soweto Uprising in 1976.

And finally, celebrating our own milestone, in 1994, MTN was founded in Johannesburg.