GAUTENG and its capital city JOHANNESBURG
Gauteng is a province of South Africa. It was formed from part of the old Transvaal province after South Africa's first all-race elections on 27 April 1994. It was initially named Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging (or PWV) and was renamed Gauteng in December 1994.
Situated in the heart of the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province in South Africa, with only 1.4% of the land area, but it is highly urbanised and has a population of 8,837,178 (2001 South African National Census), the second-largest after KwaZulu-Natal. 2005 estimates as put forward by the CSIR Gauteng Spatial Development Perspective suggest, however, that Gauteng has overtaken KwaZulu Natal to become the most populous province in South Africa, with a total of 9.5 million people living there, growing at around 100,000 people every year.
Gauteng's southern border is the Vaal River, which separates it from the Free State. It also borders on North West to the west, Limpopo to the north, and Mpumalanga to the east. Gauteng is the only landlocked province of South Africa without a foreign border. Most of Gauteng is on the Highveld, a high-altitude grassland. Between Johannesburg and Pretoria there are low parallel ridges and undulating hills, some part of the Magaliesberg Mountains and the Witwatersrand. The north of the province is more subtropical, due to its lower altitude and is mostly dry savanna habitat.
The climate is mostly influenced by altitude. Even though the province is at a subtropical latitude, the climate is comparatively cooler, especially in Johannesburg, at 1,700m above sea level (Pretoria is at 1,330m). Most precipitation occurs as brief afternoon thunderstorms, however relative humidity never becomes uncomfortable. Winters are crisp and dry with frost occurring often in the southern areas. Snow is very rare, but has occurred on some occasions in the Johannesburg metropolitan area.
• Johannesburg averages: January maximum: 26 °C (min: 15 °C), June maximum: 16 °C (min: 4 °C), annual precipitation: 713 mm
• Pretoria averages: January maximum: 29 °C (min: 18 °C), June maximum: 19 °C (min: 5 °C), annual precipitation: 674 mm
Gauteng is considered the economic hub of South Africa and contributes heavily in the financial, manufacturing, transport, technology and telecommunications sectors, amongst others. It also plays host to a large number of overseas companies requiring a commercial base in and gateway to Africa.
Although Gauteng is the smallest of South Africa's nine provinces - it covers only 1.4% of the country's total land area - it contributes 33.9% of its gross domestic product (GDP). Indeed Gauteng generates 10% of the GDP of the entire African continent.
Gauteng 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. AIDS may however negate this projection.
This rapid growth has brought with it both opportunities and challenges. As a global focal point, with access to the Southern African hinterland, Gauteng has the ability to link the world to a population approximately the same size as the United States. It is fast becoming to sub-Saharan Africa what the Eastern Seaboard megalopolis is to America. But this also presents some formidable obstacles, most notably the ability to provide access to basic amenities such as electricity and potable water. Transport is also a major problem, and Johannesburg, as the core of Gauteng, is beginning to experience the heavy traffic problems of cities such as Los Angeles and Bangkok. The Gautrain Rapid Rail Link is an attempt to remedy this problem, by providing efficient high-speed rail between Pretoria, Sandton, Johannesburg and OR Tambo International Airport; completion due 2010.
Johannesburg, also known as Joburg, is the largest 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 and it is one of Africa's only two global cities. 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 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 kilometers is very large when compared to other cities, resulting in a population density of 2,364 inhabitants per square kilometer. 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.
Information from Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauteng
