|
|
|
|
Gauteng (pronounced /ɡaʊtɛŋ/ or /xaʊtɛŋ/; () Sotho ) 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, containing the cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria. As of 2007, it had a population of nearly 10.5 million, making it the most p...
Gauteng (pronounced /ɡaʊtɛŋ/ or /xaʊtɛŋ/; () Sotho ) 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, containing the cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria. As of 2007, it had a population of nearly 10.5 million, making it the most populous province in South Africa.
Read more...
|
|
|
Gauteng
The name Gauteng comes from the Sesotho word meaning "Place of Gold", the historical Sesotho name for Johannesburg and surrounding areas. This referred to the thriving gold industry in the province following the 1886 discovery of gold in Johannesburg. The Sesotho word is a locative derived from the Afrikaans goud (gold) plus the locative suffix "-ng." When properly pronounced, the first letter of the name Gauteng is a voiceless velar fricative, pronounced similarly to the "ch" in the German achtung or Scottish loch. This pronunciation is natural in both the Sesotho and Afrikaans languages. Read more on Wikipedia
Gauteng, formerly known as Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging (PWV), was carved out of the old Transvaal province in 1994. Tokyo Sexwale was elected as the first premier of the province that same year. Politically, it has been dominated by the ANC throughout its post-apartheid history. Read more on Wikipedia
Since 6 May 2009, the premier has been Nomvula Mokonyane. Paul Mashatile, the former provincial minister of finance and economic affairs and the current provincial chairman of ANC in the Gauteng Province, was Premier from 7 October 2008 until Mokonyane's election. He replaced former premier Mbhazima Shilowa, who was premier from 1999. Shilowa resigned in protest against the decision by the ANC national executive committee (NEC) to remove former president Thabo Mbeki from office. Both Mashatile and Shilowa are from the African National Congress. Read more on Wikipedia
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 1,700 m 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 rare, but it has occurred on some occasions in the Johannesburg metropolitan area. Gauteng Province is divided into 3 metropolitan municipalities, and 3 district municipalities which are further divided into 9 local municipalities). Read more on Wikipedia
Gauteng Province is home to 8.8 million people (2001 South African National Census), almost 20% of the total South African population. Gauteng Province is also the fastest growing province, experiencing a population growth of over 20% between the 1996 and 2001 censuses, thus Gauteng is likely to soon have the highest population of any province in South Africa. As of the census of 2001, there are 8,837,172 people and 2,651,243 households residing in Gauteng. The population density is 519.53/km². The density of households is 155.86/km². About 22.1% of all households are made up of individuals. The average household size is 3.33. Read more on Wikipedia
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. Read more on Wikipedia
|
|