GAUTENG

Gauteng is the smallest of South Africa’s nine provinces, but also the most densely populated and the fastest growing – not too surprising, really, as Gauteng means ‘Place of Gold’ (gold has been intertwined with the province’s history ever since its discovery in the Johannesburg area in 1886).

It is a province of contrasts – old and new, contemporary and traditional, dense cities and wide-open grasslands, all co-existing.

Although dominated by urban areas, there are a number of great natural attractions, like the Dinokeng Game Reserve, Gauteng’s only Big Five nature reserve; the Pretoria National Botanical Garden; and the Magaliesberg mountains.

Most of Gauteng is on the Highveld, a high-altitude grassland; its spectacular Highveld thunderstorms are legendary.

There’s plenty for your clients to do in Gauteng, whether they favour a night on the town, a game drive or some great shopping. Invite them to immerse themselves in Gauteng’s cultural scene – there are museums, galleries, theatres, historical sites, cultural hubs and a number of music festivals.

Gauteng boasts a world-class infrastructure, and a large range of accommodation, from the ultra-luxurious to budget options.

Gauteng is a province of South Africa and is widely thought to be the actual cradle of humankind and possibly one of the places where human kind first started walking upright. One of its most remarkable yields was the 2.5-million-year-old female skull discovered by Dr Broom in 1947, which he dubbed Mrs Ples. The "Little Foot" skull was also found in Gauteng.

Before the colonial period, Gauteng was home to many different cultures as far back as 1100 AD, and even before. The Khoi-San people have inhabited the southern African region consistently for hundreds of thousands of years, but their cave paintings (Klerksdorp area of Gauteng) date back to between 20 000 and 30 000 years.

There are many Iron Age sites in and around Gauteng, including in the Melville Koppies, showing mining and smelting activities. Mining has been part of the history of Gauteng as far back as a thousand years ago, suggesting highly evolved and sophisticated cultures, contrary to the idea of "primitive" Africans.

The Voortrekkers moving away from the British Empire in the Cape in the early nineteenth century and the discovery of gold a few decades after that, however changed the nature of the Gauteng province totally. With the coming of whites came also dispossession of the land and poverty for blacks for the next hundred and sixty years, culminating in "apartheid".

The Gauteng province was known as the Transvaal after the end of the Anglo-Boer War that ended in 1902. Before that was known as the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (the South African Republic, or ZAR) and was independent from the British Empire. The Union of South Africa was formed in 1910 by which the former Boer republics (the Orange Free State, the ZAR and Natal), defeated by the British Empire, were united under British rule. The country became independent from Britain in 1961 but remained in the British Commonwealth, although not for long. The National Party who won the elections of 1948 started implementing apartheid laws from the early 1950s into the 1960s.

In Johannesburg’s Maboneng Precinct – the creative hub for the city’s urban artists – lies a theatre space that hosts a variety of events, performances and shows. POPArt is fast becoming a hotspot for Joburg’s talented young performers and anyone with a keen interest in the arts.
The Maboneng Precinct in Johannesburg is a pioneering example of how the development of an integrated, mixed-use community where people play, live and work, can define an urban way of life.

This area in Johannesburg is a unique complex of developments that collectively underpin the city centre’s exciting regeneration. These include studios, art galleries and a range of shops, restaurants and coffee bars that are fuelling an inner-city lifestyle, with entrepreneurship and creativity at its core.

The precinct’s pioneer development, Arts on Main, combines creative office spaces with studios (including those of William Kentridge, Mikhael Subotzky and Kim Lieberman), galleries and shops, transforming old warehouses into an exciting space where Jo’burg’s creative community attend regular events, such as the weekly Market on Main.