Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Area

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The Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Area is the official name of the area surrounding the city of Johannesburg, in South Africa. It includes Johannesburg and the areas of the East Rand and West Rand. It is often referred to as the Witwatersrand, or Rand, after a low mountain range that runs through the area. As of 2005, it consists of different local government units, including Ekhuruleni (made up of the East Rand), the West Rand District Municipality (the West Rand) and Johannesburg.

The metropolitan area is roughly elliptical (or oblong) in shape, with more development around the core city of Johannesburg. The area stretches almost 100 kilometres (60 miles) east-west from Randfontein to Nigel, and some 60 kilometres (37 miles) north-south from Midrand to Orange Farm and Vosloorus. The contiguous built-up urban area is listed as being 1,300km² (502 mi²) in land size, which is by far the largest city in Africa in terms of urban sprawl.

Greater Johannesburg's growth was largely based initially on the discovery of gold, and the urban area runs the length of the gold-bearing reef from east to west. In the past 30 years, there has been considerable growth to the north, as Johannesburg has expanded. Sandton, created as a separate municipal area north of Johannesburg in 1969, is where much of the new business growth has taken place.

In keeping with the definition of a metropolitan area, Johannesburg is multi-nodal, with several centres which are important within their own right: these include Sandton, Randburg, Midrand, Germiston, Roodepoort, Kempton Park, Boksburg, Benoni and Springs. The urban area is often described as having an inner urban core and an outer core, with the focal point being the Johannesburg CBD.

The case for including the East and West Rand in Johannesburg, as well as Soweto, is based on a number of factors:

The area shares the same dialling code (011), with Telkom considering a second dialing code for the area. The new code is likely to be 010.
The East Rand and Soweto campuses of the former Vista University are incorporated into the University of Johannesburg.
Johannesburg International Airport is located on the East Rand.
Residents from both the East and West Rand often work in Johannesburg.
The areas are not only strongly linked economically, but existing transport axes have also created strong functional links between Johannesburg and its hinterland.
Transport routes between Johannesburg, East and West Rand share the same metropolitan route numbering system.

Over the years, Johannesburg and Pretoria (the Tshwane metropolitan area) have also been growing together, and the two cities share a common border. Questions have been raised as to whether they are beginning to function as one, and if this constitutes an extension of the metropolitan area to include Pretoria. Research suggests, however, that Pretoria is a metropolitan area in its own right, and that Johannesburg and Pretoria actually form the start of a megalopolitan system, with Johannesburg as its apex. The inclusion of another major metropolitan area to the south of Johannesburg, the Vaal Triangle, also forms part of this megalopolis, as a concept first coined and defined by French geographer Jean Gottmann.

Johannesburg is listed as having a metropolitan area population of almost 8 million, about two fifths the size of Greater New York.

As yet, there is no freeway that spans the entire length of the Rand, but plans are in motion to extend the N17 freeway from central Johannesburg to Krugersdorp, so that a motorist could cross the area in less than an hour. The new stretch of freeway will be tolled.

The University of the Witwatersrand, as well as the University of Johannesburg, built to serve the residents of the whole area, are located in Johannesburg.

Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Area

See also