About Johannesburg

Johannesburg grew up around a gold reef discovered in 1886, and the mining industry that followed built it into the largest city in South Africa and one of the continent's major financial centres, despite lying nowhere near a coastline or navigable river. Its skyline and suburbs still bear the marks of that boom and bust history, from the mine dumps visible around the city to Ponte Tower and the reinvented industrial precincts of Maboneng and Braamfontein. The city was also central to the struggle against apartheid, with Soweto, the Apartheid Museum and Constitution Hill standing as reminders of that period, while areas like Sandton and Rosebank have grown into Africa's busiest business and shopping districts. Johannesburg is known locally as Jozi or Egoli, "place of gold," and remains Gauteng's economic engine.

With well over a thousand qualifying listings, Johannesburg's spring calendar runs impossibly deep. Smoking Kills hosts the two-day party MOVE FAST this week, while the In Joburg - Live circuit brings together the SAADA Johannesburg Summer Fair 2026: A Dazzling Celebration of Art, Antiques & Design and Design Week South Africa on the same stretch of days. Theatre holds its own at the Joburg Theatre with Things That Cannot Be Buried, and families can catch Disney's Dare to Dream JR. at the National Children's Theatre before its run wraps up.