Gauteng Travel Guide / Stretching all the way from Pretoria in the north to Vereeniging in the south, Gauteng (Sotho for place of gold, although the ‘gaut’ is also thought to originate from the Dutch ‘goud’ for gold) was created by the ANC in 1994 after the country’s first all-race elections, uniting six regions, including part of the old Transvaal province, into what might be the smallest South African province, but serves as the gateway into Africa

Whilst the region around the city of Johannesburg is incredibly ancient and includes the discovery of a 3½ million-year-old Australopithecus africanus in a cave near Sterkfontein, just outside Jozi, the city’s exciting history began only in 1886 with the discovery of gold and the Witwatersrand reef. It didn’t take long for the population of the city to explode from a few shanties into what became, and has remained, the largest city in South Africa. Today Johannesburg is one of the world’s youngest major cities and the powerhouse of the African continent

The leafy city of Pretoria in Gauteng serves as one of the country’s three capital cities, officially the executive or administrative capital - the other two are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital

But Pretoria is not just about government. It is also a place of culture with a series of theatres, museums and monuments – Church Square, Union Buildings, Melrose House and the Voortrekker Monument to name but a few. Roses grow beautifully in the city’s climate and it was known early on as the ‘city of roses’. Add to this some 50 000 Jacarandas that line the streets and one can understand how it became known as the ‘jacaranda city’ or ‘jakarandastad’ in Afrikaans. The city has access to a number of Nature Reserves that include Groenkloof, Rietfontein, Faerie Glen and Wonderboom nature reserves, as well as the Pretoria National Botanical Gardens.

Towns in the Gauteng