Background
The city centre of Johannesburg is surrounded by some 600 suburbs covering approximately 500 sq km. The population of the municipal city of Johannesburg is roughly 3.8 million. Although it is almost impossible to estimate the population of Soweto due to the constant arrival of people from rural areas and illegal immigrants looking for work, the population of greater Johannesburg, including Soweto and the suburbs on the East Rand (from Germiston in the west to Springs in the east, where the towns are effectively now part of the city) is put at just over ten million.
Much of Johannesburg’s fabric was formed by the actions of the Apartheid regime from the mid-1950s. The thriving multi-racial conurbation was changed dramatically with the advent of the Group Areas Act, which forcibly relocated the city’s black population from the centre to specially built townships outside town, such as Soweto. The most infamous forced removal was the bulldozing of an area to the west of Johannesburg called Sophiatown. This was an area of slum housing near to the city centre and was home to a diverse population of Africans, coloureds and ‘poor whites’. During the 1940s and 1950s there was a huge outburst of a new African urban culture in Sophiatown, based mainly on the influence of American jazz musicians. This cultural explosion attracted bohemian whites and a huge number of African writers, journalists and politicians. To the Apartheid planners, the area stood for everything they opposed. In the mid-1950s the entire population was removed and the bulldozers were sent in. A new white suburb was built over the ruins and, in a gesture that was crass even by the standards of Apartheid, they named the new suburb Triomf – Afrikaans for ‘triumph’. In 2006, the name was changed back to Sophiatown.
Since the mid-1980s this forced movement of Africans from the city centre to the townships has been reversed. The breakdown of influx controls led to the rapid growth of the African population of Johannesburg city centre, especially in Hillbrow, which has one of Africa’s highest population densities. Since the end of Apartheid this trend has continued and has been bolstered by the arrival of new immigrants from outside South Africa’s borders. Tens of thousands of Nigerians, Congolese and Zimbabweans have flooded, often illegally, into the centre, suburbs and townships. The population has mushroomed in the last decade, with a growth of around 23% since 1996.
The inner city has suffered from soaring crime rates in the last two decades, although much is being done to reverse the trend. While the mid-1990s saw much of central Johannesburg being deserted, with business and offices moving out to the northern suburbs, and the city being tagged as the murder capital of the world, the local government has clamped down in recent years. Massive raids on apartment blocks in Hillbrow have ousted thousands of illegal immigrants. An extensive network of CCTV cameras (which are now installed on every street corner), a huge new Metro police force (which has the ability to respond to a crime in 60 seconds) and numerous regeneration projects have made the centre far safer. Improved border security arrangements with neighbouring countries have blocked the traffic in stolen cars to other African countries, and the rate of carjackings has been reduced considerably. According to one study street crime in general has dropped dramatically, and you’re just as likely to be a victim of violent crime in the Cape as in Johannesburg. The first of the regenerated areas was Newtown, where the streets were pedestrianized and the Mary Fitzgerald Square upgraded; the area is now filled with restaurants and shops and is attracting businesses back to the centre, including the new Gauteng tourism office. This is acting as a model for other parts of town, and it’s hoped that the centre will once again become as safe as it once was. During the preparation for the 2010 FIFA World CupTM, the city enlisted the advice of former mayor of New York Rudolph Giuliani to assist in combating crime. He after all, turned New York, formerly the crime capital of the world, into a globally accepted safe city.
Improved security is drawing back visitors, but it’s still sensible to take common sense precautions. Johannesburg is still not yet a city which can be casually explored on foot, and the best way of seeing the sights is on a guided tour.
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