Johannesburg, city in northeastern South Africa, capital of Gauteng Province. It stands on the southern slopes of the Witwatersrand, a rich gold-mining region that serves as South Africa’s industrial heartland. Johannesburg is the largest and most important city of the Witwatersrand’s string of ten towns, from Springs in the east to Randfontein in the west. The large black townships of Soweto and Alexandra lie within Johannesburg’s metropolitan area.
Johannesburg stands at an altitude of 1,750 m (5,740 ft). This moderates the climate, producing a mean temperature of 10° C (50° F) in July and 20° C (68° F) in December. Rainfall averages 850 mm (33 in) a year. The sun shines an average of nine hours a day in summer and more than seven hours a day in winter. The origins of the name Johannesburg are uncertain, but the city may have been named for Johann Rissik, acting surveyor general of the South African Republic (former Afrikaner state in the Transvaal region), and Christian Johannes Joubert, head of the South African Republic mines department.
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