Westonaria is a town in the west of

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. It is situated in the

Rand West City Local Municipality Rand West City Local Municipality is a local municipality of South Africa. It was established after the August 2016 local elections by the merging of Randfontein and Westonaria local municipalities. It is a division of the West Rand District Muni ...

, part of the

West Rand District Municipality West Rand District Municipality is one of the districts of Gauteng province of South Africa, that covers the West Rand area, with the exception of Roodepoort (which is part of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality). The seat of the di ...

. During the

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

era, Africans lived outside town in

Bekkersdal Bekkersdal is a township situated 7 km east of Westonaria and 14 km south of Randfontein in the Gauteng province. It was established in 1945, to house Africans who worked in town and at the surrounding gold mines. In 1983 The year ...

. The town is some 45 km west of

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

and 18 km south of

Randfontein Randfontein is a gold mining town in the West Rand, Gauteng, South Africa, west of Johannesburg. With the Witwatersrand gold rush in full swing, mining financier JB Robinson bought the farm Randfontein and, in 1889, floated the Randfontein Est ...

History

It was formed in 1948 by the amalgamation of the townships Venterspost, proclaimed in 1937, and Westonaria, proclaimed in 1938. First called Venterspost, the name was changed to Westonaria when municipal status was attained in 1952. The name is a homophone of ‘western area’, after the township developing company Western Areas Ltd.

References

West Rand Populated places in the Rand West City Local Municipality {{Gauteng-geo-stub