Witwatersrand

Witwatersrand is a low mountain range which runs through Johannesburg in South Africa. The word in the Afrikaans language means "the ridge of white waters". It forms the watershed as descibed under the Johannesburg page, with water than runs off to the north draining into the Indian Ocean and water that runs off the south draining into the Atlantic. This is also apparent in slight climatic changes in the area, as the low range of hills produces a windward/leeward effect, with Johannesburg's northern suburbs being more lush and well-watered, and the south more dry and arid.

The "Rand" or Reef is famous for being the source of 40% of the gold ever mined from the earth. It is 60 miles / 100 km long and 3.6km deep in places.

The Rand became the unit of currency of South Africa when it gained independence from Britain in 1961.

The Wiwatersrand is also another name often used to describe the Greater Johannesburg metropolitan area, which spans the length of the gold-bearing reef. The metropolitan area is oblong in shape and runs from the area of Randfontein and Carletonville in the west to Springs in the east. It includes the vast urban areas of the East and West Rand, and Soweto. This region is defined by both Thomas Brinkhoff and Rand McNally as being metropolitan Johannesburg, in much the same way as metropolitan New York is comprised of New York City, northern New Jersey and parts of Connecticut, or metropolitan Los Angeles includes Riverside and San Bernardino.

This is also apparent by the fact that the area code for the whole region is 011 (the Johannesburg dialling code). Substantial growth of the area, however, has prompted state telephone compnay Telkom to consider a second dialling code for the area, in much the same way as London has inner and outer telephone codes. The new code is likely to be 010.

There is, as yet, no freeway which spans the length of the Rand, but plans are afoot to extend the N17 freeway from central Johannesburg to Krugersdorp, so that a motorist could cross the area in less than an hour. The new stretch of freeway will be tolled.

The University of the Witwatersrand, built to serve the residents of the whole area, is located in Johannesburg. Known locally as Wits (pronounced "Vits"), the university was also scathingly referred to as "Moscow on the Hill" during the height of the Apartheid days in the late 1980s, as it was notorious for its anti-Apartheid campaigns and extreme left political affiliations. Today, the university remains one of the top tertiary institutions in South Africa, with internationally-recognised degrees. Local newspaper The Star reports that US presidential candidate John Kerry's wife, Teresa, studied at Wits.