Suburbs of Johannesburg - Southern Suburbs

Southern Suburbs

The southern suburbs, located in Regions 9, 10, and 11, extend to the south of the inner city, and are somewhat isolated from the rest of Johannesburg. On a map, the southern suburbs appear to hang down from the border of Soweto and Johannesburg South. It is about 40 kilometres south of the inner city. It is actually the most isolated, least integrated area of Johannesburg, with its east, west, and southern boundaries also forming Johannesburg proper's boundaries in the area. It is diagonally traversed by the N1, with the N12 running along its northern border.

The southern suburbs tend to be either solely industrial or solely residential, with most residents in the residential areas being long-term residents in well-established communities. The majority of houses in these formal settlements are included in one of Johannesburg's lowest income brackets. At the extreme south end of the city, there are extremely large informal settlements, such as Orange Farm, which suffer from widespread poverty and unemployment, which are compounded by their isolation from the rest of the city, which in turn makes it costly to extend much-needed infrastructure from the more integrated suburbs.

A significant amount of underdeveloped and vacant agricultural land is publicly owned, and the city government is currently in the process of selling large tracts of it for development, which is hoped to provide jobs for the residents of the informal settlements. Rand Stadium, the oldest football stadium in the city, is located in the southern suburb of Rosettenville.

Turffontein was the largest concentration camp in Johannesburg during the Anglo Boer War. The camp was located where the Turffontein Racecourse is now, and housed about 5000 people. The 700 who died of that group were buried on a farm called Klipriviers Berg in Winchester Hills. The racecourse hosts the Summer Cup one of three major races in South Africa.