RANDBURG INFORMATION AND HISTORY

Randburg is a large town in Gauteng, South Africa . It wa once a separate municipality but its municipal government has since become a part of the City of Johannesburg.

Randburg's residencial population tends to be more affluent than most Johannesburg dwellers. Randburg is well known for its vast number of shopping centres and entertainment areas, including the Cresta Centre, Brightwater Common, Sanlam Shopping Centre and various others.

Randburg has an up-market business sector.

Randburg contains 32 suburbs, most of them residential. These include Darrenwood, Linden, Cresta, Aldara Park, and others. There are many self-catering chalets, hotels, guest houses and lodges to be found in Randburg.

In the 1950s Randburg was a low-density residential area inhabited by mostly Afrikaans-speakingpeople.

In 1959 Randburg was granted municipality status. A plan was drawn up to develop a central business district with retail, civic and office uses. in the early 1960s retail activity comprised a shopping strip along Jan Smuts Avenue and Hendrik Verwoerd Drive arterials. A new plan in 1972 resulted in an outdoor mall, built in 1976.

When Cresta Centre opened in 1976 in the Randburg vicinity, it attracted many shoppers. However, urban decay set in.

In 2004, Johannesburg approved plans to declare the Randburg CBD a city improvement district (CID) and to transform the area into a safe, clean, attractive, user-friendly and desirable commercial area.