Gauteng province

Gauteng is a province of South Africa. Formed in May 1994 from the old Transvaal province, it was initially named Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging and was renamed Gauteng in December 1995.

Gauteng's area is about 17,000 square kilometers, approximately 1.4% of the land area of South Africa making it the smallest of the nine provinces. Nevertheless, Gauteng is the second most populated province of South Africa. It is home to 8.8 million people (according to the October 2001 census), almost 20% of the total South-African population. Being also the province with the fastest growing population (over 20% increase of population between the 1996 and 2001 census), Gauteng is likely to soon become the most populated province of South Africa.

The name Gauteng comes from the seSotho phrase meaning Place of Gold, referring to the thriving gold industry in the province following the 1886 discovery of gold in Johannesburg.

Gauteng's capital is Johannesburg. Other cities in the province include:

• Soweto
• Pretoria

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