Springs

Demography

The population of Springs increased considerably during these last years, passing from 72.000 in 1991 inhabitants to approximately 220.000 in 2004.

History

It was initially a farm, The Springs , established in 1883, on the escarpment rich in minerals of the Witwatersrand in the west of the Transvaal.

In 1887, one discovered there coal which was transported, starting from 1890, by the first Railroad of the République of Transvaal towards the gold mines of the Rand, with a few kilometers in the west.

The discovery of new more profitable coal seams in the east, with Witbank) involved the closing of the wells of Springs, which hardly had importance bus of the gold-fields had been updated on the spot. A village was built in 1904 and in 1908, the exploitation started for good.

Springs became a Commune ( municipality ) in 1912.

At the end of the years 1930, there were eight gold mines in the immediate surroundings of the city, which made of it the greatest gold production zone of the world of the time.

At the time of the Apartheid, Springs was divided according to the racial membership: around the center, reserved for the businesses and the trade, the White lived in the rich suburbs, the Indians in the east (zone of Bakerton), the Blacks in south-west (zone of Kwa-thema). This zoning started to disappear since the end from the Ségrégation to beginning of the year 90. Springs is today one of the principal industrial centers of the province of Gauteng. The mines closed and were replaced by equipment and processing industries (metals, chemistry, paper, agroalimentary).

Springs shelters a campus of the polytechnic university of Witwatersrand (Witwatersrand Technikon).

External bonds

Site of the municipality of Ekurhuleni
Chart Google

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