Khutsong is a township on the West Rand of South Africa, and scene of widespread unrest starting in February 2006.[2] It is situated north-west of the town of Carletonville,[3] in the Merafong City Local Municipality of the Gauteng province, just west of the Abe Bailey Nature Reserve. With a terrible history of violence and gangsterism,[4] the main factors causing crime rates to spike up from 2011 until late 2019 are mainly high poverty rates, municipality mismanagement and corruption and the lack of employment/job creating opportunities. In 2017/18 thousands of mine workers lost their jobs due to mines shutting down.[5]
Actions taken by residents included an application to the Pretoria High Court[7] and violent incidents, including petrol bombing the homes of African National Congress candidates,[8] blocking roads[9] and the destruction of municipal property.
One important element in the Khutsong issue relates to environmental security. The Khutsong community is physically located alongside some of the richest gold mines in the world. Recent research[when?] conducted by the Water Research Commission in South Africa has shown that heavy metal and radionuclide contamination is closely associated with rivers and wetlands downstream of major mining operations. The Khutsong community is located in such an aquatic ecosystem, so the environmental dimension to this conflict is an important and largely unexplored one.[citation needed]
On 27 April 2007 when President Thabo Mbeki was celebrating Freedom Day at Bhisho renewed riots reminiscent of those which occurred in Soweto on 16 June 1976 took place in the streets of Khutsong.
On 4 December 2008 it was announced that Khutsong and the rest of the Merafong Municipality would be reintegrated into the Gauteng Province.[10] The passage of the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution of South Africa, altering the provincial boundaries accordingly, came into effect on 3 April 2009.
Vigilantism
On the 3 November 2013 number of vigilante mobs totalling around 700 people attacked alleged gang members across Khutsong. Six people died in the attacks[11] including five alleged gangsters and one sangoma believed to have been giving the gangsters muti and moral support.[12]
It is reported that the event took place as a result of high levels of violent crime and the ongoing abduction of young girls as well and the recruitment of school children into the gangs. Local community members tried to organise a meeting with the police but were unable to gain an audience with them. After which they organised a meeting of their own to discuss the gang problem. One of the largest of the local gangs, the Casanovas, then sought to break-up the meeting by sending over one hundred gang member to beat people at the meeting. Twenty people were injured and this led to the community to regroup and vow revenge and the vigilante mob was formed.[12] Arrests were never made.
Gauteng is one of the nine provinces of South Africa.
North West is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Mahikeng. The province is located to the west of the major population centre of Gauteng and south of Botswana.
Orange Farm ("Farma") is a township located approximately 45 km (28 mi) from Johannesburg in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. It is the southernmost township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. Its name, a misnomer given that oranges are grown in orchards instead of farms, has Dutch origins. It is one of the youngest townships in South Africa, with the original inhabitants, laid-off farm workers, taking up residency in 1988. Support for the population came slowly mostly from people who were tenants at the larger township of Soweto.
Carletonville is a town in Gauteng and the seat of the Merafong City Local Municipality in the West Rand District Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, just north of the richest gold-mining area in the world. At 3,749 m, Western Deep Levels holds the record for the world's deepest gold mine.
Fochville is a farming and mining town located in the Gauteng province of South Africa. It is part of the Merafong City Local Municipality, which also includes Kokosi, Carletonville and Khutsong. The area surrounding Fochville contains Sotho or Tswana ruins. Tlokwe Ruins are the remains of Sotho-Tswana settlements on the hills surrounding Fochville that were inhabited until the 1820s. Boer War hero Danie Theron was killed 5 km north of the town. The town itself was established as an agricultural centre in 1920 and was named after the World War I commander-in-chief of the Allied forces in France, Marshal of France Ferdinand Foch.
The following lists events that happened during 1996 in South Africa.
Driefontein is the Driefontein Mine in the West Witwatersrand Basin mining field. The West Wits field was discovered in 1931 and commenced operations with Venterspost Gold Mine in 1939. In 1952, the West Driefontein mine is opened. In 1968, Kloof mine commences operations. In 1972, East Driefontein opens. In 1981, consolidation starts. In 1999, Gold Fields took control of the combined East and West Driefontein mines and merged them starting 2000 with Venterspost, Libanon, Leuudoorn and Kloof mines. In 2010, the current Kloof-Driefontein Complex, comprising KDC East and KDC West, is formed.
Crime in South Africa includes all violent and non-violent crimes that take place in the country of South Africa, or otherwise within its jurisdiction. When compared to other countries South Africa has notably high rates of violent crime and has a reputation for consistently having one of the highest murder rates in the world. The country also experiences high rates of organised crime relative to other countries.
Merafong City Municipality is a local municipality in the West Rand District Municipality, in the Gauteng province of South Africa. Its boundaries encloses some of the richest gold mines in the world. It is situated about 65 km from Johannesburg and is serviced by a number of major roads, including the N12 from Johannesburg to Kimberley and the N14.
Abe Bailey Nature Reserve is a protected area in the Merafong City Local Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa. It is situated near Carletonville, beside the township of Khutsong on the West Rand. It is about 4,200 hectares in size.
Mogale City Local Municipality is a local municipality within the West Rand District Municipality, in the Gauteng province of South Africa.
The Twelfth Amendment of the Constitution of South Africa altered the boundaries of seven of South Africa's nine provinces. It also redefined all of the provinces' geographical areas in terms of the areas of district and metropolitan municipalities, and repealed the provisions introduced by the Third Amendment that allowed municipal areas to cross provincial boundaries. A number of the boundary changes were highly controversial and led to popular protest and court challenges.
Muldersdrift, in the Gauteng Province of South Africa, is a picturesque rural area situated 27 km north-west of Johannesburg, between Johannesburg and the Magaliesberg mountain range. The area falls under the West Rand District Municipality, and is part of the Mogale City Local Municipality.
Oberholzer is a town in West Rand District Municipality in the Gauteng province of South Africa. The town is 85 km south-west of Johannesburg, just north-west of Carletonville.
The government of Gauteng province in South Africa consists of a unicameral legislature elected by proportional representation, and an executive branch headed by a Premier who is elected by the legislature.
The Patriotic Alliance (PA) is a South African political party, formed in November 2013 by, among others, businessman Gayton McKenzie, and by socialite Kenny Kunene, a former English teacher turned businessman.
Nomathemba Emily Mokgethi is a South African politician who served as the Gauteng Health MEC from 2020 to 2022 and has been a member of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature since 2018. She was the provincial MEC for Social Development between June and December 2020. Mokgethi is a member of the African National Congress.
The 2021 South African unrest, also known as the July 2021 riots, the Zuma unrest or Zuma riots, was a wave of civil unrest that occurred in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces from 9 to 18 July 2021, sparked by the imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma for contempt of court. Resulting protests against the incarceration triggered wider rioting and looting, much of it said to be undertaken by people not in support of Zuma and fuelled by job layoffs and economic inequality worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic policies. The unrest began in the province of KwaZulu-Natal on the evening of 9 July, and spread to the province of Gauteng on the evening of 11 July, and was the worst violence that South Africa had experienced since the end of Apartheid.
The May 2008 South African riots was a wave of xenophobic riots starting in Alexandra, Gauteng on 12 May 2008 and then spreading to other locations across South Africa. The violence started when South African residents of Alexandra attacked migrants from Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, killing two people and injuring 40 others. Some attackers were reported to have been singing Jacob Zuma's campaign song Umshini Wami.
Boyce Makhosonke Maneli is a South African politician from Gauteng who has been Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Communications and a Member of Parliament for the African National Congress since 2019. He had previously served as the Executive Mayor of the West Rand District Municipality from 2016 to 2019 and as the Regional Chairperson of the ANC's West Rand Region from 2014 to 2018.
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