Benoni is a town within the Witwatersrand urban complex in Gauteng province in South Africa. It lies east of Johannesburg. The town is an important business center. It has several industries based on iron and steel works.
Gold was discovered in the region in 1887. John Rissik, surveyor general and administrator of the Transvaal, named the town. The name Benoni (son of my sorrows) comes from the Bible. Rachel used it for her son, later renamed Benjamin.
Sir George Farrar, chairman of the gold mining group that owned the land, planned the town. It was declared a municipality in 1907. The last gold mine closed in 1967.
In the mid-1990’s, after the end of South Africa’s racial segregation system called apartheid, Benoni absorbed the Black African townships of Daveyton, Etwatwa, and Wattville; the Indian township of Actonville; and other nearby communities. In 2001, Benoni and the towns of Alberton, Boksburg, Brakpan, Edenvale, Germiston, Kempton Park, Nigel, Springs, and Tembisa, along with the surrounding areas, were merged to form the Ekurhuleni metropolitan municipality. Ekurhuleni, also called East Rand, has a population of 4,066,691.
