Boksburg is a town within the Witwatersrand urban complex in Gauteng province in South Africa. It lies east of Johannesburg. Boksburg is one of the largest industrial towns in South Africa. It has a gold mine that operates when the price of gold makes it profitable. The town has good road and rail links and is close to OR Tambo International Airport.
Gold was discovered in the area in 1886. The town, founded in 1887, was named in honor of William Eduard Bok, the state secretary of the South African Republic.
Construction of a large dam in 1888 created Boksburg Lake. The first railroad service in the area began in 1890. It linked Boksburg to Johannesburg. Boksburg became a municipality in 1903.
In the mid-1990’s, after the end of South Africa’s racial segregation system called apartheid, Boksburg absorbed the black African township of Vosloorus, the Coloured (mixed-race) township of Reiger Park, and other nearby communities. In 2001, Boksburg and the towns of Alberton, Benoni, 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.
