Sandton Travel Information:
Sandton
municipality was established as an extension of the city
in 1969, after Johannesburg began to expand northwards.
Its initial beginnings were very much a residential area
consisting mostly of small holdings. This rural "horsey"
lifestyle of Sandton gave it the image of being a smart
address. It was dubbed the "mink and manure"
belt of Johannesburg.
Sandton has become the new financial centre of South Africa
and Johannesburg's premier business centre. Much of the
financial focus of Johannesburg has shifted from the Central
Business District to Sandton, especially in the last 15
years. However, three of South Africa's four largest banks
have kept their head offices in downtown Johannesburg,
along with Transnet, the transport parastatal. The other
bank, Nedbank has its headquarters in Sandton.
But much of the "new money" has moved north
to Sandton, including investment banks, financial consultants
and the like. A considerable amount of the city's A-grade
office space is to be found in Sandton. The JSE Securities
Exchange, Johannesburg's stock exchange, relocated its
offices to Sandton from the Central Business District
in the late 1990s. Sandton's gain was the central business
district's loss: it resulted in urban blight and "white
flight" of the downtown Johannesburg area.
Sandton is home to the Sandton Convention Centre, one
of the largest convention centres on the continent and
primary site of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development
(also known as "Rio + 10"), which Johannesburg
hosted. The convention centre also hosted the African
National Congress' victory celebrations after the party
won the 2004 elections.
One of the main attractions in Sandton is Sandton City,
which ranks among the largest shopping centres in Africa.
Together with Nelson Mandela Square, the centre, with
some 144,000m² of shopping space, is the largest
in the Southern Hemisphere, larger than Sydney's Westfield
Parramatta or Melbourne's Westfield Southland centres.
Much of Johannesburg's business tourism is centred on
Sandton, which has a string of 5-star hotels.
Nelson Mandela Square, formerly known as Sandton Square,
was renamed in March 2004, after the unveiling of a 6-metre
bronze statue of the former president, arguably one of
South Africa's greatest statesmen. Perhaps ironically,
Liliesleaf Farm, where Mandela and other political activists
were arrested in the 1960s and tried as part of the now
infamous Rivonia Trial, is north of Nelson Mandela Square,
close to the N1 freeway, off Rivonia Road. The area is
now home to massive office parks and other developments,
and little remains of the farm
The Sandton area is one of the most opulent and wealthy
in Johannesburg and South Africa, and therefore in Africa.
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