Boksburg, Gauteng

Boksburg is a city on the East Rand of Gauteng, South Africa. Gold was discovered in Boksburg in 1887. It was named after the State Secretary of the South African Republic, W. Eduard Bok. The Main Reef Road linked Boksburg to all the other major mining towns on the Witwatersrand and the Angelo Hotel (1887) was used as a staging post.

The Mining Commissioner Montague White built a large dam which, empty for years, was dubbed White's Folly until a flashflood in 1889 silenced detractors. The 150,000 square metre dam is now the Boksburg Lake, and is surrounded by lawns, trees, and terraces. A railway was built to link Boksburg to Johannesburg in 1890.

Boksburg is now part of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality, that includes much of the East Rand.

Trivia

* Chris Hani, leader of the South African Communist Party and chief of staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC), was assassinated outside his Dawn Park, Boksburg home in 1993 and is buried in the town.
* Boksburg is the birthplace of Gerrie "the Boksburg Bomber" Coetzee, former WBA heavyweight boxing champion of the world.
* James Phillips wrote a song called "Boksburg Bomber".
* Eddie Cik, local wakeskater, was recently given the Triple Solly medal for pulling off a triple 180 sollyfish on his wakeskate at Donald Duck park. Despite breaking a leg in the process, Eddie maintains wakeskating popularity by teaching small homeless children to wakeskate from the shoreline.