Roodepoort is an area in Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa. Johannesburg's most famous botanical garden, Witwatersrand National Botanical Gardens (now renamed Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden in honour of Walter Sisulu), is located in Roodepoort. Formerly an independent municipality, Roodepoort became part of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in the late 1990s, along with Randburg and Sandton.
Although Roodepoort has traditionally been regarded as being part of the West Rand, it is was not made part of the West Rand District Municipality, instead being integrated into the City of Johannesburg Metropolitam Municipality, following the post-apartheidreorganisation of local government in the late 1990's.
In 1884, brothers Fred and Harry Struben, having discovered gold on the farm Wilgespruit at the western end of the Witwatersrand, were granted concessions to mine the area. When George Harrison's find at Langlaagte came to light and gold fever took hold, the Strubens brothers were joined by a swarm of gold diggers. Though the Confidence Reef bore little gold and their mine was unprofitable, the ramshackle town that grew around it became the Roodepoort municipality in 1904. Incorporating the towns of Hamberg, Florida and Maraisburg, Roodepoort became a city in 1977.
Residential Areas in the new developing parts of Roodepoort are said[by whom?] to be expanding at a faster pace than anywhere else in South Africa. This growth is said[by whom?] to be fueled by various factors such as the fast growing Black middle class, the close proximity to other large Gauteng cities, an already established and advanced infrastructure and much more.
It has also major water problems having been built on a vlei and the municipality still allows developments to take place
