Boipatong
Boipatong Vanderbijlpark is a township in Gauteng, South Africa. It was established in 1955 to house black residents who worked in Vanderbijlpark and Vereeniging.
Boipatong | |
|---|---|
Boipatong Boipatong | |
| Coordinates: 26°40′S 27°51′E | |
| Country | South Africa |
| Province | Gauteng |
| District | Sedibeng |
| Municipality | Emfuleni |
| Established | 1955 |
| Area | |
| • Total | 4.31 km2 (1.66 sq mi) |
| Population (2011) | |
| • Total | 22,168 |
| • Density | 5,100/km2 (13,000/sq mi) |
| Racial makeup (2011) | |
| • Black African | 99.3% |
| • Coloured | 0.3% |
| • Indian/Asian | 0.1% |
| • White | 0.1% |
| • Other | 0.2% |
| First languages (2011) | |
| • Sotho | 53.1% |
| • Xhosa | 15.6% |
| • Zulu | 14.5% |
| • Northern Sotho | 4.8% |
| • Other | 12.0% |
| Time zone | UTC+2 (SAST) |
| Postal code (street) | 1911 |
| PO box | 1901 |
Boipatong means "the place of hiding" in the Sesotho language. Boipatong's expansion took place in tandem with the growth of Afrikaner Nationalism and the South African discrimination policy called apartheid.
Boipatong, along with other surrounding townships, served as a pool of cheap labour for steel industry giant ISCOR. ISCOR was built mainly as part of job creation and poverty eradication for the white working class. Although small, Boipatong was one of the places where the anger of the black people was felt during the marches of the 1960s against the requirement that they carry passes.