Johannesburg Johannesburg were destroyed and their people driven away during the wars emanating from Zululand during the late 18th and early 19th centuries (the mfecane or difaqane wars), and as a result, an offshoot of the Zulu kingdom, the Ndebele (often referred to as the Matabele, the name given them by the local Sotho–Tswana), set up a kingdom to the northwest of Johannesburg around modern-day Rustenburg. The main Witwatersrand gold reef was discovered in June 1884 on the farm Vogelstruisfontein by Jan Gerritse Bantjes that triggered the Witwatersrand Gold Rush and the founding of Johannesburg in 1886. The discovery of gold
Department of Mineral Resources (South Africa) Department of Mineral Resources (South Africa) The Department of Mineral Resources is a department of the national government of South Africa which is responsible for overseeing the mining industry of South Africa and the exploitation of the country's mineral resources. The department's origins lie the creation in the 1890s of the "" (Department of Mining) in the government of the Transvaal Republic. It has existed under its current name since 2009 when the Department of Minerals and Energy was divided and the Department of Energy was created. the political head of the department, the Minister of Mineral Resources, is Ngoako