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The discovery of gold in the Witwatersrand in the 1880s brought people and businesses to the Transvaal highveld. After its beginnings during the gold rush, Johannesburg became South Africa's largest city, situated at the centre of southern Africa's densest population cluster. The mines played out in the 1970s, but Johannesburg is well established as the centre of South Africa's economic activities and as the hub of its motorway network.