{"id":872803,"date":"2026-09-01T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=872803"},"modified":"2026-09-01T18:00:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T16:00:23","slug":"the-south-african-farm-that-became-the-richest-square-mile-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/872803\/the-south-african-farm-that-became-the-richest-square-mile-in-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"The South African farm that became the richest square mile in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sandton City is often touted as the “richest square mile in Africa” and serves as South Africa’s financial hub, having developed from a small piece of farmland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sandton City was built on land that was previously a magnificent stud farm, originally part of the Zandfontein farm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 1967 and 1969, the property development company Rapp and Maister began purchasing land in what would become Sandton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company, led by Michael Rapp, had planned to use the land for luxury residential properties and a small mall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This plan changed when, in 1969, Johannesburg announced the formation of a new municipality outside of its central business district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city had seen growing unhappiness over the lack of space, and established a new municipality to create a second city centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The municipality was named Sandton, after the two suburbs Bryanston and Sandhurst, which were included in the new area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following this, Rapp and Maister realised that their 32 hectares of land were close to the new municipality and quickly changed their plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The property group changed tactics and began developing shopping and office spaces to capitalise on the need for a new business district in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The change in plans for the area was not without its problems, as residents strongly opposed such major construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the largest issues was the plan to build a 20-storey office building in an area originally intended for residential use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the purchase of a few other pieces of land in the area, Rapp and Maister began construction on Sandton City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The construction was a massive financial undertaking, with the company taking on approximately R20 million (roughly R1.9 billion, adjusted for inflation) in debt to complete it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The design of the Sandton City mall was inspired by overseas properties Rapp had seen in his travels, including malls in Toronto and Versailles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initially, the Sandton City mall was 30,000 square metres, along with an office tower, far smaller than what it would eventually become.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sandton today<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Today, Sandton is home to some of the largest businesses in South Africa and is also known for its high-end stores and restaurants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The area is home to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), which moved from the Johannesburg CBD in 2000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move helped cement Sandton’s reputation as the country’s financial and commercial hub, and it is also home to several JSE-listed companies, such as Sasol and Old Mutual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other notable companies, such as Discovery, Investec, and Nedbank, which are all in the JSE’s top-40 index, have headquarters in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside the JSE, the five biggest law firms in South Africa, including ENS Africa and Werksmans attorneys, are headquartered in Sandton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sandton City, the area’s main shopping centre, has also expanded notably in recent years and has over 200 stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes its diamond walk, which is a section featuring high-end international retailers such as Burberry, Cartier, and Louis Vuitton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sandton City also includes the famous Nelson Mandela Square, which features several restaurants and a large statue of the former president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The area has several hotels, including the Sandton Sun, a 5-star hotel with amenities such as two pools and a spa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This recently refurbished hotel boasts a variety of restaurants and bars, as well as a deck that offers visitors and locals a breathtaking view of Sandton,” Sandton City said on its website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This hotel is directly connected to the Sandton City shopping centre via a skywalk and is owned and operated by Southern Sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2010, the Gautrain was introduced in South Africa, with an underground station built underneath Sandton City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This station provides convenient transportation for people visiting the area from other parts of Gauteng, and for those staying in hotels in Sandton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photos of Sandton City<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Sandton City was transformed in the 1970s from farmland into an economic hub for South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":855359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2094817820550803733","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2193004961519903","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18618073189053231","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[26357,26358,10526,12128,26355],"class_list":["post-872803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-michael-rapp-2","tag-rapp-and-maister","tag-sandton","tag-sandton-city","tag-sandton-sun"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872803"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":873213,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872803\/revisions\/873213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}