Springs (city, South Africa)

Springs (city, South Africa), city in northeastern South Africa, in Gauteng Province, on a rocky uplift called the Witwatersrand, near Johannesburg. Including two industrial townships and several residential suburbs, it is a gold-mining center of the East Rand district and has plants producing steel, processed uranium, mining and printing machinery, motors and electrical products, canned foods, bicycles, paper, and glass. In the city are a branch of Witwatersrand Technikon, a government miners' training school, a municipal theater, the Pam Brink Stadium, and other sports facilities. An annual Eisteddfod (singing competition) is held here. Originating in the 1880s as a mining settlement exploiting surrounding coalfields, Springs became a township in 1903. Population (2001) 80,776.