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Welkom, South Africa
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Welkom, South Africa
Welkom, South Africa

Welkom

South Africa
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History

Welkom, city, Free State province, South Africa, southwest of Johannesburg. It was founded in 1947 amid goldfields, the development of which brought rapid growth, quickly making it the provinceā€™s second largest town. It attained municipal status in 1961 and was declared a city in 1968. In 2000 it was incorporated into the Matjhabeng Local Municipality. Unlike many gold-mining towns, it was carefully planned from the beginning around a horseshoe-shaped shopping and administrative area that surrounds a park of 11 acres (4.5 hectares). In addition to gold and uranium mining, Welkom has many industries, including slaughtering, steelmaking, sawmilling, and a variety of manufactures. The city has a technical college, a technological institute, and an airport. Pop. (2022) local municipality, 407,020; (2022) local municipality, 439,034.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Amy McKenna.
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