Indian businesses and services in Johannesburg, South Africa

Indian South Africans in Johannesburg are a settled, multi-generational community. Their roots go back to the city's earliest years, when traders and workers, many from families that had first come to Natal, moved up to the Witwatersrand after gold was found. Mohandas Gandhi lived and worked in Johannesburg in the 1900s, and his time here is still part of the community's story.

Fordsburg, just west of the city centre, is the historic heart of Indian commercial life. The Oriental Plaza in Fordsburg, a large market complex of fabric, spice, clothing and homeware traders, was built under apartheid in the early 1970s for merchants removed from the old trading area of Fietas, in Vrededorp and Pageview. Today Fordsburg is a centre of Indian and Pakistani culture, with many halal restaurants.

Lenasia, south-west of the city, was established under the Group Areas Act as a township for Indian residents and has grown into a large suburb with its own temples, mosques, schools and shopping centres. It has Hindu temples as well as many mosques, and Diwali is celebrated widely there, in temples, homes and at community events. Families also live in many other suburbs across the city, so Lenasia and Fordsburg are starting points rather than the whole picture. Driving is the practical way to move between them, as the two areas are some distance apart.