South Africa · Gauteng · Benoni
Springs, Benoni — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Springs is a former independent city inside the City of Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg in Gauteng Province, and probably named for its springs.
About Springs
Where to stay in Springs
The right area depends on your trip — here's what each neighbourhood is best for.
Johannesburg is the anchor. Springs lies about 50 km east of it inside the City of Ekurhuleni, close enough that a bed here works for anyone with business on that side of Gauteng Province and far enough that the drive in is a real one. Pretoria is the other reference. Roughly 72 km separate the two, so a stay in Springs suits a trip that touches both cities rather than one built around a single centre, and Springs, independent as a city until it joined Ekurhuleni, is a place in its own right rather than an outer edge of Johannesburg.
About Springs
What are the main landmarks in Springs?
Water gave the town its name. The large number of springs in the area is the likeliest source of the word, and that scatter of small sources, rather than any monument, is what Springs is identified by on the ground east of Johannesburg. Height is the other marker.
The town stands well over a kilometre above sea level, which places Springs among the elevated inland towns of South Africa rather than anywhere near a coast, and that height is a fact of the setting before anything else.
What is the history of Springs?
Springs began as its own city. The founding year on record is 1904, and Springs ran as an independent city before the City of Ekurhuleni took it in. Amalgamation ended that.
Springs is carried inside the City of Ekurhuleni, grouped here with Benoni, and the older standing as a city in its own right survives in the name and in the way the place is described rather than in any separate administration. The springs themselves came first. Whatever the town became, the water in the area is the probable source of its name, and that pre-dates 1904 and the boundaries of Gauteng Province alike.
Where is Springs?
Springs stands east of Johannesburg. The town sits well above sea level in Gauteng Province, in the subtropical band of the southern hemisphere.
Updated August 2026