Benoni is situated on the East Rand of Gauteng. It is a diverse place with the most horse stables per square kilometres in the southern hemisphere. Gold used to form the backbone of the economy but now the town is more geared to industry and service.
Due to the number of lakes in the area, Benoni is known as the 'City of Lakes'. Benoni was once home to Hollywood starlet Charlize Theron, while Charlene Wittstock - former Olympic swimmer and now princess of Monaco - attended school there.
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The town's name was derived from the Hebrew word meaning 'son of sorrow'. The surveyor general at the time apparently had difficulty establishing the boundaries of the existing surrounding farms. Benoni owes its existence to the discovery of gold in 1887. The Gold Rush on the Highveld attracted people from all walks of life and from different parts of the world and it was in Benoni where a group of Cornish miners settled. The mining town became known as 'Little Cornwall' for a while.
