Boipatong

The township was the site of the infamous Boipatong massacre on 17 June 1992, when 46 township residents were massacred by local hostel-dwellers. The massacre took place while the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) negotiations towards the end of apartheid in South Africa were in progress; the killings were one of the factors that led to suspension of the talks. The African National Congress (ANC) National Working Committee released a statement that it could not negotiate in conditions where the poor majority was being killed by state-sponsored violence. The ANC subsequently withdrew from the talks, only to return after then-President F.W. de Klerk committed to controlling his security forces, two years after Nelson Mandela's release. The talks were attended by 228 delegates from 19 political parties.

Further investigation from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) confirmed that the massacre was state-sponsored. The hostel dwellers who killed the residents were Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) members who later confessed to the TRC that they had been transported by government police vehicles and led by white police officers who painted their faces black. This massacre was added to a US lawsuit against multinational corporations that did business with the apartheid regime in South Africa.

A Boipatong Memorial and Youth Heritage Centre dedicated to freedom struggle veterans was being built and about to be completed. The centre was commissioned at a cost of 40 million rand by the Gauteng Province former Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport, now the Department of Infrastructure Development (DID). The private sector contributed a larger portion of the amount R40 million, including a consortium responsible for the construction of Gautrain. The memorial center construction created a number of jobs and provided skills training to members of the community.