Hillbrow Tower
Introduction


The **Hillbrow Tower** (officially the **Telkom Joburg Tower**, and formerly **JG Strijdom Tower**) is a tall [tower](/wiki/Tower "Tower") located in the suburb of [Hillbrow](/wiki/Hillbrow "Hillbrow") in [Johannesburg](/wiki/Johannesburg "Johannesburg"), South Africa. At , it was the [tallest tower](/wiki/List_of_tallest_towers "List of tallest towers") in [Africa](/wiki/Africa "Africa") for 50 years, until it was surpassed in 2021 by the  [Iconic Tower](/wiki/Iconic_Tower_%28Egypt%29 "Iconic Tower (Egypt)") in Egypt's [New Administrative Capital](/wiki/New_Administrative_Capital "New Administrative Capital"), as well as the continent's [tallest structure](/wiki/List_of_tallest_structures_in_Africa "List of tallest structures in Africa") for eleven years, until overtaken by the [Nador transmitter](/wiki/Nador_transmitter "Nador transmitter") in [Morocco](/wiki/Morocco "Morocco"); it remained Africa's tallest free\-standing structure for two more years until overtaken by the chimney of the [Sasol III Steam Plant](/wiki/Secunda_CTL "Secunda CTL") in 1984\. For seven years it was also the tallest structure in the [Southern Hemisphere](/wiki/Southern_Hemisphere "Southern Hemisphere") until 1978, when surpassed by the 270 m [Mount Isa](/wiki/Mount_Isa "Mount Isa") Chimney in [Queensland](/wiki/Queensland "Queensland"), [Australia](/wiki/Australia "Australia"). It remains the tallest [telecommunications tower](/wiki/Radio_masts_and_towers "Radio masts and towers") in Africa. Construction of the tower began in June 1968 and was completed three years later, in April 1971\. Construction cost 2 million [rand](/wiki/South_African_rand "South African rand") (at the time, [US$](/wiki/United_States_dollar "United States dollar")2\.8 million). The tower was initially known as the *JG Strijdom Tower*, after [JG (Hans) Strijdom](/wiki/JG_Strijdom "JG Strijdom"), [South African Prime Minister](/wiki/Prime_Minister_of_South_Africa "Prime Minister of South Africa") from 1954 to 1958\. On 31 May 2005 it was renamed the *Telkom Joburg Tower*.

The tower was constructed for South African Posts \& Telecommunications, which later became [Telkom](/wiki/Telkom_%28South_Africa%29 "Telkom (South Africa)"),James Barber, Angela Fung, Sandeep Toshniwal,
Becky Voorheis, and Campbell R. Harvey, [Telkom, South Africa"](https://faculty.fuqua.duke.edu/~charvey/Cases/1999/Telkom_Case_EMQ_version.pdf), *Winter* (1999\). Retrieved 2011/03/17\. South Africa's government\-run and largest [telecommunications](/wiki/Telecommunications "Telecommunications") company. As the general height of buildings rose in the [central business district](/wiki/Central_Business_District_%28Johannesburg%29 "Central Business District (Johannesburg)"), it became necessary that the height of the new telecommunications tower stayed above the height of the buildings surrounding it.


How tall was the Hillbrow Tower initially?