Khutsong is a township on the West Rand of South Africa, and scene of widespread unrest starting in February 2006.

[2] It is situated north-west of the town of Carletonville,[3] in the Merafong City Local Municipality of the Gauteng province, just west of the Abe Bailey Nature Reserve.

conducted by the Water Research Commission in South Africa has shown that heavy metal and radionuclide contamination is closely associated with rivers and wetlands downstream of major mining operations.

[citation needed] On 27 April 2007 when President Thabo Mbeki was celebrating Freedom Day at Bhisho renewed riots reminiscent of those which occurred in Soweto on 16 June 1976 took place in the streets of Khutsong.

[12] It is reported that the event took place as a result of high levels of violent crime and the ongoing abduction of young girls as well as the recruitment of school children into the gangs.