Laudium (/ˈlɔːdiəm, ˈloʊ-/) is an Indian township southwest of central Pretoria, in the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality.

Older aerial photographs show remains of circular type dwellings to the west of Laudium, built by its earliest inhabitants.

Extensions 2 and 3 are hilly and lie north of a railway line that linked the PPC dolomite quarry near Erasmia with Iscor's Pretoria Works.

In 1981, an Umkhonto weSizwe rocket attack on the Voortrekkerhoogte (now Thaba Tshwane) military base was launched from Laudium.

In 2012, Claudius east of the R55 had a wall and security gate system (road closure) installed, which residents have free access to as every resident paid a small portion of the cost of building the wall however, visitors have to fill out an entry/visitors book before entering, making it a gated community.

[citation needed] Laudium has a large number of Hindu and Muslim residents, with a large number of temples and mosques, the oldest temple being the Shree Pretoria Hindu Seva Samaj and mosque PMT Jumma Masjid in Jewel Street.

[citation needed] An economically deprived[4] area of Laudium (described in an academic paper as a "ghetto"),[5] informally called White Blocks (named after their paint colour), with single and multi-family government-built dwelling units is situated in the western part of Laudium.

After the end of Apartheid, many residents of Laudium moved to the neighbouring (formerly whites-only) suburbs of Erasmia and Christoburg which lie directly south of Laudium, relieving housing pressure caused by segregation, and, eventually, a link road was constructed, and later tarred, allowing for direct travel between the suburbs (previously, the only way to travel between Laudium and Erasmia was a circuitous route via the R55 and M26), and by the time of the 2001 census, Indians made up almost 66% of the population of Erasmia and Christoburg, having largely displaced their white residents[6] in the preceding ten years.

Significant numbers of more affluent Indian residents began relocating out of Laudium, to newly established nearby security estates in western Centurion in the late 2000s.

There are many Islamic educational institutes which specializes in teaching Islamic Sciences namely the Sunni Darul Uloom Pretoria The Transvaal College of Education, which trained Indian teachers in the former Transvaal province was moved to a large campus in Laudium.

As with most townships under apartheid, road access was limited to allow for easy control by the security forces.

The N14 westbound from the R55 connects Laudium and surrounding areas to the West Rand, and the eastbound lanes are used to access the N1 to Johannesburg, via the Brakfontein interchange in Centurion.

Road links to the economically and academically important eastern suburbs of Pretoria are poor, usually requiring drivers to traverse the city centre or rat run across the Thaba Tshwane military base.

Post 1994, possibly coinciding with the rise of new residents, the increase in formal and informal retail has been noticeable.

Again this is a further reflection of the greater picture in the country in which the majority of small business in all suburbs, townships and metropolitan areas are foreign owned..[citation needed]