Johannesburg achieved city status on 5th September 1928 at the redesignated City Hall. The photo below shows a large crowd, of a couple of thousand, gathering in front of the City Hall. The proclamation was read out by the Administrator of the Transvaal, the Honourable J H Hofmeyr (who had been the first Principal of the University of the Witwatersrand between 1922 and 1924 and had lived with his mother in a small house in Yeoville). Hofmeyr by 1928 lived in Pretoria but retained his membership of the Rand Club. Source: The Heritage Portal/When Johannesburg became a City by Kathy Munro.