The Hillbrow Tower is a tall tower located in the suburb of Hillbrow in Johannesburg, South Africa. At 269 m (883 ft), it has been the tallest structure and tower in Africa for 40 years, and it was also the tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere until 1978, when surpassed by the 270m Mount Isa Chimney in Australia. Construction of the tower began in June 1968 and was completed three years later in April 1971. Construction cost 2 million Rand (at the time, US$2.8 million). The tower was initially known as the JG Strijdom Tower after JG Strijdom, the South African Prime Minister from 1954 to 1958. On 31 May 2005 it was renamed the Telkom Jo'burg Tower.
The tower was constructed for what became Telkom, South Africa's largest telecommunications company. As the general height of buildings rose in the central business district, it was necessary that the new telephone tower had to stay above the general height of the tallest building.