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Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive (administrative) and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.
Pretoria is contained in the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality as one of several constituent former administrations (among which also Centurion and Soshanguve), and therefore sometimes incorrectly referred to as Tshwane this contentious issue is still being decided as of .
The city's original name was Pretoria Philadelphia (Pretoria of brotherly love).
Southern Transvaal Ndebele occupied the river valley, which was to become the location of the city of Pretoria, by around 1600.
During the difaqane in Natal, another band of refugees arrived in this area under the leadership of Mzilikazi.
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Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive (administrative) and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.
Pretoria is contained in the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality as one of several constituent former administrations (among which also Centurion and Soshanguve), and therefore sometimes incorrectly referred to as Tshwane this contentious issue is still being decided as of .
The city's original name was Pretoria Philadelphia (Pretoria of brotherly love).
History
The Southern Transvaal Ndebele occupied the river valley, which was to become the location of the city of Pretoria, by around 1600.
During the difaqane in Natal, another band of refugees arrived in this area under the leadership of Mzilikazi. However, they were forced to abandon their villages in their flight from a regiment of Zulu raiders in 1832.
Pretoria itself was founded in 1855 by Marthinus Pretorius, a leader of the Voortrekkers, who named it after his father Andries Pretorius. The elder Pretorius had become a national hero of the Voortrekkers after his victory over the Zulus in the Battle of Blood River. Andries Pretorius also negotiated the Sand River Convention (1852), in which Britain acknowledged the independence of the Transvaal. It became the capital of the South African Republic (ZAR) on 1 May 1860.
The founding of Pretoria as the capital of the South African Republic can be seen as marking the end of the Boers' settlement movements of the Great Trek.
Boer Wars
During the First Boer War, the city was besieged by Republican forces in December 1880 and March 1881. The peace treaty which ended the war was signed in Pretoria on 3 August 1881 at the Pretoria Convention.
The Second Boer War (1899 to 1902) resulted in the end of the South African Republic and start of British hegemony in South Africa. During the war, Winston Churchill was imprisoned in the Staats Model School in Pretoria but escaped to Mozambique. The city surrendered to British forces under Frederick Roberts on 5 June 1900 and the conflict was ended in Pretoria with the signing of the Peace of Vereeniging on 31 May 1902.
A number of forts were build for the defense of the city just prior to the Second Boer War, though some are today in ruins, a number of them have been preserved as national monuments.
Union of South Africa
The Boer Republics of the ZAR and the Orange Free State were united with the Cape Colony and Natal Colony in 1910 to become the Union of South Africa. Pretoria then became the administrative capital of the whole of South Africa, with Cape Town the legislative capital. Between 1860 and 1994, the city was also the capital of the province of Transvaal, superseding Potchefstroom in that role.
On 14 October 1931, Pretoria achieved official city status. When South Africa became a republic in 1961, Pretoria remained its administrative capital.
Post Apartheid
After the creation of new municipal structures across South Africa in 2000, the name Tshwane was adopted for the Metropolitan Municipality that includes Pretoria and surrounding towns.
Pretoria previously had a rather sinister image as "the capital of Apartheid South Africa". However, Pretoria's political reputation was changed with the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as the country's first black President at the Union Buildings in the same city. However, the name Pretoria still has a negative connotation to some black South Africans, and therefore a change of name to Tshwane has been proposed. This proposed change is controversial to most of the inhabitants of the city.
One example of the image of Pretoria abroad was the derisive nickname Pretoria-Gasteiz for Vitoria-Gasteiz in Negu Gorriaks song Napartheid.
In 1994 Peter Holmes Maluleka was elected as transitional mayor of Pretoria, until the first democratic election held later that year, making him the first black mayor of this capital of South Africa.
Maluleka later became the chairman of the Greater Pretoria Metropolitan City Council (later Tshwane Metro Council), then was elected Speaker of the Tshwane Metro Council and in 2004 was chosen to be a member of the South African Parliament for the Soshanguve constituency.
Geography
Pretoria is the transitional area between the Highveld and the Bushveld, approximately north of Johannesburg in the north-east of South Africa. It lies in a warm, well sheltered, fertile valley, surrounded by the hills of the Magaliesberg range, 1,370 m (4,495 ft) above sea level.
Climate
The city has a mild climate and snow is an extremely rare event, which occurs once or twice in a century.
CBD
The Central Business District (CBD) of Pretoria, South Africa is the traditional centre of government and commerce, although today most corporate office, small business, shops and many government departments can be found in the sprawling suburbs of the city rather than the CBD.
Demographics
The city has a population of approximately one million. The main languages spoken in Pretoria include Tswana, Afrikaans, Ndebele, and English. The whole Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality had a population of 1,985,997 as of the 2001 census (28% whites, coloureds and Indians).
Cityscape
Architecture
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Pretoria has over the years had very diverse cultural influences and this is reflected in the architectural styles that can be found in the city. It ranges from British Colonial Architecture to Art Deco with a good mix of uniquely South African style mixed in.
Some of the notable structures in Pretoria include the Union Buildings, Voortrekker Monument, the main campus of the University of South Africa, Mahlamba Ndlopfu and the Pretoria transmission tower.
Parks and gardens
Pretoria is home to the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa as well as the Pretoria National Botanical Garden, one of the National Botanical Gardens in South Africa. There are also a number of smaller parks and gardens located throughout the city, including the Austin Roberts Bird Sanctuary.
Transport
Railway
Transnet operates commuter and main line trains from Pretoria Station. Extensive changes are in progress at this station as work in being done to accommodate the new Gautrain station below the lines and platforms of the existing station.
Pretoria Station is a departure point for the Blue Train.
Rovos Rail , a luxury mainline train safari service operated from the colonial-style railway station at Capital Park.
The South African Friends of the Rail have recently moved their vintage train trip operations from the Capital Park station to the Hercules station.
Busses
Road
The N1 is the major freeway that runs through Pretoria. The N1 Eastern Bypass bisects the large expanse of the eastern suburbs, routing traffic from Johannesburg to Polokwane and the north of the country. The N4 Platinum Highway forms the Northern Bypass and routes traffic from Witbank to Rustenburg. The N4 runs east-west through South Africa, connecting Maputo to Gaborone. Other major freeways include the N14 which links Pretoria with Johannesburg's West Rand, and the R21 which links the city with OR Tambo International Airport.
Airports
Pretoria does not have an international airport serving it, like South Africa's three other major cities (Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban). Instead, it makes use of OR Tambo International Airport, which serves Johannesburg. Wonderboom Airport to the north of the city serves light aircraft, and there are two military air bases to the south of the city (Swartkop and Waterkloof).
Society and culture
Media
Since Pretoria forms part the Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, most radio, television and paper media is the same as what can be found in the rest of the metro area.
Museums
* Pretoria Forts
Music
A number of popular South African bands and musicians are originally from Pretoria. These include Seether
The song Marching to Pretoria refers to this city.
Sport
One of the most popular sports in Pretoria is rugby union. Loftus Versfeld is home to the Blue Bulls who compete in the domestic Currie Cup, the Bulls who compete in the international Super 14 competition (Winners of the Super 14 in 2007) and to soccer side Mamelodi Sundowns . Pretoria also hosted matches during the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Loftus Versfeld will be used for matches of the 2010 Soccer World Cup.There are two soccer teams in the city campaigning in the Premier Soccer League. They are Sundowns and Supersport United. Sundowns are the reigning PSL Champions. Cricket is also popular.
Stadiums
Pretoria is a massive industrial center. It is at the heart of South Africa's main commerce center. It's main industries are iron and copper casting as well as manufacturing automobiles, railcars and machinery.
Education
Tertiary education
Pretoria is one of South Africa's leading academic cities, and it is home to both the largest residential university in the country (the University of Pretoria), the Tshwane University of Technology and the largest distance education university (the University of South Africa, more commonly known by its initials, UNISA). The South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is also located in this city.
Secondary education
Change of name
On 26 May 2005 the South African Geographical Names Council (SAGNC), which is linked to the Directorate of Heritage in the Department of Arts and Culture, approved changing the name of Pretoria to Tshwane, which is already the name of the Metropolitan Municipality in which Pretoria, and a number of surrounding towns are located. Although the name change was approved by the SAGNC, it has not yet been approved by the Minister of Arts and Culture, Pallo Jordan. The matter is currently under consideration while he has requested further research on the matter. Should the Minister approve the name change, the name will be published in the Government Gazette, giving the public opportunity to comment on the matter. The Minister can then refer the public response back to the SAGNC, before presenting his recommendation before parliament, who will vote on the change. Various public interest groups have warned that the name change will be challenged in court, should the minister approve the renaming. The long process involved made it unlikely the name would change anytime soon, if ever, even assuming the Minister had approved the change in early 2006.
The Tshwane Metro Council has advertised Tshwane as "Africa's leading capital city" since the name change was approved by the SAGNC in 2005. This has led to further controversy, however, as the name of the city had not yet been changed officially, and the council was, at best, acting prematurely. Following a complaint lodged with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), it was ruled that such advertisements are deliberately misleading and should be withdrawn from all media. Despite the rulings of the ASA, Tshwane Metro Council failed to discontinue their "City of Tshwane" advertisements. As a result, the ASA requested that Tshwane Metro pay for advertisements in which it admits that it has misled the public. Refusing to abide by the ASA's request, the Metro Council was banned consequently from placing any advertisements in the South African media that refer to Tshwane as the capital. ASA may still place additional sanctions on the Metro Council that would prevent it from placing any advertisements in the South African media, including council notices and employment vacancies.
After the ruling, the Metro Council continued to place Tshwane advertisements, but placed them on council-owned advertising boards and busstops throughout the municipal area. In August 2007, an internal memo was leaked to the media in which the Tshwane mayor sought advice from the premier of Gauteng on whether the municipality could be called the "City of Tshwane" instead of just "Tshwane". This could increase confusion about the distinction between the city of Pretoria and the municipality of Tshwane.
Sister cities
Johannesburg, South Africa
Shopping Malls
- Atterbury Boulevard
- Atterbury Value Mart
- Brooklyn Mall
- Hatfield Plaza
- Menlyn Park Shopping Centre
- Menlyn Retail Park
- Sammy marks shopping Centre
- Sancardia Shopping Centre
- Sterland Mall
- Woodlands Boulevard
Places of interest
*Pretoria National Botanical Garden
Nature Reserves
Trivia
- Pretoria's main street, Church Street is the longest urban street in South Africa and one of the longest straight streets in the world. It was announced in September 2008, that the name of this street is due to have its name changed, along with many other streets within the city.
- Many of the city's streets are lined with Jacaranda trees that blossom mauve (purplish blue) in spring, giving rise to the city's nickname "Jacaranda City" (or "Jakarandastad" in Afrikaans).
- The Cullinan Diamond (the largest gem diamond ever found) was discovered in the town of Cullinan near Pretoria at the Premier Mine on 26 January 1905.
- Pax Praetoriana was named after Pretoria.
See also
External links
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