South Africa has three capital cities. Pretoria is the executive capital (sometimes referred to as the administrative capital); the legislative capital is Cape Town, and the judicial capital is Bloemfontein.
Pretoria was founded in 1855 by Marthinus Pretorius, a leader of the Voortrekkers (Dutch–speaking settlers who travelled from the Cape Colony into the interior of modern South Africa, from 1836 onwards, seeking to live outside the British colonial administration). He named the city after his father, Andries Pretorius (1798–1853), a Boer settler who had become a national hero of the Voortrekkers after his victory over the Zulus in the Battle of Blood River, in 1838.
In 2005, South Africa's Geographic Names Council approved a recommendation that the name of the city be changed to Tshwane, which is the name of the metropolitan area of which Pretoria is the largest city. Tshwane is the name of a pre–colonial local chief, and means 'we are the same'. The change has still to be approved by the Minister of Arts and Culture, and so is not officially recognised.
© Haydn Thompson 2017