# Pretoria, South Africa's capital city



## kulani (Oct 4, 2006)

Courtesy of Rovos rail. The University of South Africa can be seen in the foreground. Tony Blair was here last
Friday, 1st of June 2007 to deliver his last speech as Prime Minister on Africa during his visit to South Africa.


----------



## badguy2000 (Mar 1, 2007)

too americanized


----------



## Inertia (Aug 9, 2006)

haha.. should it be more africanized?


----------



## opium (Apr 10, 2006)

Nice pictures . So Pretoria is the capital city of South Africa! There was a discussion about it in the Travel section , where a lot of people wouldnt agree on that . http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=475763


----------



## kulani (Oct 4, 2006)

opium; said:


> Nice pictures . So Pretoria is the capital city of South Africa! There was a discussion about it in the Travel section , where a lot of people wouldnt agree on that . http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=


Yeah, i saw that, interesting debate. I guess it can be confusing to an outsider. But to answer this question without confusing anyone. Pretoria is the capital of South Africa. It has been the capital of South Africa since the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910 and continued to be its administrative capital when South Africa became a republic in 1961. Pretoria is where the executive seat of government including the Union Buildings, national government offices, several corporate offices of large government owned state owned enterprises like Eskom (electricity generation), Telkom are based.


----------



## kulani (Oct 4, 2006)

Cape Town is the legislative seat and this is where the parliament is. So yes, government officials and politicians are endlessly on trips between Cape Town and Pretoria which can cost quite a bit of money. There was some indications earlier in the beginning of post-apartheid era that the ANC wanted to move parliament to Pretoria to cut down on this cost, but this was met with a lot of opposition from Cape Town and other stakeholders and was subsequently abandoned. 

For the record Johannesburg has never been and is not the Capital of SA. What confuses most people is that it is the biggest city in SA (much like New York is not capital of US but Washington) so they obviously assume that it is the capital. However Johannesburg and Pretoria are only a distance of 40 miles apart which i guess also add to the confusion. As for Bloemfontein it is the seat of the judiciary so most of the high courts, supreme courts, appeals courts seat in Bloemfontein. That said, the Constitutional court actually happen to seat in Johannesburg.


----------



## kulani (Oct 4, 2006)

Pretoria again


----------



## kulani (Oct 4, 2006)

South African Reserve Bank building (the big black building)


----------



## Brisbaner21 (Jul 17, 2007)

Nice city..... more scrapers would make for a very attractive skyline.


----------



## kulani (Oct 4, 2006)

bump this up




























one of the stadiums to be upgraded for FIFA 2010 World Cup


----------



## WinoSoul (Sep 14, 2005)

Very simple and beautiful city!


----------



## kevinkagy (Sep 5, 2005)

Very beautiful city, really beautiful.

And for those saying it's "too american", what's wrong with it being American? I don't see it looking American, it looks very African to me, what do you want it to look like? Skyscrapers are an American invention, so obviously it's going to look somewhat American.

P.S. I really like the color of the soil, deep red, really nice!


----------



## Pule (May 18, 2004)

kevinkagy said:


> Very beautiful city, really beautiful.
> 
> And for those saying it's "too american", what's wrong with it being American? I don't see it looking American, it looks very African to me, what do you want it to look like? Skyscrapers are an American invention, so obviously it's going to look somewhat American.
> 
> P.S. I really like the color of the soil, deep red, really nice!


This city will start with the construction of the BRT in September this year and the Rekgabisa Tswana project is already underway, http://www.rekgabisatshwane.gov.za/home.html


----------



## Lydon (Sep 7, 2007)

I still find that "too American" comment hilarious.


----------



## kulani (Oct 4, 2006)

Lydon said:


> I still find that "too American" comment hilarious.


i have heard that comment a few times from American tourists coming to South Africa. I normally just took it that they probably did not have much of an idea how a South African city looks like architecturally . So on discovering that it does not look that very different from their own cities, the natural response is to say it looks "American". Sure sometimes its pure ignorance, but with all the media focus in Africa being on the makeshift houses (shacks) in the poverty stricken areas, one would think the whole place looks like that.


----------



## kulani (Oct 4, 2006)

My girlfriend was here last month from New York City and it was her first time in South Africa (only been to Ghana before in Africa) and she told me that Johannesburg looked a little bit of everything in terms of architecture (i.e. a bit American, European and African). She was surprised by the quality of our roads, highways, shopping malls, food and our weather. She also mentioned that she had not seen so many car dealerships (LOL). She really liked Nelson Mandela square, Sandton, Melrose Arch, Design Quarter, Monte Casino, Soweto, Emperor's Palace, Hyde park, Newtown and Bedfordview. Really liked Hartbeespoort and the whole drive there with all the golf courses on the way. 

Pitty she was only here for 4 days so we didn't have any time to go anywhere outside Joburg. I did take her to Union Building in Pretoria though.


----------

