Pretoria is the capital of South Africa and is located in the northern part of the Gauteng Province. Pretoria serves as the executive capital with the Cape Town as the legislative capital and Bloemfontein as the judicial capital.
The Voortrekker leader Marthinus Pretorius, who named it after his father, the Voortrekker hero, Andries Pretorius, founded Pretoria in 1855.
Pretoria is also known as the "Jacaranda City", because of its streets lined with Jacaranda trees. The Jacarandas, imported from South America some 100 years ago, blossom sweet smelling and purplish blue in springtime.
The city council voted on 8 March 2005 to rename Pretoria's entire metropolitan area Tshwane. The central area of the new Tshwane Metropolitan Area will continue to be called Pretoria, and Pretoria will remain one of the capitals of South Africa. The South African Geographical Names Council approved the official name change on 26 May 2005. But the central South African government has not yet ratified this name change. There has also been no attempt yet to deregister the name Pretoria.
Pretoria is mainly a government-based city, but it is also a place of culture, with theatres, museums and monuments. Pretoria also boasts superb shopping centres, art galleries and restaurants.
Pretoria offers residents an abundance of open spaces, with more than 100 parks, including bird sanctuaries and nature reserves.
Geography and Climate
Pretoria is located 1,370 m above sea level in the northern part of the Gauteng Province, 50 km north of Johannesburg in the transitional area between the Highveld and Bushveld. Pretoria lies in a warm, well sheltered, fertile valley, surrounded by the hills of the Magaliesberg Mountain Range. The city's coordinates are approximately 25�45? S 28�17? E
Pretoria experiences hot, wet summers and relatively mild, dry winters. Pretoria is usually around three degrees warmer than neighbouring Johannesburg.
Demographics
Pretoria has a population of 1.3 million residents, while two million people reside in the larger Tshwane Metropolitan Area, according to the 2001 Statistics South Africa Census.
The main languages spoken in Pretoria include Afrikaans, Tswana, English, and Ndebele.
Pretoria Economy
Pretoria is an important industrial centre in South Africa. Heavy industries, including iron and steel casting plants, automobile manufacturing plants, railroad manufacturing plants and machinery manufacturing plants.
Pretoria is the headquarters of the South African Iron and Steel Corporation, ISCOR, which produces most of South Africa's steel.
Pretoria's academic, scientific and technological research sectors are the most advanced in Africa.
The Cullinan Diamond, the largest gem diamond ever found, was discovered on 26 January 1905, at the site of the Premier Mine near Pretoria.
Being the South African capital, Pretoria has the second largest number of embassies in the world, after Washington D.C.
Academic Pretoria
Pretoria is one of South Africa's leading academic cities, and is home to both the largest residential university in the country, the University of Pretoria, and as the largest distance education university in South Africa, UNISA or the University of South Africa.
The South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Onderstepoort Veterinary Research Institute, are both internationally respected and located in Pretoria.
