Pretoria

Pretoria (prĭtô`rēə), city (1991 pop. 667,700), Gauteng, administrative capital of South Africa and formerly capital of Transvaal. Pretoria is now part of the Tshwane metropolitan municipality, and in 2005 the metropolitan council voted to rename Pretoria Tshwane, an action not yet approved by the central goverment. Although it is primarily an administrative center, there are important industries, especially iron and steel. The city has automobile assembly plants, railroad and machine shops, and flour mills. Pretoria is linked with the rest of South Africa by highways and railroads; an international airport is nearby. Founded in 1855, the city was named for Andries Pretorius, a Boer (Afrikaner) leader. Pretoria became the capital of the South African Republic (the Transvaal) in 1860. During the South African War (1899–1902), Winston Churchill was imprisoned in Pretoria but escaped to Mozambique. The Peace of Vereeninging, which ended the war, was signed in Pretoria. When the Union of South Africa was founded in 1910, Pretoria became its administrative capital and Cape Town its parliamentary capital. An educational and cultural center, Pretoria is the seat of the Univ. of South Africa (1873), the Univ. of Pretoria (founded 1908 as Transvaal Univ. College), and South Africa's largest industrial research institute. The Transvaal Museum, the National Historical Cultural Museum, and the National Zoological Gardens are also in the city.

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Pretoria

City (pop., 2005 est.: metro. area, 1,282,000), administrative capital of the Republic of South Africa. Founded in 1855, it became the capital of the Transvaal in 1860, the administrative capital of South Africa in 1910, and a city in 1931. In 1899, during the South African War (1899–1902), Winston Churchill was imprisoned there until his escape. Pretoria is primarily a seat of government, and most people are employed in the service sector. It is also an important rail centre, with an industrial economy based on iron and steel. Its educational institutions include the University of South Africa (1873) and the University of Pretoria (1908). Pretoria became part of the Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality in 2000. See also Bloemfontein; Cape Town.

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Pretoria

a city in N South Africa, the administrative capital of South Africa; formerly capital of Transvaal province: two universities (1873, 1930); large steelworks. Pop.: 525 384 (2001)

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Pretoria 

the capital of the Republic of South Africa and of the province of the Transvaal. It is situated in the northeastern part of the country at an elevation of 1,738 m, along both banks of the unnavigable Apies River. An important transportation junction for railroads and highways that link various regions of the Republic with countries of southeastern and central Africa, it is 43 km from the Jan Smuts International Airport. The coldest month is June (about 10°C), and the hottest month is January (21.4°C); the annual precipitation is 741 mm. With suburbs, Pretoria occupies an area of more than 560 sq km. The population is 544,000 (1970; according to some sources, 571,500), including 304,600 Europeans and 234,700 Africans, who are victims of harsh racial discrimination.

Pretoria was founded in 1855 by the Boers and was named in honor of A. W. J. Pretorius. In 1860 it became the capital of the South African Republic, the official name of the Boer republic of the Transvaal, in 1910 of the Union of South Africa, and in 1961 of the Republic of South Africa.

Pretoria is a major industrial center, whose growth was aided by the proximity of the Witwatersrand, the country’s most important industrial region. The city is a center for ferrous metallurgy and approximately half of its total work force is employed by a state-operated metallurgical plant, the Iron and Steel Industrial Corporation (ISCOR). There are enterprises of the machine-building and metalworking industries—automobile assembly and production of bicycles and electrical equipment— as well as the chemical, textile, food-processing, tobacco, cement, glass, and printing industries. The city also has large railroad workshops. Nearby there is a plant for the production of ferrovanadium, and diamonds (at the Premier mines) and iron ore are mined.

A. S. POKROVSKII

Pretoria has a regular street plan. The city’s historical center is Church Square, surrounded by the former Volksraad building (1899) and by other 19th-century structures of varying architectural styles. Twentieth-century buildings include neoclassic structures by H. Baker and functionalist ones by N. Iton, W. G. Mcintosh, and B. Sendrok. Modern Pretoria abounds with greenery. Skyscrapers, located mainly in the eastern, business district, stand side by side with suburban slums, where the Coloured population is concentrated. Near the city is a monument, completed in 1949, to the first Transvaal settlers.

In Pretoria are the University of South Africa, the University of Pretoria, and the Pretoria College for Advanced Technical Education. There are a number of research institutions and scientific and scholarly societies, including the Directorate of Agricultural Research (which administers 11 institutes, six located in Pretoria), the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa, the Geological Survey of South Africa, and the Radcliffe Observatory, as well as the Africa Institute and the South African Academy of Science and Art.

Pretoria also has major libraries, including the Transvaal Provincial Library, which coordinates 20 regional libraries, the State Library, the University of Pretoria Libraries, and the Sanlam Library of the University of South Africa. Museums include the Municipal Art Gallery, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Transvaal Museum, and the National Cultural History and Open-Air Museum.