Why does South Africa have three capitals?
Unfortunately everyone before are wrong. We actually have a total of 10 Capital cities in South Africa. You know about the 3 national ones : Cape Town, Bloemfontein and also Pretoria. Every one of the 9 provinces also has a Capitals; Cape Town and Bloemfontein serves as one of the National Capitals and provincial capitals. Pretoria falls in the Tswane Metropolitan Council. The name of Pretoria has however NOT been changed legally and there is extensive opposition to the changing. Currently it is still known as PRETORIA. The 3 national capitals are: Pretoria (Administrative), Bloemfontein (Judicial) and Cape Town (Legialative). To find the reason for the three capitals, one must look at tyhe negotiations that took place with the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910. Two Boere republics (The Orange Free State and Transvaal) and two Brittish Colonies were combined under the Union Jack to form the Union of South Africa. In order to placate the BOERE, it was suggested that the two
So Stevieboy is correct in naming why each of the three cities are call capitals for different areas of life in SA but the reason there are three cities used is historical and economical. Parliament used to move for 6 months of each year between Pretoria and Cape Town. The government and all embassies had two residences and a “Great Trek” was undertaken every six months to move from north to south and back again. Its to do with placating Afrikaans and English speaking peoples in SA back when South Africa was still a colony of England. Bloemfontein is in the dead center of South Africa as was picked as the site of the High Court of the country for that reason.
I just want to clear a few things out for you, because some of the answers I read were quite misleading. Yes, SA has 3 capitals, Administrative, Judicial and Legislative. Administrative – Pretoria Legislative – Johannesburg Judicial – Cape Town The Administrative Capital is Pretoria, because that is where all the different embassies are located, as well as the Union Building. Legislative is Johannesburg because that is where the Highest Court, The Constitutional Court, is located (Constitution Hill). (The Highest Court of Appeal is located in Bloemfontein, but in the hierarchy of Courts it is second to the Constitutional Court of course, thus making Johannesburg the seat of the Highest Court hence the fact that it is the Legislative Capital. The Constitutional Court was only build in 1997 if I am not mistaking, so that is why the Legislative Capital changed from Bloemfontein to Johannesburg and why so many people still think Bloem is the capital) Judicial is Cape Town because that is w
