Pretoria
It is the administrative capital of South Africa. The Executive Branch is located there. Its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the country. It is considered the city that offers the most services nationally in university studies, with universities such as the University of Pretoria, founded in 1908, one of the oldest and most extensive in the public sphere, the University of South Africa, being the first in the country that offers distance education, and the Tshwane University of Technology, which hosts the largest number of science students in South Africa. It is also the headquarters of the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. It is known as "Tshwane" due to the long-running and still unresolved controversial name change proposal. The name Pretoria refers to Andries Pretorius (Boer leader who was instrumental in the creation of the Transvaal Republic). It is popularly known in Africa as “The Jacaranda City” due to the number of trees of this species that are in the streets, parks and gardens.
Its best-known monuments are:
- Statue of Paul Kruger: It is located in Church Square and is a symbol of the city. Around the square where the statue is located, there are typical Afrikaner buildings, such as the Raadsaal (former Transvaal parliament) or the Court of Justice (where Nelson Mandela was tried in 1963), the modern provincial administration building and the headquarters of the postal service. Paul Kruger's house contains several personal objects of the former president of the Transvaal such as the presidential carriage, the traveling carriage and the private saloon car.
- Statue of Nelson Mandela:
- Statue of Nelson Mandela: It is a huge statue, 9 meters high, the work of South African artists Andre Prinsloo and Ruhan Janse van Vuuren. In it you can see a smiling Mandela with open arms. It is sculpted in bronze and located in the gardens of the Union Buildings, the headquarters of the South African Government in the capital.
- Voortrekker Monument: This massive granite structure, built to honor the pioneers (voortrekkers) who left the Cape Colony between 1835 and 1854, was designed by architect Gerard Moerdijk and inaugurated in 1949. It is the most visited monument in the city and can be seen from almost everywhere. it since it is located on the top of a hill. The monumental complex has been expanded over the years and includes: A garden of native plants that surrounds it, Fort Schanskop, built in 1897 by the government of the Republic of South Africa after the Jameson raid and which serves as a museum, an open-air amphitheater, with capacity for 357 people, inaugurated in 2001, and a 3.41 square kilometer nature reserve where you can find zebras, mountain reduncas, springboks and impalas.