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Pretoria is a city in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country\'s three capital cities, serving as the executive (administrative) and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.
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Pretoria is sometimes regarded as being divided into three sections: west, east and north, relative to the central business district. Pretoria is contained within the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality as one of several constituent former administrations (among which also Centurion and Soshanguve). Pretoria itself is sometimes referred to as "Tshwane" due to a long-running and controversial proposed change of name, which has, as of 2014, yet to be decided.
Pretoria was founded in 1855 by Marthinus Pretorius, a leader of the Voortrekkers, who named it after his father Andries Pretorius. In 1910 Pretoria became the administrative capital of the whole of South Africa, with Cape Town the legislative capital. Between 1860 and 1994, the city was also the capital of the province of Transvaal, superseding Potchefstroom in that role. On 14 October 1931, Pretoria achieved official city status. When South Africa became a republic in 1961, Pretoria remained its administrative capital.
Pretoria is situated approximately 55 km north-northeast of Johannesburg in the north-east of South Africa, in a transitional belt between the plateau of the Highveld to the south and the lower-lying Bushveld to the north. It lies at an altitude of about 1,350 m above sea level, in a warm, sheltered, fertile valley, surrounded by the hills of the Magaliesberg range.
Pretoria´s population ranges from 500,000 to 2.950 million. The main language spoken in the Pretoria is Afrikaans; also widely spoken are Pedi, Sotho, Tswana, Tsonga, Zulu and English. The city of Pretoria has the largest white population of anywhere on the African continent.
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