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South Africa's Capital Renamed Tshwane
By Associated Press
March 7, 2005, 10:29 PM EST
PRETORIA, South Africa -- In a symbolic break with apartheid, officials in
South Africa's capital voted Monday to rename the city Tshwane, retaining
the name Pretoria for the city center only.
The decision was taken at a special meeting of the governing African
National Congress-dominated metropolitan council, the South African Press
Association reported.
"By embarking on this process and project of transformation, our country is
making a clear distinction between the old and the new, the past and the
present," Executive Mayor Smangaliso Mkhatshwa was quoted as saying during a
four-hour debate.
The city of 2 million, established by white settlers in 1855, was named
after Andries Pretorius, a leader in the Afrikaners' "Great Trek" into the
interior of the country. Tshwane, which means "we are the same," was the
name used by some of the region's earliest African settlers.
The South African Geographic Names Council is expected to approve the change
when it convenes in October and begin the process of changing the city's
name on maps.
Monday's vote is the latest in a series of geographic name changes since
South Africa's first all-race elections in 1994 ended decades of
white-minority rule.
The government says South Africans should not have to live in cities, towns
and streets named after the people responsible for their racial oppression.
Opposition councilors argued Monday that the process was a waste of money,
and said the move to rename Pretoria threatens to split the capital along
racial lines.
Copyright © 2005, The Associated Press
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