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Discover South Africa
Union Buildings and Nelson Mandela, Tshwane / Veebee Design, Shutterstock
If you are planning a visit to the City of Tshwane in northern Gauteng
province, popularly called the Jacaranda City and incorporating
among others Pretoria, Cullinan, Hammanskraal, Shoshanguve, and
Centurion, consider the following.
You will be entering a unique and stately, old but modern city that
has within its city limits historical battlefields and military forts,
many heritage sites, art galleries and museums, theatres, dams
and rivers, a number of bird sanctuaries and nature reserves, a
meteorite crater, the seat of government, three universities, a
large number of resorts, monuments galore, a massive military headquarters
complex, numerous parks and public swimming pools, some of the country’s
finest hotels and restaurants, night clubs, foreign embassies, the home of Blue
Bulls rugby, modern shopping malls, zoological gardens and the country’s
oldest zoo.
And, wait for it, Tshwane claims to be the only city in the world with its own
Big 5 game reserve right in the city, as well as the biggest hole resulting from
diamond digging, four times bigger than the famous Kimberley Hole, it is
claimed.
All of this within the city limits and within a radius of about 30 to 60km from
historical Church Square in the city centre!
Pretoria city centre, in the heart of Tshwane / mage: Francesco Dazzi, Shutterstock
Perhaps now you will pause a moment and re-plan your trip the next time
you have to pop over from Johannesburg or some other nearby location for
business, a visit to a friend or family, to pop in at some government office, or
even that boring Sunday drive, to truly discover this fabulous city. Or, if travelling
from farther away en route to, say the Kruger National Park, consider adding on
a few days for an exhilarating stopover in Tshwane.
Dig just a little deeper, and you will discover a treasure trove of wonderful
experiences just waiting for you.
Tshwane is the second largest of South Africa’s eight metropolitan municipalities
by land area at 6,298Km2, but has the third lowest population density at 520
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people per square kilometre. It has a total population of 3.3-million people. The
city occupies almost all of the northern half of the province of Gauteng, which it
shares with two other metros, Ekurhuleni and Johannesburg.
History
The first inhabitants of the area were the Southern Ndebele who settled here
in a river valley around 1600, followed by refugees led by Mzilikazi during the
Difaqane, also known as the Mfecane, a period of widespread warfare and chaos
among indigenous ethnic communities, many of whom were displaced, absorbed
into other tribes or, some, even wiped out. The latter were forced to flee the area
again when Zulu raiders arrived in 1832.
The first white settler, or Boer, believed to have settled here was J.G.S.