Tshwane (pronounce Tésouâné) - Apies in Afrikaans is small monkey in language Tswana - is the name of the agglomeration which includes the town of Pretoria in South Africa.

This Conurbation of 2 million inhabitants located in the province of Gauteng includes/understands thirteen old municipalities of which some are located at more than 80 km of the city-center of Pretoria, until in the close province.

Only two of these thirteen old municipalities are cities mainly white (Pretoria and Centurion).

The white account for 23% of the total of the inhabitants of the municipality and nearly 90% of the taxpayers.

Geography

Tshwane is a Municipalité of the Province of the Gauteng. This metropolitan Conurbation includes/understands Pretoria, the Capitale of the Pays.

Founded in 2000 starting from thirteen old administrative or municipal structures, the municipality of Tshwane extends on more than 60 km of is in west and nearly 80 km of north in the south.

History of the name of Tshwane

Several versions exist on the origin of the word Tshwane :

  • For the oldest version, Tshwane means “small monkey” in Tswana and was the name by which the indigenous tribes indicated the small local river. With their installation, the Boer S took again this name, translates literally into Afrikaans by “Apies”, to indicate this same river close which they built the town of Pretoria in 1855.

  • In 2000, to baptize the news metropolitan Conurbation including Pretoria, the municipal authorities dominated by ANC had chosen Tswhane with the pretext that it was the historical name former to Pretoria, used by African to indicate the South-African capital. According to this version, Tshwane would have been the name of the son of a tribal chief named Mushi, established in the area more than 100 years before the arrival of the Boer S. the tribe of the Mushi Chief would have been itself originating in the Zoulouland and would have been established at the river banks that it made call Tshwane in the honor of his son. However, no historical or contemporary document had attested this historical version of Tshwane more especially as until in 2000, only the other name used by African to indicate Pretoria was " ePitoli" , translation of Pretoria in Zulu.
  • In 2003, the mayor of Tshwane requires the change of the name of the city even of Pretoria so that it takes the only name of Tshwane, which would be authenticates it African name of Pretoria, and which would mean now “we are similar”.

For the partisans of the name change, if they are appropriate that they are well Boers which founded the town of Pretoria in 1855, this one should however have borne the name of Tshwane because of the former name of the site on which the city was built. The choice of Tshwane instead of " ePitoli" , in language Zulu (more used by African to indicate Pretoria), is explained by the fact that the city is located in an area at majority of language tswana. But the questioning of the existence or coherence of the choice of Tshwane by the chiefs Ndébélé S buildings of language tswana seriously called into question all this argumentation. If it had suddenly been proven that Mushi and Tshwane had left the darkness or the imagination of the municipal leaders for even racist politicking reasons, it would be then an attack with the rights and the protection of the minorities expressed in the constitution of 1996.

Components of Tshwane

  • Town of Pretoria: capital of South Africa, founded in 1855
  • Centurion: white Suburbs, old town of Lyttleton renamed Verwoerdburg (1967 - 1995)
  • Ga-Rankuwa: Founded black suburbs in 1961 within the framework of the policy of Apartheid
  • Township de Temba: founded in 1940
  • Township de Mabopane: founded in 1969
  • Winterveld
  • the old metropolitan subdivision of the north of Pretoria including/understanding the industrial park of Rosslyn and the township of Soshanguve (located in old the Bophuthatswana)
  • Pienaarsrivier: smallest of the old municipal structures former to 1994.
  • Zone Crocodile To rivet
  • Zone of the former metropolitan Council of Large Pretoria (compound of the town of Pretoria, the town of Centurion and the metropolitan subdivision of the north of Pretoria)
  • Wallmannsthal
  • Hammanskraal
  • black Township of Akasia
  • black Township of Soshanguve
  • black Township of Mamelodi
  • black Township of Atteridgeville

Teaching

The battle of Pretoria

After attempts fallen through in 2003 and 2004, it is in 2005 that the municipality of the priest Catholique Smangaliso Mkhatshwa announces the name change of the town of Pretoria in Tshwane for political reasons and to symbolize the African rebirth.

It must then face very strong resistances of the majority of the opposition parties, quasi totality of the white inhabitants of Pretoria and the reserves of several national members of the ANC.

This initiative falls under a more general policy of the local authorities directed by the ANC to Africanize the names of the places in order to erase the traces of alleged the Colonialisme of Europeans installed since of the centuries in South Africa. In the facts, the Toponymie afrikaner is mainly aimed, in particular in the province of the Limpopo where the imposition of the name changes of the cities and rivers made disappear the near total from toponymy afrikaner.

A unilateral and complex decision

At the beginning of the month of February 2005, the regional authorities of the ANC give an initially opinion in favor of the maintenance of the name of Pretoria, capital of South Africa, within the great municipality of Tshwane. To be justified, they call upon historical reality, the national reconciliation or point out an agreement made in 1994 with the national Parti never débaptiser Pretoria, the symbol city of nationalism afrikaner.

However, in order not to upset a more radical militant base or to contradict the government of the municipality of Tshwane, they adopt a more complex position consisting in asking the limitation of the denomination of Pretoria the only district of the historical center (Central Business District), thus excluding the 3/4 from the city of which all residential districts (Arcadia, Brooklyn, Hartfield…) and the Union Buildings which would thus form part of the municipality strictly speaking of Tshwane.

Whereas mayor ANC of Tshwane, Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, does not hesitate to compare his decisions to the will of the majority, its door word, William Baloyi, add that the name of the city will be changed liking or force and refuses that the right of the minorities sets up in rampart against the decision of the majority.

Moreover, Mkhatshwa asserts its intolerance for the Colonialisme and Afrikaners which are comparable there. He consequently refuses to communicate to the opposition parties of the municipal council the conclusions of the commissions on the toponymic change. For Mkhatshwa and Baloyi, the name change is not debatable and must be imposed on all by the municipal majority.

But for many white South-Africans, this episode would show the deficiency of quality and democratic culture of the town councilors of the ANC already denounced by the opposition in the province of Limpopo and would symbolize the installation of a new racial domination of which it would be this time the victims.

An attempt at conciliation is then required with the request for a recourse to the Référendum to consult the inhabitants of the city but Smangaliso Mkhatshwa refuses, more especially as the elected officials of the city come mainly from the opposition of the democratic Alliance or the Front of freedom and that the surveys show that a vast majority of Praetorian are hostile with the toponymic denaturation of their city.

Tshwane, capital metropolis

The March 7th 2005, the elected officials of majority ANC of the municipality, supported by the extreme left of the CAP, make endorse without surprised the choice of Tshwane like official name of the city and capital of South Africa and. It would come out from it whereas:
  • the metropolitan conurbation of Tshwane would become a city.
  • the urban and geographical unit which was called to there Pretoria would cease existing.
  • the name of Pretoria would be preserved to indicate a district of Tshwane, in fact the known current downtown area until now under the name of “Central Capital” and located between DF Malan Drive at the west, Nelson Mandela Drive in the east, Pretoria station in the south and Boom Straat in north.
  • the old districts of the town of Pretoria like Arcadia, Sunnyside or Brooklyn would be districts of Tshwane as well as the district of Pretoria and Centurion, the latter preserving its urban and geographical unit however.
  • Tshwane would be then the only conurbation of South Africa to take the statute of city with whole share and would become in title the South-African capital in spite of its territorial and geographical parcelling out.

The mayor confirms that he will consult the inhabitants of Pretoria neither by petition nor by the recourse to a referendum.

Reaction of the opposition

This decision to dismantle and rename the geographical and urban entity of Pretoria is disputed by the totality of the other political groups in particular at its prohibitory cost estimated at 256 million dollars (194 million euros) paid by the taxpayers with 90% white and for its untrue historical character.

It led right now to a political, racial and ethnic antagonism without precedent in the city. The autism and the contempt of the local ANC are thus denounced by the opposition parties, of the radicals of the Front of Freedom until the moderate blacks of the South-African democratic Christian Party.

Thus, the decision voted by the council of the municipality is rejected by 99% of the members of the room commercial of the Gauteng and Pretoria.

As of the March 8th 2005, afrikaners lobbies go up to the crenel to organize a boycotting of the local taxes which could penalize finances of the city whereas the “white” political parties promise to go in front of the courts to make cancel this decision. Most important of these lobbies is the Comité of civil proceeding of Pretoria (Pretoria Civil Committee Action - PCAC) gathering the Chamber of commerce of Gauteng, a trade union afrikaner and the cultural Federation Afrikaans (Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniginge - FAK). This group had already managed in 2003 to suspend the name change.

In April, Tony Leon, the leader of the democratic Alliance, launches out in the battle and announces legal procedures, steps, petitions (which collects in a few days 32.000 signatures of residents) and other many actions aiming to denounce and prevent the “ideological and totalitarian” decision catch by the elected officials of the ANC to dismantle Pretoria and change the name of the capital.

On its side, the South-African democratic Christian Party calls upon another legal argument owing to the fact that the municipality voted to make record Tshwane like city but forever made proceed to the vote for débaptiser Pretoria.

For much of Afrikaners, the suppression of the name of Pretoria of the geographical maps is an affront with their identity. They consider that the mayor crossed a red line and that exit of the battle of Pretoria will depend in fact their place in South Africa post-apartheid. The battle of Pretoria was transformed into battle for the defense and the recognition of the culture afrikaner in South Africa.

Later unfolding

As of the March 8th 2005, the newspapers of the African countries and South-African public television are reflected with speaking, wrongly, of “Tshwane (ex-Pretoria)” to indicate the capital of South Africa. Wrongly because juridically, the vote of the municipal council does not have a legal value and authorizes just the executive of the town hall to ask for the change of denomination to the Council of the geographical names South-African (SAGNC). Any toponymic change must indeed be initially endorsed by the SAGNC which requires normally that a broad preliminary consultation of the public be organized before any request is not deposited to change the name of a place. However, this consultation was not carried out. But it is without counting on the infeodation of the SAGNC and of its president to the most radical and side-African wing of the ANC which announces from the start that the municipality of Tshwane correctly carried out the steps and was not held to consult the population to change the name of the city, this step having been made in 2000 during the formation of the municipality.

The March 9th 2005, the South-African government confirms that he recognizes only Pretoria like national capital and not Tshwane.

The municipality admits in April 2005 having underestimated the costs of this toponymic change, established originally by its care with 150.000 Rands and estimated since at 1,5 million Rands. This evaluation still remains very in on this side estimates of the chamber of commerce closer to 1,5 billion South-African Rands (194 million euros) supported mainly by the white taxpayers and the sector business.

The May 5th 2005, the Committee of civil proceeding of Pretoria makes off cancel by an administrative authority all the publicity campaign of the municipality centered on the slogan “City Tshwane, Africa' S leading capital city”. The decision of cancellation for misleading advertizing is confirmed in call in November 2005 by Advertizing Standards Authority (ASA) but in December 2005, the municipality of Tshwane states not to recognize the competence of Advertizing Standards Authority.

The May 7th 2005, the controversy reaches its paroxysm when the chiefs Ndébélé S, of the tribe of the Mushi chief, contradict the existence even Tshwane son. The ndébélés kings Makhosoke II and Mayisha III, dependant on the area of Pretoria, declare at the time of their intervention that the only possible names for the city would be then Musi or KwaMyamana. Musi was the last king ndébélé to live in the area of Pretoria and is buried there. The business starts to take the form of a true rout for the municipality even if very quickly, these ndébélés kings are constrained with silence.

The May 20th 2005, the former president Frederik de Klerk enters in its turn the debate and denounces activism revisionist and the treason of his promises by the ANC concerning the respect of the minorities. For him, there is an abuse majority which does not have of cease to scorn the racial minorities and the supposed laws to protect them.

The May 21st 2005, the demonstration organized by the PCA and supported by the DA and the FF+ to safeguard the name and the Territorial integrity of Pretoria gain one big hit and the petition of 32.000 signatures is transmitted to Pallo Jordan, Minister for arts and the culture charged in fact, after opinion of the SAGNC to promulgate the name changes with the Official journal.

The May 26th 2005, it is however without surprise that Tommy Ntsewa, president ANC of the Council of the geographical names South-African announces, that unanimously, the council makes the recommendation that Pretoria is dismantled and the renamed city Tshwane, and.

Victory (provisional?) from Pretoria

May 12th, 2006, Pallo Jordan, Minister for the culture charged to ratify the name changes, confirmed during an interview to the radio which the name of Pretoria always continued to indicate the South-African capital. He called upon in particular the international notoriety of Pretoria and the cost of the toponymic change to explain why nearly one year after the recommendation of the geographical Council, no definite decision had been made. However, this last declaration and this long wait-and-see policy are interpreted by the opposition and part of the press as the advertisement of the maintenance of the name of Pretoria to indicate the capital.

Nevertheless, in August 2007, the municipality of Tshwane announces that the road signs would be to change and that the name of Pretoria would be replaced by that of Tshwsane. The face of freedom and Agriforum association submit the decision before the high court of Pretoria. By a summary procedure, this one took a summary procedure prohibiting the municipality from carrying out the change of indication to the reason which no city carried the name of Tshwane to South Africa.

By requiring of the elected officials municipal opposition which had taken carried felt sorry for in front of the jurisdiction of Pretoria to resign of the municipal council, Gwen Ramokgopa caused the general indignation of the opposition parties. Gwen Ramokgopa had in particular recalled that the Voortrekker Monument, Die Stem, the statue of Paul Kruger as of other symbols afrikaners had been maintained in South Africa post- Apartheid. The reaction was scandalized when Blanco Mabaso, secretary of the ANC for Tshwane, threatened in buckled terms certain members of the municipal opposition attracting the comparison with Robert Mugabe, the president Dictateur of the Zimbabwe. For Fred Nel, the chief of democratic Alliance at the municipal council, by tackling the freedom of expression of the residents and the elected officials of Pretoria, Mabaso attacked with the democracy and the right of managed to question and call into question the authorities for their decisions.

In November 2007, at the time of the 152 ème birthday of Pretoria, a giant concert is still the occasion for the musicians of language the most popular Afrikaans like Bok van Blerk, Steve Hofmeyr and Beeskraal and for the inhabitants of the town of manisfester their support for the patronym of Pretoria.

Municipal elections of 2006

At the time of the municipal elections of March 1st, 2006 transformed by the opposition parties into referendum on the name of Pretoria, the inhabitants of the city give a very vast majority to democratic Alliance (58,90% of the votes) and to the Face of freedom (8,84%) against only 25,06% with the ANC.

These results agglomerated within the municipality of Tshwane bring back the score of the DA to 30,69% of the votes, that is to say 47 seats (- 1) and that of the Face of freedom with 4,5% of the voices and 7 seats (+6). The ANC, with 56,27% of the voices and 87 seats remains the dominant party of the municipality but this result is a against-performance whereas the national score of the ANC is in rise of 6 points compared to the preceding elections of 2000. If the ANC loses well 8 seats compared to the preceding assembly, the party can relativize by observing that these seats are those of late the Nouveau national Party which had rejoined it in 2004. But it appears that certain districts mainly black voted for the opposition and that the rare white of the ANC had chosen the abstention. Personal affront for the mayor Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, the district where it resides was largely carried by the DA.

The Parti Christian democrat African (he also favorable to the maintenance of the name of Pretoria) obtains 3 seats with 2,01% of the voices whereas the Congrès African Side recovers two seats (1,19% of the voices). The independent Démocrates save only one seat just like the plain Christian democratic party, African Christian alliance, the Inkatha Freedom Party, the organization of the people of Azanie and democratic national convention.

March 14th, 2006, paying its relative against-performance, Smangaliso Mkhatshwa is replaced like candidate ANC at the post of mayor of the city by Gwen Ramokgopa, the Minister for the health of Gauteng.

Slogans

  • " Tshwane, We are the same " - currency of the municipality of Tshwane to popularize the new significance of the new name used to indicate the South-African capital (Tshwane, we are similar)
  • " Tshwane, city off apes " - Currency used by the detractors of the new name in reference to its traditional literal translation (Tshwane, city of the monkeys) -

Toponymy of the streets

The March 7th 2005, the municipality of Tswhane also announced that 17 street names of the town of Pretoria would be renamed. In 2007, the number of streets aimed by the procedure is changed to 51 of which Church street, Zambezi, Pretorius, Schoeman, Van der Walt, Andries, DF Malan, Prinsloo, General Louis Botha, Skinner, Jacob Pond, Walker-Charles, Queen Wilhemina, Mears-Beatrix-Voortrekkers, Hendrik Verwoerd, Hans Strijdom, Mitchell, Esselen, Vermeulen, Schubart, Potgieter, Paul Kruger, Proes, Michael Brink and Duncan.

If a consensus is established to withdraw the names of the former theorists of apartheid (Malan, Verwoerd…), the opposition parties, democratic Alliance, Christian Democratic Party, African Christian Democratic Party and Freedom Face More, are caught some however with the focusing and the systematization of the choices of the ANC to erase the names of the former leaders afrikaners (Pretorius, Kruger…) or historical references (Church street, Zambezi, Voortrekker…) and never not to take account of the opinions really given by the population concerned.

Service road

The international airport nearest to the municipality of Tshwane is the same one as that of Johannesburg. Formerly more known under the name of Jan Smuts Airport then of International Johannesburg Airport, it is called since the October 27th 2006 “International airport GOLD Tambo”. It is generally the principal main door from abroad in South Africa.

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