Pretoria re-named after ancient black tribal leader

JOHANNESBURG - Pretoria, the capital of South Africa and administrative centre of the country's former apartheid regime has been re-named after an ancient black tribal leader.

Following a hotly contested decision by the city council, which is dominated by African National Congress members, the capital will now be known as Tswane, after a chief who ruled well before white colonisation of the area.

The name Pretoria has only been retained for a tiny portion of the capital, which covers the city centre.

The controversial move has outraged members of the mainly white Democratic Alliance opposition in the council, as well as hard-core Afrikaner organisations.

Some irate white ratepayers are already threatening a rates boycott. Various Afrikaner organisations have threatened to launch a "separatist movement" dedicated to safeguarding the history of South Africa's white population.

Notwithstanding white dissent, the imposing Union Buildings, the seat of power where Nelson Mandela, took the oath of office as South Africa's first black president in 1994, as well as all residential suburbs, will now be part of Tswane.

ANC council members said the naming and renaming of national symbols after liberation was a common practice in post-colonial societies.

Zimbabwe's capital city, formerly Salisbury, became Harare in 1980, while Mozambique's capital changed from Lourenco Marques to Maputo in 1975.

The new name was agreed late on Monday and will be communicated to the United Nations, African Union, European Union and other international bodies.

But critics are arguing that the change is both financially extravagant and potentially damaging to tourism.

According to Democratic Alliance spokesmen, the move will cost at least 150 million pounds to enact.

The new name had "less substantiation behind it than the mythical island of Atlantis," said the DA's Derek Fleming.

Pretoria was originally established in 1855 and named after Andries Pretorius, a leader of the "Voortrekkers" (forward trekkers), a vanguard of Dutch Boers who left the Cape colony with ox wagons and entered the interior to escape British rule.

In the rest of South Africa many place and street names in South Africa still originate in the country's apartheid past.

One of Johannesburg's main streets is still named after Hendrik Verwoerd, a former prime minister, one of the main architects of the system.

The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), traditionally more radical than the ANC, has long said that all remnants of apartheid should be expunged from the new South Africa.

- Independent