A recommendation that the name of South Africa’s capital be changed from Pretoria to Tshwane has been unanimously approved. The Geographic Names Council took four hours to back the change. Tshwane is the name of a pre-colonial local chief and means “we are the same”. Supporters of the change say the switch will underscore South Africa’s break with apartheid in 1994.
Changing from an highly established, pronouncable name to a new, unpronounceable one didn’t work out so well for the Artist Once Again Known as Prince. Perhaps Pretoria/Tshwane will work out better.
Of course, the main context in which the name “Pretoria” occurs to me is the song “Marching to Pretoria.” One wonders whether it’ll change to “Marching to Tschwane” or become a historical oddity.
I'm doing a project on name change in south africa so I'd like to know why the name pretoria was changed to tshwane and why did they change it to tshwane??? and why Pietersburg was changed to polokwane and why did they change it to polokwane
1 answer