Demonstrators protest against the proposed renaming of Pretoria, South Africa, on May 21.

The Tshwane Metropolitan Council voted in March to change the name of the capital, leaving only the city center as Pretoria. The wider metropolitan area around the capital is already known as Tshwane. Government approval is expected to be a formality.

Established by white settlers in 1855, the city was named after Andries Pretorius, a leader of the Afrikaners' "Great Trek" into the interior of the country. For many blacks, Pretoria -- the Afrikaner heartland -- symbolized decades of white racist rule.

Tshwane is derived from the Ndebele name used by some of the region's earliest African inhabitants. It means "we are the same."

Opponents to changing the name of Pretoria include the last white president, F.W. De Klerk, who helped end apartheid.

He said renaming the city would harm inter-community relations and said that Pretoria had a "central and honorable place" in South African history as it symbolized the fight by Afrikaners against the British empire.

The Japan Times Weekly: June 4, 2005
(C) All rights reserved