Pretoria is the executive capital of South Africa, the seat of the presidency and the administration, set in the highveld 50 km north of Johannesburg. It is a quieter, more formal city than Jo’burg — administrative rather than commercial — and more pleasant to navigate, with wide avenues and a compact historic centre around Church Square.
The city is famous for its jacaranda trees — over 70,000 of them line the streets and bloom purple every October and November. In full bloom, the tree-lined avenues and the gardens of the Union Buildings are genuinely spectacular. The Union Buildings themselves are one of Herbert Baker’s masterpieces: a sandstone neoclassical complex on a hill above the city, with a nine-metre bronze statue of Nelson Mandela in the gardens.
The history on display in Pretoria is complex and worth engaging with. The Voortrekker Monument south of the centre is the most powerful monument to Afrikaner identity anywhere. Directly opposite it on the adjacent hill, Freedom Park is the post-apartheid counter-memorial, built to commemorate those the old monument ignored. Visiting both on the same afternoon is one of the more instructive experiences South Africa offers.
The historic city centre holds Melrose House — where the treaty ending the Anglo-Boer War was signed — the Kruger House Museum, and the National Zoological Gardens, one of the best zoos in Africa. The Pretoria National Botanical Garden out in Brummeria is a good half-day out of the city centre.