AFRICA	FEBRUARY 23, 1998 VOL. 151 NO. 8
	A Tale Of Two Capitals For decades South Africa's government was split between two cities; it may be time to consolidate By PETER HAWTHORNE /CAPE TOWN hen nations are being born one of the toughest decisions is naming the capital. Rival cities fight for the privilege, and often the solution is clumsy compromise. In the case of South Africa, the answer after the British north-south union following the Boer War was to have two capitals 1,400 km apart: Cape Town and Pretoria. Today, South Africa is a born-again nation after the leap from apartheid to black majority government, and this has caused a reopening of the capital debate. The result may be a decision by the country's politicians to move the National Parliament from the Cape to Pretoria. The deal done 87 years ago made Cape Town the parliamentary heart of government and Pretoria the administrative hub, a costly arrangement that has meant trekking between the two centers for M.P.s and bureaucrats and costly double-ups for the diplomatic corps, with many foreign countries having to set up embassies in both cities. Local legislators depart Pretoria for the parliamentary season of the first half of the year--which conveniently includes the best of the Cape summer. Special trains and airline seats are laid on to take commuting civil servants and M.P.s, plus their office equipment, cars and families, on the southern safari to the Cape. This langorous lifestyle may be doomed. The move to put Parliament in Pretoria comes from groups within the ruling African National Congress and from a Pretoria-for-Parliament lobby that has a good deal of self-interest. Behind the A.N.C. calls for change is the composition of the post-apartheid Parliament. Before the 1994 general election there were no Africans in the government. There were 178 white M.P.s in the House of Assembly and another 130 Indian and Coloured (mixed race) representatives in separate conclaves. Now there are 400 Members of Parliament, most of them Africans and most of them from the country's most populous area of Gauteng, which comprises Johannesburg, Pretoria and surrounding industrial cities. "Parliament should be where the people are," says Soweto businessman Sipho Mazibuko. "It makes sense to centralize the government system." Those pressing for Pretoria say it also makes sense to save the cost of the annual shuffle--which includes at least $3 million in moving expenses and another $4 million for housing and daily expenses during the parliamentary transfer. They argue this money would be better spent on housing and social services for millions of people in need. The two cities are decidedly different. Pretoria was named after Afrikaner voortrekker (pioneer) leader Andries Pretorius in 1855 and later proclaimed capital of a rebel Afrikaner republic. The republic surrendered in 1900 to the British who, as a compromise with the Afrikaners, made Pretoria the administrative capital of the Union of South Africa in 1910. The city, 55 km from Johannesburg, is in the most densely populated part of the country and is expected to hold 12.3 million people by the year 2000. It already provides 43% of gdp. The Union Buildings, where Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as President and where he spends a good deal of his office time, stand on a bluff overlooking the city. Cape Town, dominated by Table Mountain, was founded by Jan van Riebeeck in 1652 for the Dutch East India Company. It is known as the Mother City, the place that provided the view from the prison on Robben Island and the city that welcomed Nelson Mandela on his triumphant release in 1990. With a population of some 3.5 million, Cape Town is the country's most popular tourist venue and in recent years has seen a surge of foreign investment in expensive property on its Atlantic seaboard. The city has less crime than Gauteng, and is less stressful. Or it was until its historic parliamentary status began to be questioned. Now there is real concern in the Mother City that the A.N.C. has already privately decided the legislative capital should move to Gauteng--where Pretoria is the most likely contender. A Keep-Parliament-in-the-Cape lobby is arguing desperately that a move would be an economic disaster for the Western Cape, would put about 10,000 people out of work and would cost taxpayers millions of dollars for a re-sited complex. The lobby has acquired a notable northern ally, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. "Don't destroy a tradition," said Tutu, a Sowetan homeowner who last year was honored by Cape Town's burghers when they made him a freeman of the city. Tutu's plea may not be enough. Although parliament opened last week in Cape Town, the battle for the capital is far from over. A vote on the issue may be deferred until after the 1999 election, but Capetonians are fearful that sooner or later they will hear an echo of the old Boer War song: "We are marching to Pretoria."
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