Pretoria - Once upon a time, Pretoria was known (mostly by its detractors) as Snor City. This was because, quite simply, there were so many moustaches worn by the civil servants, the soldiers and the police – all white of course.
On top of that, you could chuck in safari suits, combs in socks, c**p apartheid architecture and a serious lack of humour.
Bernoldus Niemand, aka the legendary James Phillips, wrote an unforgettable song about Pretoria titled just that. Hoe verder ek loop, hoe minder raak my hoop in Pretoria (the further I walk, the less is my hope in Pretoria) he wrote in the middle of the ’80s, as PW Botha started wagging his finger at the world and preaching Total Onslaught from the epicentre of the regime. The good news is that all died 20 years ago.
The city is still full of civil servants, cops and troops, but they’re not white anymore. The architecture in the centre of the city is still fairly soulless, especially in the canyons of government buildings in the CBD, but there are gems all over the CBD; from the Paul Kruger House to the history imbued Church Square with the old curmudgeon’s statue and the delightful Ditsong Museum of Natural History across the road from the City Hall.
Many are the children who caught sight of their first dinosaur or skeleton of a blue whale, to say nothing of the entire Roberts’ collection of southern African birds on the first floor. It’s an Aladdin’s Cave of natural history, recently refurbished in a delightful old building with a stuffed African elephant in the foyer.
Venturing just out of the northern border of the CBD, you’ll find the National Zoological Garden, or the Pretoria Zoo for the rest of us. It’s got a great reptile section, an aquarium with fresh and salt water sections and a wonderful big cat enclosure up on the hill. The real thrill though, for young and the young at heart, is the cable car ride up to the big cats, traversing kangaroos and buck below.
There’s also the Union Buildings and their incredible gardens (free), the Voortrekker Monument, Freedom Park and two wonderfully restored Boer War forts for which we have Dr Leander Starr Jameson to thank.
It’s not Snor City anymore, it’s Jacaranda City, a city in bloom with a haven of delights, you just need to overcome your prejudice and drive up the N1 – or take the Gautrain, they’ve got a bus that stops outside the zoo.
Saturday Star