South Africa Has Three Capitals: Here's Why

A compromise from 1910

Before 1910, the territory that is now South Africa was four separate British colonies: the Cape Colony, Natal, the Transvaal, and the Orange River Colony, the last two having been independent Boer republics only a few years earlier. When the South Africa Act 1909 merged them into a single Union, no single city could plausibly serve as the shared capital without the other three colonies feeling like they had lost. Cape Town was the oldest and largest settlement, with a legislature already in place. Pretoria was the former capital of the Transvaal, by then the economic and political center of the interior. Bloemfontein, the former capital of the Orange Free State, was roughly in the middle of the new country geographically.

The negotiators split the difference rather than pick a winner. Pretoria kept the seat of government and became the administrative capital. Cape Town kept Parliament and became the legislative capital. Bloemfontein was given the Appellate Division, the country's highest court of the era, and became the judicial capital. The arrangement survived the Union's 51 years, then carried over unchanged when South Africa became a republic in 1961, and it is still the law today.

What each capital actually does

Pretoria, officially part of the city of Tshwane, is where the president lives and works and where most government departments have their head offices. Cape Town is where the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces sit, so the president travels there each February for the State of the Nation Address and Parliament spends most of its calendar in session there. Bloemfontein is the quietest of the three by far: it hosts the Supreme Court of Appeal, and comparatively few South Africans have reason to visit it for anything other than a court matter.

This is a three way split of function, not a rotation and not a shared duty. Each city has exactly one of the three roles, permanently, and nothing in the constitution suggests they were ever meant to swap.

Isn't Johannesburg the capital?

No. Johannesburg is not a capital of any kind. It is South Africa's largest city by population and the economic hub of Gauteng province, home to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and the bulk of the country's financial and mining company head offices, but it holds no formal seat of government. The confusion is common and understandable: Johannesburg is the city most visitors fly into, it is the one most often shown in films and news footage, and it is larger than all three actual capitals combined. None of that makes it a capital.

Where South Africa's highest court actually sits

Here is the nuance that trips people up even when they already know about the three capitals. Bloemfontein is called the judicial capital because it hosts the Supreme Court of Appeal, which for most of the 20th century was the final word on South African law. But since a 2013 constitutional amendment gave the Constitutional Court general jurisdiction over every kind of case, not only constitutional ones, the Constitutional Court has been the true apex of the system, according to the South African judiciary's own site. The Constitutional Court sits in Johannesburg, on Constitution Hill in Braamfontein, not in Bloemfontein. The Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein remains the second highest court and still decides the great majority of appeals, but the single highest authority in the land now sits in the one city that is not a capital at all.

The recurring push for one capital

Running three seats of government is not free. Ministers, officials and their staff shuttle between Pretoria and Cape Town every time Parliament is in session, and the governing African National Congress has periodically floated folding the legislative capital into Pretoria to cut that cost. A 2020 academic estimate put the potential saving at around R650 million a year, against a one off relocation cost many times that. The idea has never gone beyond a proposal: it draws firm resistance from Cape Town and the Western Cape, who see it as centralising power in Gauteng, and no bill to change the arrangement has been passed.

If anything, recent events point the other way. A fire in January 2022 destroyed the National Assembly's main chamber in Cape Town, and rather than use the moment to relocate, Parliament committed to rebuilding on the same site. By August 2026 that rebuild was reported at roughly 76 percent complete, with completion targeted for June 2027 so the chamber can host that year's State of the Nation Address. Three capitals remain the reality in 2026, whatever the periodic cost-saving proposals suggest.

Quick facts

Pretoria: executive capital, seat of the presidency and cabinet, part of the city of Tshwane.
Cape Town: legislative capital, seat of the National Assembly and National Council of Provinces.
Bloemfontein: judicial capital, seat of the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Johannesburg: not a capital, but the country's largest city and seat of the Constitutional Court, the apex court since 2013.
The split dates to the South Africa Act 1909 and the Union of South Africa in 1910, and has never been changed.

Common questions

Why does South Africa have three capitals?

The 1910 Union of South Africa merged four former colonies, the Cape, Natal, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, and no single city could be picked without the others losing standing. The compromise split government three ways: Pretoria kept the executive, Cape Town kept Parliament, and Bloemfontein kept the highest court of the era.

Is Johannesburg the capital of South Africa?

No. Johannesburg holds no formal seat of government. It is the largest city in South Africa and the economic hub of Gauteng province, which is why people often assume it is the capital, but the three actual capitals are Pretoria, Cape Town and Bloemfontein.

What is the capital of South Africa?

There is no single answer. Pretoria is the executive capital and the one usually named first, Cape Town is the legislative capital where Parliament sits, and Bloemfontein is the judicial capital, seat of the Supreme Court of Appeal. All three are correct, depending on which branch of government is meant.

Where does South Africa's Constitutional Court sit?

In Johannesburg, on Constitution Hill in Braamfontein, not in Bloemfontein. Since a 2013 constitutional amendment, the Constitutional Court has had general jurisdiction over every kind of case and is the true apex court, even though Bloemfontein's Supreme Court of Appeal is still called the judicial capital.

Has South Africa ever considered having just one capital?

Yes, repeatedly. The governing party has floated moving Parliament to Pretoria to save the cost of running two seats of government, with one 2020 estimate near R650 million a year. It remains a proposal only: no legislation has passed, and Cape Town has resisted it strongly.

Which South African capital is the biggest city?

Cape Town is the largest of the three actual capitals by population, followed by Pretoria and then Bloemfontein, which is far smaller than either. None of the three is South Africa's largest city overall; that title belongs to Johannesburg, which is not a capital at all.

Is Pretoria the same city as Tshwane?

Pretoria is a city within the metropolitan municipality of Tshwane, and the two names are often used interchangeably for the executive capital. Government buildings, embassies and the presidency are concentrated in Pretoria itself, the older, central part of the wider Tshwane metro.