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Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive (administrative) and official de facto capital; the other two being Cape Town and Bloemfontein, respectively the legislative and judicial capitals. Pretoria is contained in the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality as one of several constituent former administrations (among which are also Centurion and Soshanguve), and therefore sometimes is incorrectly referred to as Tshwane ¡ª this contentious issue is still being decided. The city has a population of approximately one million. The main languages spoken in Pretoria include Tswana, Ndebele, Afrikaans, and English. The whole Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality had a population of 1 985 997 as of the 2001 census. Pretoria is situated in the transitional area between the Highveld and the Bushveld, approximately 50 km north of Johannesburg in the north-east of South Africa. It lies in a warm, well sheltered, fertile valley, surrounded by the hills of the Magaliesberg range, 1,370 m (4,495 ft) above sea level. The city's coordinates are approximate 25¡ã43¡äS, 28¡ã17¡äE. Snow is an extremely rare event, which occurs once or twice in a century, with the last recorded snowfall on 27 June 2007. Pretoria itself was founded in 1855 by Marthinus Pretorius, a leader of the Voortrekkers, who named it after his father Andries Pretorius. The elder Pretorius had become a national hero of the Voortrekkers after his victory over the Zulus in the famous Battle of Blood River. Andries Pretorius also negotiated the Sand River Convention (1852), in which Britain acknowledged the independence of the Transvaal. It became the capital of the South African Republic (ZAR) on 1 May 1860. Pretoria is one of South Africa's leading academic cities, and it is home to both the largest residential university in the country (the University of Pretoria), the Tshwane University of Technology and the largest distance education university (the University of South Africa, more commonly known by its initials, UNISA). The South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is also located in this city. One of the most popular sports in Pretoria is rugby union. Loftus Versfeld is home to the Blue Bulls who compete in the domestic Currie Cup, and the Bulls who compete in the international Super 14 competition (Winners of the Super 14 in 2007). Pretoria also hosted matches during the 1995 Rugby World Cup. Loftus Versfeld will be used for matches at the 2010 FIFA World Cup.There are two soccer teams in the city campaigning in the Premier Soccer League. They are Sundowns and Supersport United. Sundowns are the reigning PSL Champions. Pretoria's main street, Church Street is the longest urban street in South Africa and one of the longest straight streets in the world. Many of the city's streets are lined with Jacaranda trees that blossom mauve (purplish blue) in spring, giving rise to the city's nickname "Jacaranda City" (or "Jakarandastad" in Afrikaans). The Cullinan Diamond (the largest gem diamond ever found) was discovered in the town of Cullinan near Pretoria at the Premier Mine on January 26, 1905. The initial full designation of the city was Pretoria Philadelphia (¡®Pretoria of brotherly love¡¯).

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