South Africa is unique in a very specific way
most countries have just one capital city
often the largest or oldest
but South Africa actually has 3
Cape Town Pretoria and Bloemfontein
each of those cities has a main branch of government
with all being seen as equal
this of course brings complications
as South Africa is a much larger country than most people realize
and having the different branches of government so far from each other doesn't exactly help
as it happens executive powers are based in Pretoria
so that's where the president and cabinet are
the parliament is in Cape Town so that's where the laws are actually made
and the high court is in Bloemfontein
the whole thing is a confusing mess
especially for government officials who are constantly being sent between the 3 cities
if I had my way South Africa would start again with just one capital
preferably the small town of Darling
or maybe Los my cherry
by the way the name Los my cherry comes from a local language
and apparently it means leave my girlfriend
so that's weird
to understand why South Africa has 3 capital cities
we need to look at the strange history of the country
South Africa was created in 1910
when 3 individual territories were unified as one state
there was the British colony of cape
and two northern regions settled by the Dutch
to even get to this point 2 wars had been fought between the British and dutch settlers
so to avoid the prospect of a third war a number of compromises were debated
among the most debated was the location of the unified states new capital city
each of the territories had their own capital already
and none were looking forward to giving it up
so to keep everyone happy...ish
it was decided they would all remain the capital city simultaneously
it's the kind of idea that's just ridiculous enough to work
and clearly it has
still now they remain South Africa's 3 capital cities
interestingly none of them is the largest city in South Africa
Johannesburg holds that position and is the financial center of the country
to be honest I doubt it will remain this way forever
it's just too difficult and in this day and age brings little benefit
and to be fair South Africa was in a time of change
just recently they changed the name of Port Elizabeth to
Gqeberha
or something like that
so it's not exactly inconceivable that greater changed could be made
many other countries have moved their capital city
in 1991 Nigeria moved their capital from Lagos
the largest and most wealthy city
to Abuja in the center of the country
Lagos is a major shipping hub
while Abuja is in the middle of nowhere
it was built from scratch in the 1980s to be the perfect capital city
but I can't help but wonder why they even bothered
Brazil did the same thing in the 1960s
moving the capital from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia
I like to think that when they were choosing the name Brasilia
they just gave up halfway through
to be fair Brazilian politics at the time was wild
in 1963 there was a murder in the new senate at Brasilia
one senator pulled out a gun and shot at a rival
but missed and killed a completely different senator
and it says a lot about me that I find it funny
South Africa could always go down that route and build a new capital
that's what Egypt is doing
since 2015 they have been constructing the New Administrative Capital
which I assume will in time be given a better name
the current capital is home to 20 million people
putting a ridiculous strain on infrastructure
that strain on infrastructure in turn strains the workings of government
so to get away from all that the decision was made to build a new city
built in the middle of the desert the goal is for 6 million people to live here
as well as the world's tallest building which apparently will be a kilometer high
another interesting example is Indonesia
they too are moving their capital city
but not for the same reason
it turns out their currently capital of Jakarta is sinking
it's literally sinking into the ocean
the good news is it's happening very slowly
at a rate of just 8 inches per year
but it's still not good to have your capital city disappearing
the plan is to move the capital to a different island 800 miles from Jakarta
this will cost more than 30 billion dollars
they also plan on spending 40 billion to save Jakarta from actually sinking
so assuming all goes well the total cost will be at least 70 billion
and for that money they could probably just buy another country's capital
I mean they could buy Belarus
the whole of Belarus
amazingly the capital of Mexico is also sinking
it's a very different situation as Mexico City was built on top of a giant lake
which to be fair is clearly a bad idea
so far the city has sunk by 32 feet and is showing no sign of slowing down
visit Mexico City and you will see many buildings at awkward angles
which a lot of the time is caused by the area sinking into the lake below
it's sinking at more than twice the rate of Jakarta
falling 3 feet every year
you might not expect that from a city nowhere near the coast
but the point of this video is not to talk about Mexico
or Indonesia
or Belarus
while South Africa is unique in that it has 3 capitals
it's less unique than you might assume
both Malaysia and Bolivia has 2 capital cities
as does Eswatini a tiny nation that borders South Africa
it's just one of the ways Eswatini is a cheap knock off version of South Africa
in the case of Bolivia the government is based in La Paz
while the legal system is based in Sucre
technically they are on equal footing
but in my view that pretty much makes La Paz the capital city
and Sucre just a city
and there's a good reason for that
Sucre was the original capital of Bolivia
back when the country was ruled by the conservative party
but in 1899 the Liberal party took power after a brief civil war
their power base was in La Paz
while the conservative's was in Sucre
a major conflict in the war was the capital
with the Liberals vowing to move it to La Paz
but now they were victorious a compromise was struck
Sucre would remain the official capital to appease the conservatives
but the country would actually be run from La Paz
and somehow it's not been changed since
So despite Bolivia now having a very different political climate
they still have this ridiculous system