Unlike the U.S., in which the three branches of government are housed in the District of Columbia, South Africa's national government offices are split among three cities. The legislative branch is located in Cape Town, the administrative in Pretoria, and the judicial in Bloemfontein. We decided to take the opportunity to pass through Pretoria, as it is only 60 kilometers from Johannesburg and we already have visited Cape Town and Bloemfontein.

Pretoria's population is just under two million people, more than the entire country of Botswana. After driving around very busy downtown streets for about twenty minutes, by sheer luck we stumbled upon the building that contains the national administrative offices. The interior is not open to the public for tours, but plenty of tourists were outside, walking through the large and beautiful terraced formal gardens and the massive front lawn separating the building from the street. We stayed for an hour, then departed for Johannesburg, located 60 kilometers south.


One of the interesting features of the area surrounding Johannesburg, which was founded in part because of gold discovered at the site, are mounds of bright yellow earth which are the residue of the mining process. We drove past a number of these gold tailings in varying sizes on the way to visit the Apartheid Museum, located near the Robertsham neighborhood. We spent three hours in the museum and still did not see in detail all it has to offer. It is an amazing place, one of the best-curated museums we have ever explored. The exhibits are shocking, enlightening, infuriating, moving, and encouraging all at once.

We did not go into the central part of the city, where the high-rise buildings are located, but did visit some of the neighborhoods near the museum. We found a room at a hotel in Robertsham and did some shopping the next day in a new mall built near Soweto. Just before noon on Wednesday we started the return trip to Rustenburg, but instead of driving back on the Pretoria road we took a more scenic route using some rural roads. It reminded us of the U.S. midwest, with farmland and dairy cows.