What is the judicial capital of South Africa?

South Africa’s judicial capital is Bloemfontein. It shares the country’s capital functions with Pretoria, the administrative capital, and Cape Town, the legislative capital.

Bloemfontein became the judicial centre of the Union of South Africa in 1910, when the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court was established there as part of a compromise over the location of the national capital. Today, the city remains home to South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal, the country’s second-highest court.

A common mix-up is Johannesburg. Since 1994, Johannesburg has hosted the Constitutional Court, South Africa’s highest court, but that has not erased Bloemfontein’s traditional and constitutional role as the judicial capital. Bloemfontein is also the capital of the Free State province and is widely nicknamed the “City of Roses.” Its Sesotho name, Mangaung, means “place of cheetahs.”