Cape Town is South Africa’s legislative capital and the city where Parliament sits.
South Africa has three capital cities with different governmental functions. Cape Town is the legislative capital, Pretoria is the administrative or executive capital, and Bloemfontein is the judicial capital. The arrangement reflects historical compromises made when the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910 rather than concentrating every major institution in one city.
Cape Town is located in the Western Cape at the southern end of the continent, near Table Mountain and the meeting region of Atlantic Ocean currents. The National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces meet in Parliament’s precinct there. Pretoria houses the Union Buildings and much of the national executive, while the Constitutional Court is in Johannesburg rather than Bloemfontein today, although Bloemfontein retains its traditional judicial-capital designation. This three-capital system is why a single-answer question about South Africa’s capital requires specifying the function.