Marthinus Wessel Pretorius (17 September 1819 – 19 May 1901) was a South African political leader.

[2] An Afrikaner (or "Boer"), he helped establish the South African Republic (Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek or ZAR; also referred to as Transvaal), was the first president of the ZAR, and also compiled its constitution.

[1] He was born in Cape Colony, then accompanied his father, the Voortrekker leader Andries Pretorius in the migration to the interior.

[3] In an endeavour to establish a new town, he bought two farms named Elandspoort and Daspoort between 1854 and 1855, on which he founded the city of Pretoria in 1855.

van der Hoff originally named the first church congregation in this area Pretoria Philadelphia (Pretorius Friendship), in honour of Pretorius' father.