South Africa
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South Africa
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A country of southern Africa on the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Originally inhabited by the San and Khoikhoin, the region was settled by various Bantu peoples c. 1500. European settlement began with the Dutch in the mid-17th century. The region passed to Great Britain in 1814 but was hotly contested by descendants of the Dutch settlers in the Boer War (1899-1902), in which Britain took possession of the entire territory, creating the Union of South Africa in 1910. South Africa declared itself a republic in 1961, severed ties with the British Commonwealth, and further consolidated the apartheid system, which was repealed beginning in 1989. An interim constitution ending white rule was adopted in 1993, and the first multiracial elections were held in 1994. Pretoria is the administrative capital; Cape Town, the legislative capital; and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital. Population: 44,000,000.
South African South African adj. & n.
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:
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South Africa
The instrumental version of the national anthem of South Africa.
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Oxford Dictionary of Dance:
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South Africa
Black South Africa has always had rich indigenous dance traditions, but the European settlers who came to the area were less quick to establish their own. In Cape Town during the 19th century ballet masters and their pupils put on amateur productions which imitated the fashions of Europe, but no professional companies were established. In 1926 the Cape Town Dance Teachers Association was formed and Édouard Espinosa visited as its first examiner. In 1934 Dulcie Howes (returning from touring with Pavlova) started up the University of Cape Town School of Ballet and later the University of Cape Town Ballet company. In Johannesburg the Dancing Teachers Association, established in 1923, staged some performances and in the early 1940s other companies were formed including the Johannesburg Festival Ballet and the Pretoria Ballet Club. In 1947 Faith de Villiers and Joyce van Greems started a professional company, Ballet Theatre, which collaborated with UCT Ballet for its first programme. Frank Staff founded the South African Ballet company, producing fifteen ballets for them between 1955 and 1958, but like other companies it was short-lived because it had no financial backing from the state. In 1960 de Villiers founded the Johannesburg City Ballet which was to form the nucleus for the PACT Ballet which emerged in 1963 after the government began to subsidize the performing arts (in 1981 it was relocated to Pretoria). Other professional companies to emerge were CAPAB Ballet and NAPAC (Natal Performing Arts Council; 1964-78). South Africa finally had an opportunity to hold on to its talented dancers and choreographers who prior to 1963 had always left to work abroad (Maude Lloyd, Howes, Nadia Nerina, Maryon Lane, Frank Staff, John Cranko, Monica Mason, Deanne Bergsma, and Vyvyan Lorrayne). However, during the worst era of apartheid ballet in South Africa developed largely in isolation from the rest of the world, as international sanctions blocked the free exchange of dancers and companies, though Ballet International, founded in 1976 with backing from the Performing Arts Council of the Orange Free State (PACOFS), was actually based in Britain. Under the artistic direction of Larry Long its first performance was at the Oppenheimer Theatre, Welkom, Transvaal, and its repertoire included full-length classics staged by Ben Stevenson and modern works. Among its guest dancers were Samsova and Nagy. Under apartheid black and white dance remained segregated though S. African dance forms were increasingly performed outside the country by black companies, such as the British-based Adzido which has aimed to research and revive the black African dance heritage.
In the new S. Africa some links were forged between black and white dance, and the newly liberalized atmosphere saw a large expansion of dance companies, such as Soweto Dance Theatre which originated from a break-dance troupe, Bop dance company based in Bobothuthaswan and performing work by local choreographers, and the country's largest modern dance group, PACT Dance Company. Vita Life Dance Umbrella (founded 1988) became S. Africa's most important platform for modern dance and regularly boasted seasons of new works; the Dance Factory in Johannesburg (founded 1992) is a major presenter and training facility for modern dance; and Dance Alliance (founded in Johannesburg in the early 1990s) emerged as an important lobbying organization. New artists to emerge include Sowetan-born Vincent Mantsoe. However, changes in funding structures have had a major impact on the dance scene. Bop dance company was disbanded in 1995 (though its director, David Krugel, has subsequently founded the Batho Dance Company). PACT Dance Company and PACT Ballet lost their full state subsidy in 1997 and, after a period of turmoil, were merged into the single State Theatre Ballet under the continuing direction of Dawn Weller. NAPAC Ballet was scaled down to become the Durban-based Playhouse Dance Theatre but was disbanded soon after. In 1997 CAPAB Ballet also lost its state subsidy and, as a newly independent company, changed its name to Cape Town City Ballet, still under the direction of Veronica Paeper. Visits from major foreign companies were rare, due to funding shortages, but Dance Theatre of Harlem went in 1992, Birmingham Royal Ballet in 1998, and Netherlands Dance Theatre in 1999.
Columbia Encyclopedia:
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South Africa
South Africa, Afrikaans Suid-Afrika, officially Republic of South Africa, republic (2005 est. pop. 44,344,000), 471,442 sq mi (1,221,037 sq km), S Africa. It borders on the Atlantic Ocean in the west, on Namibia in the northwest, on Botswana and Zimbabwe in the north, on Mozambique and Swaziland in the northeast, and on the Indian Ocean in the east and south. Lesotho is an independent enclave in the east. The largest city is Johannesburg. Cape Town is the legislative capital, Pretoria the administrative capital, and Bloemfontein the judicial capital.
Land
Physical Geography
South Africa has three main geographic regions: a great interior plateau; an escarpment of mountain ranges that rims the plateau on the east, south, and west; and a marginal area lying between the escarpment and the sea. Most of the plateau consists of highveld, rolling grassland situated at 4,000 to 6,000 ft (1,220-1,830 m). In addition, in the northeast are the Witwatersrand (a ridge of rock where gold has been mined since 1886), the Bushveld Basin (a zone of savanna situated at 2,000-3,000 ft/610-910 m), and the Limpopo River basin.
In the north are the southern fringes of the Kalahari desert; and in the west is the semiarid Cape middleveld, which includes part of the Orange River and is situated at 2,500 to 4,000 ft (760-1,220 m). The escarpment reaches its greatest heights (10,000-11,000 ft/3,050-3,350 m) in the Drakensberg Mts. in the east. The marginal area varies in width between 35 and 150 mi (60-240 km) and most of it is bordered by a narrow, low-lying coastal strip. The region also includes considerable stretches of grassland in the east; mountains and the semiarid Great and Little Karroo tablelands in the south; and desert (a southern extension of the Namib desert) in the west. Kruger National Park is in NE South Africa.
Political Geography
South Africa is divided into nine provinces-Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, North West, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga. Before 1994, there were four provinces: Cape Province, Natal, Orange Free State, and Transvaal. In addition, during apartheid rule about 14% of the country's land area was set aside for blacks in pseudoindependent territories (originally called "Bantustans"), allegedly to allow them self-government and cultural preservation. In fact, these "homelands" were used to give the white government greater control and to exclude blacks from the political process. Gazankulu, Kangwane, KwaNdebele, KwaZulu, Lebowa, and QwaQwa were Bantu national homelands that existed under South African sovereignty. Transkei, the first homeland (1963), Bophuthatswana, Ciskei, and Venda were all granted "independence" by the early 1980s and existed as nominal republics, although none were recognized internationally. With the end of white minority rule in 1994, the black homelands were abolished.
People
The population of South Africa is about 80% black (African) and 10% white (European), with about 9% people of mixed white and black descent (formerly called "Coloured"), and a small minority of South and East Asian background. Although these ethnic divisions were rigidly enforced under the policy of apartheid [Afrikaans,=apartness], racial distinctions are often arbitrary. People of African descent fall into several groups, based on their first language.
South Africa has 11 official languages, nine of which are indigenous-Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, Sotho, Swazi, Venda, Ndebele, Pedi, and Tsonga. Many blacks also speak Afrikaans (the first language of about 60% of the whites and the majority of those of mixed race) or English (the first language of most of the rest of the nonblacks). A lingua franca called Fanagalo developed in the mining areas, but it is not widely used today. About 80% of the population is Christian; major groups include the Zionist, Pentecostal, Roman Catholic, Methodist, Dutch Reformed, and Anglican churches. There are small minorities of Muslims, Hindus, Jews, and followers of traditional African religions.
Economy
Until about 1870 the economy of the region was almost entirely based on agriculture. With the discovery of diamonds and gold in the late 19th cent., mining became the foundation for rapid economic development. In the 20th cent. the country's economy was diversified, so that by 1945 manufacturing was the leading contributor to the gross national product (GNP). By 2006, services contributed some 67% of the GNP, while industry contributed over 30% and agriculture only about 2.5%. The economy is still largely controlled by whites, but nonwhites make up more than 75% of the workforce. Working conditions and pay are often poor, and many nonwhites are subsistence farmers.
South Africa has a limited amount of arable land (about 12%) and inadequate irrigation; production is diminished during periodic droughts. The chief crops are corn, wheat, sugarcane, fruits, vegetables, sorghum, potatoes, peanuts, cotton, and tobacco. In addition, large numbers of dairy and beef cattle, sheep, goats (including many Angora goats), and hogs are raised. There is a large fishing industry, and much fish meal is produced. Tourism also contributes significantly to the economy.
The main industrial centers are Johannesburg, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Durban, Pretoria, and Germiston. There is food processing and a large wine industry. Principal manufactures include machinery, textiles, iron and steel, chemicals, fertilizer, and forest products. South Africa is a world leader in the production of platinum, gold, chromium, diamonds, aluminosilicates, manganese, and vanadium. Other leading minerals extracted are copper ore, coal, asbestos, iron ore, silver, titanium, and uranium. Automobile assembly, metalworking, and commercial ship repair are also important.
The country has good road and rail networks. The chief seaports are Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London, Saldonha Bay, and Mossel Bay, where natural gas is now extracted offshore. The Orange River Project, a major hydroelectric and irrigation scheme, began in 1963 in central South Africa and was fully operational by the mid-1980s. By 2008, however, the lagging development of electrical power generation capacity led to power shortages within South Africa.
The main imports are machinery and equipment, chemicals, petroleum products, scientific instruments, and foodstuffs. The chief exports are gold, diamonds, platinum, other metals and minerals, equipment, chemicals, and arms. The principal trade partners are Germany, the United States, Japan, and Great Britain. South Africa carries on a large-scale foreign trade and generally maintains a favorable trade balance.
Government
South Africa is a federal republic. Until 1994 it was governed by the white minority with minimal mixed-race and Asian representation and virtually no black representation. In Apr., 1994, the country became a fully multiracial democracy, under an interim constitution; a permanent constitution was adopted in 1996. It provides for a strong central government headed by a president, who is elected by the National Assembly for a five-year term and serves as both the head of state and head of government. The bicameral Parliament consists of a 400-member National Assembly, which is elected by proportional representation, and a 90-seat National Council of Provinces, which is elected by the provincial legislatures. Legislators serve five-year terms. The constitution contains an extensive bill of rights and provides for an independent judiciary; the Constitutional Court is the highest court of appeal. The leading political parties are the African National Congress, the predominantly white Democratic Alliance, and the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom party. Administratively, the country is divided into nine provinces. Provinces are given exclusive powers in only a few areas, such as roads and recreation.
History
Early History
The San (Bushmen) are among the oldest indigenous peoples of South Africa. About 2,000 years ago, the pastoral Khoikhoi (called Hottentots by Europeans) settled mainly in the southern coastal region. By at least the 8th cent., Bantu speakers moving southward from E central Africa had settled the N region of present-day South Africa. These Bantu-speaking groups developed their own complex community organizations. In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias, a Portuguese navigator, became the first European to round the Cape of Good Hope (so named by King John II of Portugal). The diaries of shipwrecked Portuguese sailors attest to a large Bantu-speaking population in present-day KwaZulu-Natal by 1552.
Colonialism and African-European Relations
Although European vessels frequently passed by South Africa on their way to E Africa and India, and sometimes stopped for provisions or rest, no permanent European settlement was made until 1652, when Jan van Riebeeck and about 90 other persons set up a provisioning station for the Dutch East India Company at Table Bay on the Cape of Good Hope. Soon van Riebeeck began to trade with nearby Khoikhoi, gave Europeans land for farms, and brought in Africans (from W and E Africa) and Malays as slaves. By 1662, about 250 Europeans were living near the Cape and gradually they moved inland, founding Stellenbosch in 1679. In 1689 about 200 Huguenot refugees from Europe arrived; they established a wine industry and intermarried with the earlier Dutch settlers. By 1707 there were about 1,780 freeholders of European descent in South Africa, and they owned about 1,100 slaves.
By the early 18th cent., most San had migrated into inaccessible parts of the country to avoid European domination; the more numerous Khoikhoi either remained near the Cape, where they became virtual slaves of the Europeans, or dispersed into the interior. A great smallpox outbreak in 1713 killed many Europeans and most of the Khoikhoi living near the Cape. During the 18th cent. intermarriage between Khoikhoi slaves and Europeans began to create what became later known as the Coloured population. At the same time white farmers (known as Boers or Afrikaners) began to trek (journey) increasingly farther from the Cape in search of pasture and cropland.
By 1750 some farmers had migrated to the region between the Gamtoos and Great Fish rivers, where they encountered the Xhosa. At first the whites and blacks engaged in friendly trade, but in 1779 the first of a long series of Xhosa Wars (1789, 1799, 1812, 1819, 1834, 1846, 1850, 1877) broke out between them, primarily over land and cattle ownership. The whites sought to establish the Great Fish as the southern frontier of the Xhosa.
The British and the Boers
During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars the British replaced the Dutch at the Cape from 1795 to 1803 and again from 1806 to 1814, when the territory was assigned to Great Britain by the Congress of Vienna. In 1820, 5,000 British settlers were given small farms near the Great Fish River. They were intended to form a barrier to the southern movement of the Xhosa, but most soon gave up farming and moved to nearby towns such as Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown. They were the first large body of Europeans not to be assimilated into the Afrikaner culture that had developed in the 17th and 18th cent.
Great Britain alienated the Boers by remodeling the administration along British lines, by calling for better treatment of the Coloured and blacks who worked for the Boers as servants or slaves, by granting (Ordinance 50, 1828) free nonwhites legal rights equal to those of the whites, and by restricting the acquisition of new land by the Boers. In 1833 slavery was abolished in the British Empire, an act that angered South African slaveowners, but the freed slaves remained oppressed and continued to be exploited by white landowners.
To escape the restrictions of British rule as well as to obtain new land, about 12,000 Boers left the Cape between 1835 and 1843 in what is known as the Great Trek. The Voortrekkers (as these Boers are known) migrated beyond the Orange River. Some remained in the highveld of the interior, forming isolated communities and small states. A large group traveled eastward into what became Natal, where 70 Boers were killed (Feb., 1838) in an attack by Dingane's Zulu forces. Andries Pretorius defeated (Dec., 1838) the Zulu at the battle of Blood River, and the Boers proceeded to establish farms in Natal. After Britain annexed Natal in 1843, however, most of the Boers there returned to the interior. In the 1850s the Boer republics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal were established. In 1860 the first indentured laborers from India arrived in Natal to work on the sugar plantations, and by 1900 they outnumbered the whites there.
Natural Riches and British Victory
Diamonds were discovered in 1867 along the Vaal and Orange rivers and in 1870 at what became (1871) Kimberley; in 1886 gold was discovered on the Witwatersrand. These discoveries (especially that of gold) spurred great economic development in S Africa during 1870-1900; foreign trade increased dramatically, rail trackage expanded from c.70 mi (110 km) in 1870 to c.3,600 mi (5,790 km) in 1895, and the number of whites rose from about 300,000 in 1870 to about 1 million in 1900.
At the same time there were complex political developments. In 1871 the British annexed the diamond-mining region (known as Griqualand West), despite the protests of the Orange Free State. Britain annexed the Transvaal in 1877 but, after a revolt, restored its independence in 1881. In 1889, Cape Colony and the Orange Free State joined in a customs union, but the Transvaal (led by Paul Kruger) adamantly refused to take part.
In 1890, Cecil J. Rhodes, an ardent advocate of federation in S Africa, became prime minister of Cape Colony, and by 1894 he was encouraging the non-Afrikaner whites (known as the Uitlanders) in the Transvaal to overthrow Kruger. In Dec., 1895, Leander Starr Jameson, a close associate of Rhodes, invaded the Transvaal with a small force, planning to assist a hoped-for Uitlander rising; however, the Uitlanders did not revolt, and Jameson was defeated by early Jan., 1896. Tension mounted in the following years as British Prime Minister Joseph Chamberlain and the British high commissioner in South Africa, Alfred Milner, supported the Uitlanders against the dominant Afrikaners. In 1896, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State formed an alliance, and in 1899 they declared war on Great Britain. The South African War (Boer War; 1899-1902) was won by the British.
The Union of South Africa
In 1910 the Union of South Africa, with dominion status, was established by the British; it included Cape of Good Hope, Natal, the Orange Free State, and the Transvaal as provinces. Under the Union's constitution, power was centralized; the Dutch language (and in 1925 Afrikaans) was given equal status with English, and each province retained its existing franchise qualifications (the Cape permitted voting by some nonwhites). After elections in 1910, Louis Botha became the first prime minister; he headed the South African party, an amalgam of Afrikaner parties that advocated close cooperation between Afrikaners and persons of British descent. In 1912, J. B. M. Hertzog founded the Afrikaner-oriented National party. By 1914, largely as a result of the efforts of Mohandas K. Gandhi, the Indians living there were receiving somewhat better treatment. Botha led (1914) South Africa into World War I on the side of the Allies and quickly squashed a revolt by Afrikaners who opposed this alignment.
In 1915, South African forces captured South West Africa (present-day Namibia) from the Germans, and after the war the territory was placed under the Union as a League of Nations mandate. In 1919, Botha was succeeded as prime minister by his close associate J. C. Smuts. In 1921-22 skilled white mine workers on the Witwatersrand, fearful of losing their jobs to lower-paid nonwhites, staged a major strike, which Smuts ended only with a use of force that cost about 230 lives. As a result, Hertzog was elected prime minister in 1924 and remained in office until 1939; from 1934 to 1939 he was supported by Smuts, with whom he formed the United South African National party.
Hertzog led an Afrikaner cultural and economic revival; was influential in gaining additional British recognition of South African independence (through the Balfour Declaration of 1926 and the Statute of Westminster of 1931); took (Dec., 1932) South Africa off the gold standard, thus raising the price of gold and stimulating the gold-mining industry and the economy in general. He also curtailed the electoral power of nonwhites and furthered the system of allocating "reserved" areas for blacks as their permanent homes, at the same time regulating their movement in the remainder of the country.
The Smuts-Hertzog alliance disintegrated over whether to support Great Britain in World War II. Winning a crucial vote in parliament (Sept., 1939), Smuts became prime minister again and brought South Africa into the war on the British (Allied) side; Hertzog, who was not alarmed by Nazi German aggression and had little affection for Great Britain, went into opposition. South African troops made an important contribution to the Allied war effort, helping to end Italian control in Ethiopia and fighting with distinction in Italy and Madagascar.
National Party Ascendancy and Apartheid
The National party won the 1948 elections, partly by criticizing the more liberal policy toward nonwhites associated with Jan Hofmeyr, Smuts's close aide. D. F. Malan of the National party was prime minister from 1948 to 1954, and he was followed by J. G. Strijdom (1954-58), H. F. Verwoerd (1958-66), B. J. Vorster (1966-78), and P. W. Botha (1978-89)-all members of the National party, which won the general elections between 1953 and 1979. These governments greatly strengthened white control of the country. The policy of apartheid in almost all social relations was further implemented by a varied series of laws that included additional curbs on free movement (partly through the use of passbooks, which most blacks were required to carry) and the planned establishment of a number of independent homelands for African ethnic groups.
Black South Africans had long protested their inferior treatment through organizations such as the African National Congress (ANC; founded 1912) and the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union of Africa (founded 1919 by Clements Kadalie). In the 1950s and early 60s there were various protests against the National party's policies, involving passive resistance and the burning of passbooks; in 1960 a peaceful protest against the pass laws organized by the Pan-Africanist Congress (an offshoot of the ANC) at Sharpeville (near Johannesburg) ended when police opened fire, massacring 70 protesters and wounding about 190 others. In the 1960s most leaders (including ANC leader Nelson Mandela) of the opposition to apartheid were either in jail or were living in exile, and the government proceeded with its plans to segregate blacks on a more permanent basis.
The Republic of South Africa and Racial Strife
In 1961, South Africa left the Commonwealth of Nations (whose members were strongly critical of South Africa's apartheid policies) and became a republic. The first president of the new republic was C. R. Swart; he was succeeded by T. E. Donges and J. J. Fouché. In the 1960s there were international attempts to wrest South West Africa from South Africa's control, but South Africa tenaciously maintained its hold on the territory. In 1966, Prime Minister Verwoerd was assassinated by a discontented white government employee. From the late 1960s, the Vorster government began to try to start a dialogue on racial and other matters with independent African nations; these attempts met with little success, except for the establishment of diplomatic relations with Malawi and the adjacent nations of Lesotho, Botswana, and Swaziland, all of which were economically dependent on South Africa.
South Africa was strongly opposed to the establishment of black rule in the white-dominated countries of Angola, Mozambique, and Rhodesia, and gave military assistance to the whites there. However, by late 1974, with independence for Angola and Mozambique under majority rule imminent, South Africa, as one of the few remaining white-ruled nations of Africa, faced the prospect of further isolation from the international community. In the early 1970s increasing numbers of whites (especially students) protested apartheid, and the National party itself was divided, largely on questions of race relations, into the somewhat liberal verligte [Afrikaans,=enlightened] faction and the conservative verkrampte [Afrikaans,=narrow-minded] group.
In the early 1970s, black workers staged strikes and violently revolted against their inferior conditions. South Africa invaded Angola in 1975 in an attempt to crush mounting opposition in exile, but the action was a complete failure. In 1976, open rebellion erupted in the black township of Soweto near Johannesburg as a protest against the requirement of the use of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in black schools. Over the next months rioting spread to other large cities of South Africa, resulting in the deaths of more than 600 blacks. In 1977, the death of black leader Steve Biko in police custody (and under suspicious circumstances) prompted protests and sanctions.
After Botha became prime minister in 1978, he pledged to uphold apartheid as well as improve race relations. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the government granted "independence" to four homelands: Transkei (1976), Bophuthatswana (1977), Venda (1979), and Ciskei (1981). In the early 1980s, as the regime hotly debated the extent of reforms, it launched military strikes on the exiled ANC and other insurgent groups in neighboring countries, including Lesotho, Mozambique, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia.
In 1984, a new constitution was enacted which provided for a tricameral parliament. The new Parliament included the House of Representatives, comprised of Coloureds; the House of Delegates, comprised of Indians; and the House of Assembly, comprised of whites. This system left the whites with more seats in the Parliament than the Indians and Coloureds combined. Blacks violently protested being shut out of the system, and the ANC, which had traditionally used nonviolent means to protest inequality, began to advocate more extreme measures as well.
A Regime Unravels
As attacks against police stations and other government installations increased, the regime announced (1985) an indefinite state of emergency. In 1986, Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu, a black South African leader, addressed the United Nations and urged further sanctions against South Africa. A wave of strikes and riots marked the tenth anniversary of the Soweto uprising in 1987. In 1989, President Botha fell ill and was succeeded, first as party leader, then as president, by F. W. de Klerk. De Klerk's government began relaxing apartheid restrictions, and in 1990, Nelson Mandela was freed after 27 years of imprisonment and became head of the recently legalized ANC.
In late 1991 the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA), a multiracial forum set up by de Klerk and Mandela, began efforts to negotiate a new constitution and a transition to a multiracial democracy with majority rule. In Mar., 1992, voters in a referendum open only to whites endorsed constitutional reform efforts by a wide margin. However, there was continuing violence by opponents of the process, especially by supporters of Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, leader of the Zulu-based Inkatha movement, with the backing and sometimes active participation of South African security forces. There were also reprisals by supporters of the ANC and the Pan-Africanist Congress. In Sept., 1992, government-backed black police fired on a crowd of ANC demonstrators in Ciskei, killing 28. In Apr., 1993, the secretary-general of the South African Communist party was murdered by a right-wing extremist.
The New South Africa
Despite obstacles and delays, an interim constitution was completed in 1993, ending nearly three centuries of white rule in South Africa and marking the end of white-minority rule on the African continent. A 32-member multiparty transitional government council was formed with blacks in the majority. In Apr., 1994, days after the Inkatha Freedom party ended an electoral boycott, the republic's first multiracial election was held. The ANC won an overwhelming victory, and Nelson Mandela became president. South Africa rejoined the Commonwealth in 1994 and also relinquished its last hold in Namibia, ceding the exclave of Walvis Bay.
In 1994 and 1995 the last vestiges of apartheid were dismantled, and a new national constitution was approved and adopted in May, 1996. It provided for a strong presidency and eliminated provisions guaranteeing white-led and other minority parties representation in the government. De Klerk and the National party supported the new charter, despite disagreement over some provisions; Inkatha followers had walked out of constitutional talks and did not participate in voting on the new constitution. Shortly afterward, de Klerk and the National party quit the national unity government to become part of the opposition, after 1998 as the New National party. The new government faced the daunting task of trying to address the inequities produced by decades of apartheid while promoting privatization and a favorable investment climate.
A Truth and Reconciliation Commission (1996-2003), headed by Archbishop Tutu, sought to establish the truth about atrocities committed during the country's apartheid era, while avoiding the expense and divisiveness of trials. The commission's final report said the apartheid government had institutionalized violence in its fight against racial equality but was also critical of most of the groups involved in the liberation struggle, including the ANC. By the end of the 1990s, many blacks had entered the middle class, often through government jobs. Unemployment remained critically high, however, and crime and labor unrest were on the rise. In the 1999 elections Thabo Mbeki, who had succeeded Mandela as head of the ANC, led the party to a landslide victory and became South Africa's new president. The liberal Democratic party became the leading opposition party, and in 2000 it joined with the New National party to form the Democratic Alliance (DA). That coalition, however, survived only until late 2001, when the New National party left it to form a coalition with the ANC.
The end of apartheid led as well to a reemergence of South Africa on the international stage, particularly in Africa. The country has become active in the African Union (the successor of the Organization of African Unity) and the nonaligned movement, and has helped broker peace agreements in strife-torn Burundi (2001) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2002). In Apr., 2002, the small Federal Alliance party joined the Democratic party in the Democratic Alliance; and in Nov., 2003, the Alliance agreed to form a coalition with Inkatha against the ANC in the 2004 elections. AIDS has become a significant health problem in South Africa, and in late 2003 the government finally agreed to provide a comprehension anti-AIDS prevention and treatment program through the public health system.
Parliamentary elections in Apr., 2004, resulted in a resounding victory for the ANC, which won nearly 70% of the vote; the DA remained the largest opposition party and increased its share of the vote. The new parliament subsequently reelected President Mbeki. As a result of its poor showing, the New National party merged with the ANC, and voted to disband in Apr., 2005. In June, Mbeki dismissed Deputy President Jacob Zuma after Zuma's financial adviser was convicted of paying the deputy president bribes. The ANC, however, refused to remove Zuma from his deputy party leadership post, even after he was arraigned on corruption charges later in the month; he was formally indicted in November. In Dec., 2005, Zuma was also charged with rape in an unrelated case, and suspended his participation in the ANC leadership for the duration of that case. After his acquittal on the rape charge in May, 2006, he resumed his ANC duties; the corruption case was dismissed in Sept., 2006, for procedural reasons. Zuma was elected head of the ANC in Dec., 2007, defeating Mbeki; the result reflected widespread unhappiness with South Africa's president within the ANC. In May, 2008, there were a series of attacks on foreigners in various South African cities and towns, apparently sparked by frustrationss over economic issues; thousands of immigrants from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Nigeria were displaced and many fled South Africa.
In Sept., 2008, a judge again dismissed (for procedural reasons) the renewed corruption case against Zuma, but the trial judge also stated that it appeared that Mbeki's government had interfered with the prosecution of Zuma for political reasons. Although Mbeki strongly denied that accusation, the ANC called for him to resign as president and he did. Kgalema Motlanthe, the ANC's deputy leader and a Zuma ally, was elected as South Africa's interim president. The decision in the Zuma case was overturned on appeal in Jan., 2009, and the charges were dropped three months later.
In the Apr., 2009, National Assembly elections the ANC again won by a landslide, but it narrowly failed to secure a two-thirds majority, which would have enabled it to amend the constitution without support from another party. The DA, which again increased its share of the vote, remained the largest opposition party, and the Congress of the People (COPE), formed by ANC members who left the party after Mbeki resigned the presidency, placed a distant third. The victory assured Zuma's election as president by the legislature, which occurred the following month. In July, as South Africa suffered through its worst recession in some two decades, township protests against poor living conditions and inadequate services turned violent in a number of provinces. The murder of Eugene Terreblanche, a white supremist leader, by two black farmhands in Apr., 2010, raised fears that the incident would spark racial violence.
Bibliography
See M. Wilson and L. Thompson, ed., The Oxford History of South Africa (2 vol., 1969-71); T. Lodge, Black Politics in South Africa since 1945 (1983); S. R. Lewis, The Economics of Apartheid (1989); L. Thompson, A History of South Africa (1990); R. H. Davis, ed., Apartheid Unravels (1991); P. Waldmeir, Anatomy of a Miracle (1997); T. R. H. Davenport and C. Saunders, South Africa (5th ed. 2000); M. Meredith, Diamonds, Gold and War: The British, the Boers and the Making of South Africa (2007); R. Ross et al., ed, The Cambridge History of South Africa (2 vol., 2009-11).
Dictionary of Cultural Literacy: Geography:
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South Africa
Officially the Republic of South Africa, a nation at the southern tip of Africa spanning the Cape of Good Hope where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. It is bordered by Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe to the north, and Mozambique to the northeast. Its capitals are Pretoria for its administrative government and Cape Town for its legislature. (See also Johannesburg.)
- Dutch settlers, known as Boers, were the first Europeans to migrate in large numbers to the territories that now make up South Africa. Britain was granted the territory surrounding the Cape of Good Hope at the Congress of Vienna, and friction between the British and Dutch remained a constant in the region. Tensions were increased by the discovery of gold and diamonds in the late nineteenth century and came to a head in the Boer War (1899-1902), in which the British defeated the Dutch-descended Afrikaners.
- South Africa's policy of apartheid, the aggressive separation of the races and enforcement of the inferior political status of all nonwhites, was the hallmark of its internal political system. South Africa's race policies became the subject of international protest and economic sanctions.
- Black South Africans, who constitute approximately seventy percent of the nation, protested the racist policies of the white minority through organizations such as the African National Congress (ANC), headed by Nelson Mandela, who spent much of his life in jail as a political prisoner.
- Under President F. W. De Klerk, the white minority government released Mandela from jail in 1990 and repealed some of the major laws establishing apartheid. In 1994, the ANC triumphed in elections and Mandela became president. As president, Mandela appointed a truth commission to document human-rights abuses under apartheid.
CIA World Factbook:
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South Africa
Introduction
| Background: | Dutch traders landed at the southern tip of modern day South Africa in 1652 and established a stopover point on the spice route between the Netherlands and the East, founding the city of Cape Town. After the British seized the Cape of Good Hope area in 1806, many of the Dutch settlers (the Boers) trekked north to found their own republics. The discovery of diamonds (1867) and gold (1886) spurred wealth and immigration and intensified the subjugation of the native inhabitants. The Boers resisted British encroachments but were defeated in the Boer War (1899-1902); however, the British and the Afrikaners, as the Boers became known, ruled together under the Union of South Africa. In 1948, the National Party was voted into power and instituted a policy of apartheid - the separate development of the races. The first multi-racial elections in 1994 brought an end to apartheid and ushered in black majority rule under the African National Congress (ANC). ANC infighting, which has grown in recent years, came to a head in September 2008 after President Thabo MBEKI resigned. Kgalema MOTLANTHE, the party's General-Secretary, succeeded as interim president until general elections scheduled for 2009. |
Geography
| Location: | Southern Africa, at the southern tip of the continent of Africa |
| Geographic coordinates: | 29 00 S, 24 00 E |
| Map references: | Africa |
| Area: | total: 1,219,912 sq km land: 1,219,912 sq km water: 0 sq km note: includes Prince Edward Islands (Marion Island and Prince Edward Island) |
| Area - comparative: | slightly less than twice the size of Texas |
| Land boundaries: | total: 4,862 km border countries: Botswana 1,840 km, Lesotho 909 km, Mozambique 491 km, Namibia 967 km, Swaziland 430 km, Zimbabwe 225 km |
| Coastline: | 2,798 km |
| Maritime claims: | territorial sea: 12 nm contiguous zone: 24 nm exclusive economic zone: 200 nm continental shelf: 200 nm or to edge of the continental margin |
| Climate: | mostly semiarid; subtropical along east coast; sunny days, cool nights |
| Terrain: | vast interior plateau rimmed by rugged hills and narrow coastal plain |
| Elevation extremes: | lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m highest point: Njesuthi 3,408 m |
| Natural resources: | gold, chromium, antimony, coal, iron ore, manganese, nickel, phosphates, tin, uranium, gem diamonds, platinum, copper, vanadium, salt, natural gas |
| Land use: | arable land: 12.1% permanent crops: 0.79% other: 87.11% (2005) |
| Irrigated land: | 14,980 sq km (2003) |
| Total renewable water resources: | 50 cu km (1990) |
| Freshwater withdrawal (domestic/industrial/agricultural): | total: 12.5 cu km/yr (31%/6%/63%) per capita: 264 cu m/yr (2000) |
| Natural hazards: | prolonged droughts |
| Environment - current issues: | lack of important arterial rivers or lakes requires extensive water conservation and control measures; growth in water usage outpacing supply; pollution of rivers from agricultural runoff and urban discharge; air pollution resulting in acid rain; soil erosion; desertification |
| Environment - international agreements: | party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, Whaling signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements |
| Geography - note: | South Africa completely surrounds Lesotho and almost completely surrounds Swaziland |
People
| Population: | 49,052,489 note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality, higher death rates, lower population growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2009 est.) |
| Age structure: | 0-14 years: 28.9% (male 7,093,328/female 7,061,579) 15-64 years: 65.8% (male 16,275,424/female 15,984,181) 65 years and over: 5.4% (male 1,075,117/female 1,562,860) (2009 est.) |
| Median age: | total: 24.4 years male: 24.1 years female: 24.8 years (2009 est.) |
| Population growth rate: | 0.281% (2009 est.) |
| Birth rate: | 19.93 births/1,000 population (2009 est.) |
| Death rate: | 16.94 deaths/1,000 population (2008 est.) |
| Net migration rate: | -0.13 migrant(s)/1,000 population note: there is an increasing flow of Zimbabweans into South Africa and Botswana in search of better economic opportunities (2009 est.) |
| Urbanization: | urban population: 61% of total population (2008) rate of urbanization: 1.4% annual rate of change (2005-10 est.) |
| Sex ratio: | at birth: 1.02 male(s)/female under 15 years: 1 male(s)/female 15-64 years: 1.02 male(s)/female 65 years and over: 0.69 male(s)/female total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2009 est.) |
| Infant mortality rate: | total: 44.42 deaths/1,000 live births male: 48.66 deaths/1,000 live births female: 40.1 deaths/1,000 live births (2009 est.) |
| Life expectancy at birth: | total population: 48.98 years male: 49.81 years female: 48.13 years (2009 est.) |
| Total fertility rate: | 2.38 children born/woman (2009 est.) |
| HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: | 18.1% (2007 est.) |
| HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: | 5.7 million (2007 est.) |
| HIV/AIDS - deaths: | 350,000 (2007 est.) |
| Major infectious diseases: | degree of risk: intermediate food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever water contact disease: schistosomiasis (2009) |
| Nationality: | noun: South African(s) adjective: South African |
| Ethnic groups: | black African 79%, white 9.6%, colored 8.9%, Indian/Asian 2.5% (2001 census) |
| Religions: | Zion Christian 11.1%, Pentecostal/Charismatic 8.2%, Catholic 7.1%, Methodist 6.8%, Dutch Reformed 6.7%, Anglican 3.8%, Muslim 1.5%, other Christian 36%, other 2.3%, unspecified 1.4%, none 15.1% (2001 census) |
| Languages: | IsiZulu 23.8%, IsiXhosa 17.6%, Afrikaans 13.3%, Sepedi 9.4%, English 8.2%, Setswana 8.2%, Sesotho 7.9%, Xitsonga 4.4%, other 7.2% (2001 census) |
| Literacy: | definition: age 15 and over can read and write total population: 86.4% male: 87% female: 85.7% (2003 est.) |
| School life expectancy (primary to tertiary education): | total: 13 years male: 13 years female: 13 years (2004) |
| Education expenditures: | 5.4% of GDP (2006) |
Government
| Country name: | conventional long form: Republic of South Africa conventional short form: South Africa former: Union of South Africa abbreviation: RSA |
| Government type: | republic |
| Capital: | name: Pretoria (administrative capital) geographic coordinates: 25 42 S, 28 13 E time difference: UTC+2 (7 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time) note: Cape Town (legislative capital); Bloemfontein (judicial capital) |
| Administrative divisions: | 9 provinces; Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North-West, Western Cape |
| Independence: | 31 May 1910 (Union of South Africa formed from four British colonies: Cape Colony, Natal, Transvaal, and Orange Free State); 31 May 1961 (republic declared) 27 April 1994 (majority rule) |
| National holiday: | Freedom Day, 27 April (1994) |
| Constitution: | 10 December 1996; note - certified by the Constitutional Court on 4 December 1996; was signed by then President MANDELA on 10 December 1996; and entered into effect on 4 February 1997 |
| Legal system: | based on Roman-Dutch law and English common law; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction |
| Suffrage: | 18 years of age; universal |
| Executive branch: | chief of state: President Jacob ZUMA (since 9 May 2009); Executive Deputy President Kgalema MOTLANTHE (since 11 May 2009); note - the president is both the chief of state and head of government head of government: President Jacob ZUMA (since 9 May 2009); Executive Deputy President Kgalema MOTLANTHE (since 11 May 2009) cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president elections: president elected by the National Assembly for a five-year term (eligible for a second term); election last held on 6 May 2009 (next to be held in 2014) election results: Jacob ZUMA elected president; National Assembly vote - Jacob ZUMA 277, Mvume DANDALA 47, other 76 |
| Legislative branch: | bicameral Parliament consisting of the National Council of Provinces (90 seats, 10 members elected by each of the nine provincial legislatures for five-year terms; has special powers to protect regional interests, including the safeguarding of cultural and linguistic traditions among ethnic minorities) and the National Assembly (400 seats; members are elected by popular vote under a system of proportional representation to serve five-year terms); note - following the implementation of the new constitution on 4 February 1997, the former Senate was disbanded and replaced by the National Council of Provinces with essentially no change in membership and party affiliations, although the new institution's responsibilities have been changed somewhat by the new constitution elections: National Assembly and National Council of Provinces - last held on 22 April 2009 (next to be held in April 2014) election results: National Council of Provinces - percent of vote by party - NA; seats by party - NA; National Assembly - percent of vote by party - ANC 65.9%, DA 16.7%, COPE 7.4%, IFP 4.6%, other 5.4%; seats by party - ANC 264, DA 67, COPE 30, IFP 18, other 21 |
| Judicial branch: | Constitutional Court; Supreme Court of Appeals; High Courts; Magistrate Courts |
| Political parties and leaders: | African Christian Democratic Party or ACDP [Kenneth MESHOE]; African National Congress or ANC [Jacob ZUMA]; Congress of the People or COPE [Mosiuoa LEKOTA]; Democratic Alliance or DA [Helen ZILLE]; Freedom Front Plus or FF+ [Pieter MULDER]; Independent Democrats or ID [Patricia DE LILLE]; Inkatha Freedom Party or IFP [Mangosuthu BUTHELEZI]; Pan-Africanist Congress or PAC [Motsoko PHEKO]; United Christian Democratic Party or UCDP [Lucas MANGOPE]; United Democratic Movement or UDM [Bantu HOLOMISA] |
| Political pressure groups and leaders: | Congress of South African Trade Unions or COSATU [Zwelinzima VAVI, general secretary]; South African Communist Party or SACP [Blade NZIMANDE, general secretary]; South African National Civics Organization or SANCO [Mlungisi HLONGWANE, national president] note: note - COSATU and SACP are in a formal alliance with the ANC |
| International organization participation: | ACP, AfDB, AU, BIS, C, FAO, G-20, G-24, G-77, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICRM, IDA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, IMSO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, IPU, ISO, ITSO, ITU, ITUC, MIGA, MONUC, NAM, NSG, OPCW, PCA, SACU, SADC, UN, UNAMID, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNITAR, UNWTO, UPU, WCL, WCO, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WTO, ZC |
| Diplomatic representation in the US: | chief of mission: Ambassador Welile Augustine NHLAPO chancery: 3051 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008 telephone: [1] (202) 232-4400 FAX: [1] (202) 265-1607 consulate(s) general: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York |
| Diplomatic representation from the US: | chief of mission: Ambassador Eric BOST embassy: 877 Pretorius Street, Pretoria mailing address: P. O. Box 9536, Pretoria 0001 telephone: [27] (12) 431-4000 FAX: [27] (12) 342-2299 consulate(s) general: Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg |
| Flag description: | two equal width horizontal bands of red (top) and blue separated by a central green band that splits into a horizontal Y, the arms of which end at the corners of the hoist side; the Y embraces a black isosceles triangle from which the arms are separated by narrow yellow bands; the red and blue bands are separated from the green band and its arms by narrow white stripes |
Economy
| Economy - overview: | South Africa is a middle-income, emerging market with an abundant supply of natural resources; well-developed financial, legal, communications, energy, and transport sectors; a stock exchange that is 17th largest in the world; and modern infrastructure supporting an efficient distribution of goods to major urban centers throughout the region. Growth was robust from 2004 to 2008 as South Africa reaped the benefits of macroeconomic stability and a global commodities boom, but began to slow in the second half of 2008 due to the global financial crisis' impact on commodity prices and demand. However, unemployment remains high and outdated infrastructure has constrained growth. At the end of 2007, South Africa began to experience an electricity crisis because state power supplier Eskom suffered supply problems with aged plants, necessitating "load-shedding" cuts to residents and businesses in the major cities. Daunting economic problems remain from the apartheid era - especially poverty, lack of economic empowerment among the disadvantaged groups, and a shortage of public transportation. South African economic policy is fiscally conservative but pragmatic, focusing on controlling inflation, maintaining a budget surplus, and using state-owned enterprises to deliver basic services to low-income areas as a means to increase job growth and household income. |
| GDP (purchasing power parity): | $489.7 billion (2008 est.) $476.4 billion (2007) $453.3 billion (2006) note: data are in 2008 US dollars |
| GDP (official exchange rate): | $300.4 billion (2008 est.) |
| GDP - real growth rate: | 2.8% (2008 est.) 5.1% (2007 est.) 5.3% (2006 est.) |
| GDP - per capita (PPP): | $10,000 (2008 est.) $9,800 (2007 est.) $9,500 (2006 est.) note: data are in 2008 US dollars |
| GDP - composition by sector: | agriculture: 3.4% industry: 31.3% services: 65.3% (2008 est.) |
| Labor force: | 18.22 million economically active (2008 est.) |
| Labor force - by occupation: | agriculture: 9% industry: 26% services: 65% (2007 est.) |
| Unemployment rate: | 21.7% (2008 est.) |
| Population below poverty line: | 50% (2000 est.) |
| Household income or consumption by percentage share: | lowest 10%: 1.4% highest 10%: 44.7% (2000) |
| Distribution of family income - Gini index: | 65 (2005) |
| Investment (gross fixed): | 20.1% of GDP (2008 est.) |
| Budget: | revenues: $83.85 billion expenditures: $83.3 billion (2008 est.) |
| Fiscal year: | 1 April - 31 March |
| Public debt: | 29.9% of GDP (2008 est.) |
| Inflation rate (consumer prices): | 11.3% (2008 est.) |
| Central bank discount rate: | 11% (31 December 2007) |
| Commercial bank prime lending rate: | 13.17% (31 December 2007) |
| Stock of money: | $58.49 billion (31 December 2007) |
| Stock of quasi money: | $141.9 billion (31 December 2007) |
| Stock of domestic credit: | $254.9 billion (31 December 2007) |
| Market value of publicly traded shares: | $842 billion (January 2008) |
| Agriculture - products: | corn, wheat, sugarcane, fruits, vegetables; beef, poultry, mutton, wool, dairy products |
| Industries: | mining (world's largest producer of platinum, gold, chromium), automobile assembly, metalworking, machinery, textiles, iron and steel, chemicals, fertilizer, foodstuffs, commercial ship repair |
| Industrial production growth rate: | 3.8% (2008 est.) |
| Electricity - production: | 264 billion kWh (2007) |
| Electricity - consumption: | 241.4 billion kWh (2007) |
| Electricity - exports: | 13.77 billion kWh (2006 est.) |
| Electricity - imports: | 11.32 billion kWh (2007) |
| Electricity - production by source: | fossil fuel: 93.5% hydro: 1.1% nuclear: 5.5% other: 0% (2001) |
| Oil - production: | 199,100 bbl/day (2007 est.) |
| Oil - consumption: | 504,900 bbl/day (2006 est.) |
| Oil - exports: | 267,700 bbl/day (2005) |
| Oil - imports: | 319,000 bbl/day (2006 est.) |
| Oil - proved reserves: | 15 million bbl (1 January 2008 est.) |
| Natural gas - production: | 2.9 billion cu m (2006 est.) |
| Natural gas - consumption: | 3.1 billion cu m (2006 est.) |
| Natural gas - exports: | 0 cu m (2007 est.) |
| Natural gas - imports: | 0 cu m (2005) |
| Natural gas - proved reserves: | 27.16 million cu m (1 January 2006 est.) |
| Current account balance: | -$21.67 billion (2008 est.) |
| Exports: | $81.47 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.) |
| Exports - commodities: | gold, diamonds, platinum, other metals and minerals, machinery and equipment |
| Exports - partners: | US 11.9%, Japan 11.1%, Germany 8%, UK 7.7%, China 6.6%, Netherlands 4.5% (2007) |
| Imports: | $87.3 billion f.o.b. (2008 est.) |
| Imports - commodities: | machinery and equipment, chemicals, petroleum products, scientific instruments, foodstuffs |
| Imports - partners: | Germany 10.9%, China 10%, Spain 8.2%, US 7.2%, Japan 6.1%, UK 4.5%, Saudi Arabia 4.2% (2007) |
| Reserves of foreign exchange and gold: | $33.59 billion (31 December 2008 est.) |
| Debt - external: | $39.69 billion (31 December 2008 est.) |
| Stock of direct foreign investment - at home: | $99.61 billion (2008 est.) |
| Stock of direct foreign investment - abroad: | $57.08 billion (2008 est.) |
| Currency (code): | rand (ZAR) |
| Currency code: | ZAR |
| Exchange rates: | rand (ZAR) per US dollar - 7.9576 (2008 est.), 7.05 (2007), 6.7649 (2006), 6.3593 (2005), 6.4597 (2004) |
Communications
| Telephones - main lines in use: | 4.642 million (2007) |
| Telephones - mobile cellular: | 42.3 million (2007) |
| Telephone system: | general assessment: the system is the best developed and most modern in Africa domestic: combined fixed-line and mobile-cellular teledensity is nearly 110 telephones per 100 persons; consists of carrier-equipped open-wire lines, coaxial cables, microwave radio relay links, fiber-optic cable, radiotelephone communication stations, and wireless local loops; key centers are Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth, and Pretoria international: country code - 27; the SAT-3/WASC and SAFE fiber optic cable systems connect South Africa to Europe and Asia; satellite earth stations - 3 Intelsat (1 Indian Ocean and 2 Atlantic Ocean) |
| Radio broadcast stations: | AM 14, FM 347 (plus 243 repeaters), shortwave 1 (1998) |
| Radios: | 17 million (2001) |
| Television broadcast stations: | 556 (plus 144 network repeaters) (1997) |
| Televisions: | 6 million (2000) |
| Internet country code: | .za |
| Internet hosts: | 1.297 million (2008) |
| Internet Service Providers (ISPs): | 150 (2001) |
| Internet users: | 5.1 million (2005) |
Transportation
| Airports: | 636 (2008) |
| Airports - with paved runways: | total: 146 over 3,047 m: 10 2,438 to 3,047 m: 5 1,524 to 2,437 m: 52 914 to 1,523 m: 66 under 914 m: 13 (2008) |
| Airports - with unpaved runways: | total: 490 over 3,047 m: 1 2,438 to 3,047 m: 1 1,524 to 2,437 m: 31 914 to 1,523 m: 312 under 914 m: 145 (2008) |
| Heliports: | 1 (2007) |
| Pipelines: | condensate 11 km; gas 908 km; oil 980 km; refined products 1,379 km (2008) |
| Railways: | total: 20,872 km narrow gauge: 20,436 km 1.065-m gauge (8,931 km electrified); 436 km 0.610-m gauge (2006) |
| Roadways: | total: 362,099 km paved: 73,506 km (includes 239 km of expressways) unpaved: 288,593 km (2002) |
| Merchant marine: | total: 3 by type: container 1, petroleum tanker 2 foreign-owned: 1 (Denmark 1) registered in other countries: 8 (Bahamas 1, Nigeria 1, NZ 1, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1, Seychelles 1, UK 3) (2008) |
| Ports and terminals: | Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Richards Bay, Saldanha Bay |
Military
| Military branches: | South African National Defense Force (SANDF): South African Army, South African Navy (SAN), South African Air Force (SAAF), Joint Operations Command, Military Intelligence, South African Military Health Services (2009) |
| Military service age and obligation: | 18 years of age for voluntary military service; women are eligible to serve in noncombat roles; 2-year service obligation (2007) |
| Manpower available for military service: | males age 16-49: 11,622,507 females age 16-49: 11,501,537 (2008 est.) |
| Manpower fit for military service: | males age 16-49: 7,641,557 females age 16-49: 6,518,793 (2009 est.) |
| Manpower reaching militarily significant age annually: | male: 511,616 female: 510,540 (2009 est.) |
| Military expenditures: | 1.7% of GDP (2006) |
| Military - note: | with the end of apartheid and the establishment of majority rule, former military, black homelands forces, and ex-opposition forces were integrated into the South African National Defense Force (SANDF); as of 2003 the integration process was considered complete |
Transnational Issues
| Disputes - international: | South Africa has placed military along the border to apprehend the thousands of Zimbabweans fleeing economic dysfunction and political persecution; as of January 2007, South Africa also supports large numbers of refugees and asylum seekers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (33,000), Somalia (20,000), Burundi (6,500), and other states in Africa (26,000); managed dispute with Namibia over the location of the boundary in the Orange River; in 2006, Swazi king advocates resort to ICJ to claim parts of Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal from South Africa |
| Refugees and internally displaced persons: | refugees (country of origin): 10,772 (Democratic Republic of Congo); 7,818 (Somalia); 5,759 (Angola) (2007) |
| Trafficking in persons: | current situation: South Africa is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for forced labor and sexual exploitation; women and girls are trafficked internally - and occasionally to European and Asian countries - for sexual exploitation; women from other African countries are trafficked to South Africa and, less frequently, onward to Europe for sexual exploitation; men and boys are trafficked from neighboring countries for forced agricultural labor; Asian and Eastern European women are trafficked to South Africa for debt-bonded sexual exploitation tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - South Africa is on the Tier 2 Watch List for a fourth consecutive year for its failure to show increasing efforts to address trafficking; the government provided inadequate data in 2007 on trafficking crimes investigated or prosecuted, or on resulting convictions or sentences; it also did not provide information on its efforts to protect victims of trafficking; the country continues to deport and/or prosecute suspected foreign victims without providing appropriate protective services (2008) |
| Illicit drugs: | transshipment center for heroin, hashish, and cocaine, as well as a major cultivator of marijuana in its own right; cocaine and heroin consumption on the rise; world's largest market for illicit methaqualone, usually imported illegally from India through various east African countries, but increasingly producing its own synthetic drugs for domestic consumption; attractive venue for money launderers given the increasing level of organized criminal and narcotics activity in the region and the size of the South African economy |
Gale World Cuisines:
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South Africa
Recipes
Traditional Biltong and Dried Fruit SnackMealie Soup (Corn Soup)
Carrot Bredie
Green Bean Salad
Komkomer Sambal (Cucumber Relish)
Geel Rys (Yellow Rice)
Corn on the Cob
Bobotie
Pineapple Sherbet (Pineapple Smoothie)
Putupap (Cornmeal Porridge)
Geographic Setting and Environment
South Africa is a large country at the southern tip of the African continent. It is slightly less that twice the size of Texas. The country has large areas of plateaus, with some areas of higher elevations in the eastern Drakensberg Mountains, near the border with Lesotho. Over 80 percent of South Africa's land could be farmed, but only about 12 percent is devoted to agriculture. The main crop is corn (called "mealies" in South Africa). Wheat can only be grown in winter, when the climate is like the Northern Hemisphere's summer. "Kaffir corn," which is really sorghum (a grass similar to Indian corn), is another important crop. South African farmers also raise livestock, but their herds do not produce enough meat to feed the population. Meat is imported in the form of live animals from neighboring Namibia and Botswana.
History and Food
Early South Africans were mostly hunter-gatherers. They depended on foods such as tortoises, crayfish, coconuts, and squash to survive. Biltong, meat that is dried, salted, and spiced (similar to jerky), and beskuits (dried sweetened biscuits, like zwiebeck or rusks) were popular food among the original pioneers and are both still enjoyed by twenty-first century South Africans. Dried fruits, eaten whole or ground into a paste, are also popular treats. The practice of modern agriculture was introduced by the Bantu, natives of northern Africa. They taught inhabitants to grow vegetables such as corn ("mealies"), squash, and sweet potatoes. Modern Zulu people, most of whom live in northeastern South Africa, enjoy a soft porridge made from mealie-meal (cornmeal), and dishes combining meat and vegetables such as dried corn and yams.
Nearly 200 years after the Portuguese first arrived in South Africa, Dutch settlers, known as Boers, built the first European settlement at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652. The Dutch planted gardens with pumpkins, watermelons, cucumbers, pineapples, and potatoes. Meanwhile, the Dutch East India Company increased trade between South Africa, Europe, and India, bringing new and unfamiliar people and cuisines to South Africa's culture. Slaves from the east, mostly from Malaysia, helped work as farmers or fishermen. They brought with them various spices that added flavor to commonly bland Dutch and English stews and dishes.
Other countries also brought diversity to South African cuisine. The French, known for making wines, began establishing vineyards. The Germans introduced baked goods and pastries and the British brought meat pies. Foods from India, China, and Indonesia also influenced the South African diet.
Early settlers simmered potjiekos (stew) for hours in a three-legged iron pot over a very small open fire. Ingredients would be added to the pot of potjiekos as they became available, such as animals caught by hunters or trappers and vegetables or wild plants harvested from the open fields.
See Traditional Biltong and Dried Fruit Snack recipe.
Foods of the South Africans
Seafood, a staple food in South African diets, is plentiful along the country's Atlantic and Indian Ocean coastlines. Hake is the most common fish, caught in the Atlantic Ocean waters. It is sold as "fish and chips" (pieces of deep-fried fish with French fries) and pickled. Rock lobster, mussels, octopus, and cod are also popular seafood selections, particularly at the country's southern tip.
South Africa's mild climate produces a variety of fruits and vegetables. Potatoes, cabbage, corn ("mealies"), sunflower, peppers, and green beans are commonly grown. The abundance of rain in the northern tip of the country allows tropical fruits to grow, including bananas, pineapples, and mangoes. Such fruits make delicious desserts.
Dishes of British origin are seasoned and flavorful in South Africa. Spices were added to popular meals, such as the meat pie. The Boer (Dutch) Chicken Pie is a crusted chicken potpie with plenty of seasonings, topped with eggs and ham. Bobotie, a beef or lamb potpie, contains raisins, apples, almonds, and curry powder, a savory seasoning.
Sausages (made of beef or pork) and sosaties, seasoned lamb on a skewer, are commonly eaten at meals. Sosaties are most frequently served at a barbecue, or braai, party and served with sauce and biscuits. South Africans make sosaties in different ways, with a variety of seasonings to make the meal more flavorful. Other meat favorites are ostrich and chicken. Frikkadels ("little hamburgers" usually seasoned with nutmeg) are sometimes served wrapped in cabbage leaves. Bredies, meat and vegetable stews of all kinds, are usually named for the primary vegetable ingredient (such as carrot bredie or tomato bredie). Wine, water, mechow (a fermented beer-like drink made from cornmeal), and tea are often served with meals. Rice pudding, melktert (milk custard tart), and cookies remain popular desserts.
See Mealie Soup (Corn Soup) recipe.
See Carrot Bredie recipe.
See Green Bean Salad recipe.
Food for Religious and Holiday Celebrations
More South Africans practice Christianity than any other religion. Like other Christians around the world, South African Christians celebrate Christmas Day on December 25 and Good Friday and Easter in either March or April. Such occasions are normally celebrated with family and close friends.
A typical holiday menu may include rock lobster tail or seasoned lamb or pork accompanied by cabbage. Serving appetizers depends on the size of the dinner. People want to save room for dinner, dessert, and after-dinner drinks. Sambals (condiments such as chopped vegetables and chutneys), atjar (pickled fruits and vegetables), yams, geel rys (yellow rice), and green bean salad are popular side dishes. Mealie bread (corn-bread) is a South African favorite and is often served before or during the meal. Wine, beer, tea, or water may be refreshing to adults, while children may enjoy soft drinks or other non-alcoholic beverages. Rooibos tea (pronounced roy boy), a strong, caffeine-free herbal tea made from a plant that is native to South Africa, is served without milk, sugar, or lemon. Rice pudding is a common dessert. No matter what meal is chosen, it is certain to be full of flavor.
A much smaller number of South Africans are either Muslim or Hindu. Muslims celebrate the Islamic holiday of Ramadan, a movable month-long holiday. During Ramadan, Muslims fast (avoid eating and drinking) from sunrise to sunset to worship and practice self-control. After sunset, people gather together to enjoy dinner, called iftar. Dinner may include rice, dates, and a variety of spiced dishes. Hindus celebrate Diwali, or Festival of Lights. On this important day, the Hindus eat a small portion of lamb, chicken, or fish with beans or lentils. Their festive dishes often contain up to fifteen different spices and are accompanied by bread.
See Komkomer Sambal (Cucumber Relish) recipe.
See Geel Rys (Yellow Rice) recipe.
Mealtime Customs
South Africans eat three meals per day. For breakfast, most eat some kind of hot cooked cereal, such as putupap (cornmeal porridge, similar to grits), served with milk and sugar. Putupap and mealie bread (corn bread) are frequently also served as part of a main meal and lunch or dinner, too. Other breakfast foods might be beskuit, a crusty, dried sweet bread (similar to rusks). Tea and coffee are popular morning beverages.
South Africans are known for their hospitality and love to cook for visitors. During a hearty meal featuring a main course such as bobotie, seafood, or mutton stew, accompanied by vegetables and rice, it not uncommon for a host to offer guests a variety of drinks, such as wine, homemade beer, or tea. Fruits, puddings, and cakes round off a great meal.
See Corn on the Cob recipe.
See Bobotie recipe.
See Pineapple Sherbet (Pineapple Smoothie) recipe.
See Putupap (Cornmeal Porridge) recipe.
Politics, Economics, and Nutrition
From 1948 until 1994, South African society was strictly divided according to racial groups in a structure called apartheid, or racial separation. While the government officially referred to this structure as "separate development," there were, in reality, few resources devoted to development of the black portions of the country. In 1994, the policy of apartheid ended and a multiracial government was elected. Since then, the economy has been adjusting to the new structure of society. Some areas of the economy, such as tourism, suffered because people were concerned that the changes might lead to instability. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the white minority population enjoyed a high standard of living, but the 85 percent majority black population still lived with low health and economic standards of living.
Further Study
Books
DeWitt, Dave. Flavors of Africa: Spicy African Cooking from Indigenous Recipes to those Influenced by Asian and European Settlers. Rocklin, CA: Prima Publishing, 1998.
Hachten, Harva. Best of Regional African Cooking. New York: Hippocrene Books, Inc., 1998.
Harris, Jessica B. The African Cookbook: Tastes of a Continent. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998.
Sandler, Bea. The African Cookbook. New York: First Carol Publishing Group, 1993.
Web Sites
Eating the South African Way. [Online] Available: http://cwr.utoronto.ca/cultural/english/safrica/eating.html (accessed January 31, 2001).
Ethnic Cuisine: Africa. [Online] Available: http://www.sallys-place.com/food/ethnic_cuisine/africa.htm (accessed January 30, 2001).
Islamic Holidays and Observances. [Online] Available: http://www.colostate.edu/Orgs/MSA/events/Ramadan.html (accessed January 31, 2001).
South Africa: What to Eat. [Online] Available: http://www.globalgourmet.com/destinations/southafrica/safrwhat.html (accessed January 30, 2001).
The South African Expat's One-Stop On-Line Resource. [Online] Available: http://www.rsaoverseas.com/features/recipes.htm (accessed August 17, 2001).
Barron's Wine Lover's Companion:
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South Africa
This country's wine industry began in the mid-1600s when Jan van Riebeck planted the first grapevines. In 1685, Simon van der Stel established Groot Constantia (which still exists), a winery that developed a worldwide reputation for its dessert wines called Constantia. In 1688, South Africa's wine industry was given a boost with the arrival of the French Huguenots, who brought with them many winemaking skills. Over the years South African wines had many ups and downs, including serious problems with overproduction in the early 1900s. This dilemma resulted in the formation of the Cooperative Wine Growers' Association known as the KWV (Kooperatieve Wijnbouwers Vereniging van Zuid-Africa). The KWV, which controls the supply and demand of grapes and establishes consistent pricing, remains a powerful force today. In addition to KWV, which markets a wide range of wines and distilled (see distillation) spirits, the other two major producers are Oude Meester and the Stellenbosch Farmers' Winery (known as SFW or Farmers). The primary South Africa growing areas are all in the southwestern part of the country near the Cape of Good Hope. In 1973, an appellation system, Wine of Origin (WO), was established along the lines of the European Economic Community rules. On wine labels, the appellation name is appended with "WO." In the Wine of Origin system, the smallest demarcated area is an estate, which consists of one or more contiguous vineyards (called farms) that are farmed as a single unit. The next largest is a ward, which consists of multiple vineyards within a geographical area. Wards are usually part of a district, but not necessarily. Next in size is a district (which are usually, but not necessarily, part of a region), the largest area is called a region. South Africa's Wine of Origin system is slightly confusing because boundaries of smaller areas don't always align with the larger areas of which they're a part, and because smaller units don't necessarily belong to the next largest designation. Some demarcated areas are identified for specific wine types. One of these is the Boberg Region, an area identified for the production of fortified wines. The paarl and Tulbagh districts may be included in the Boberg Region for fortified wines only. The Coastal Region contains many of the premium winegrowing areas and a mix of districts and wards. Paarl (which contains franschhoek a highly regarded ward) and stellenbosch are two of this region's most prominent and esteemed districts. The Coastal Region also contains the famous constantia ward (birthplace of the South African wine industry), the durbanville ward, and the Swartland District. The Breede River Region Valley Region includes two heavily irrigated districts, robertson and worcester. These districts have over 25 percent of the country's vineyard acreage and provide an even larger portion of the country's wine production, most of which ends up in brandy or fortified wine. The Orange River Region, Klein Karoo Region, and Olifants River Region are all hot and dry, require irrigation, and produce wine similar to the Robertson and Worcester districts. As the market for brandy and fortified wines has fallen, these regions have all begun moving toward table wine production with plantings of higher-quality varieties (called cultivars here) in the cooler areas. Other WOs are Analusia, Benede-Orange, Cederburg, Douglas, durbanville, overberg (with its wards Elgin and Walker Bay), Piketberg, Ruiterbosch, and Swellendam. White varieties occupy twice as much vineyard areas as red. The most widely planted white grape here is chenin blanc (called Steen locally). However, its signifigance is diminishing, dropping from over 30 percent of the total vineyard acreage in 1990 to under 20 percent in 2001. Other white varieties include Colombar (colombard), chardonnay and sauvignon blanc . Of the red-grape varieties, cabernet sauvignon pushed cinsaut (called Hermitage locally) into fifth place in the mid-1990s. Following the most widely planted Cabernet Sauvignon are Shiraz (syrah), pinotage (a Cinsaut-pinot noir cross that's a South African specialty) and merlot. During much of this century, fortified wines (sherry and port styles) dominated South African wine production. In the 1970s, semisweet white table wines influenced by Germany, became popular. Now South Africa is producing a wide range of red and white dry table wines and sparkling wines.
National Anthem:
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National Anthem of: South Africa
Nkosi sikelel' iAfrika
Maluphakanyisw' uphondo lwayo,
Yizwa imithandazo yethu,
Nkosi sikelela, thina lusapho lwayo.
Morena boloka setjhaba sa heso,
O fedise dintwa la matshwenyeho,
O se boloke, O se boloke setjhaba sa heso,
Setjhaba sa South Afrika - South Afrika.
Uit die blou van onse hemel,
Uit die diepte van ons see,
Oor ons ewige gebergtes,
Waar die kranse antwoord gee,
Sounds the call to come together,
And united we shall stand,
Let us live and strive for freedom,
In South Africa our land.
Random House Word Menu:
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categories related to 'South Africa'
- Nations of the World - South Africa: Republic of; in S Africa; capital Pretoria (administrative), Capetown (legislative), Bloemfontein (judicial); area 472,359 sq. mi., pop. 39,550,000; Afrikaans, English, and Zulu; Christian; rand
Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary:
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South Africa
See crossword solutions for the clue South Africa.
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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South Africa
This article is about the modern country. For other uses, see South Africa (disambiguation).
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| Motto: !ke e: ǀxarra ǁke (ǀXam) "Unity In Diversity" |
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Anthem: National anthem of South Africa
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| Capital | Pretoria (executive) Bloemfontein (judicial) Cape Town (legislative) |
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| Largest | Johannesburg (2006)[2] | |||||
| Official language(s) | ||||||
| Ethnic groups | 79.5% Black 9.0% White 9.0% Coloured 2.5% Asian[4] |
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| Demonym | South African | |||||
| Government | Constitutional parliamentary republic | |||||
| - | President | Jacob Zuma | ||||
| - | Deputy President | Kgalema Motlanthe | ||||
| - | NCOP Chairman | M. J. Mahlangu | ||||
| - | National Assembly Speaker | Max Sisulu | ||||
| - | Chief Justice | Mogoeng Mogoeng | ||||
| Legislature | Parliament | |||||
| - | Upper house | National Council of Provinces | ||||
| - | Lower house | National Assembly | ||||
| Independence | from the United Kingdom | |||||
| - | Union | 31 May 1910 | ||||
| - | Statute of Westminster | 11 December 1931 | ||||
| - | Republic | 31 May 1961 | ||||
| Area | ||||||
| - | Total | 1,221,037 km2 (25th) 471,443 sq mi |
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| - | Water (%) | Negligible | ||||
| Population | ||||||
| - | 2012 estimate | 48,810,427[5] (24th) | ||||
| - | 2001 census | 44,819,778[6] | ||||
| - | Density | 41.4/km2 (169th) 107.2/sq mi |
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| GDP (PPP) | 2011 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $555.134 billion[7] | ||||
| - | Per capita | $10,973[7] | ||||
| GDP (nominal) | 2011 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $408.074 billion[7] | ||||
| - | Per capita | $8,066[7] | ||||
| Gini (2009) | 63.1[8] (very high) (2nd) | |||||
| HDI (2011) | 0.619  (medium) (123rd) |
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| Currency | Rand (ZAR) |
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| Time zone | SAST (UTC+2) | |||||
| Drives on the | left | |||||
| ISO 3166 code | ZA | |||||
| Internet TLD | .za | |||||
| Calling code | +27 | |||||
Coordinates: 30°S 25°E / 30°S 25°E
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of Africa. It is divided into nine provinces and has 2,798 kilometres (1,739 mi) of coastline.[9][10][11] To the north of the country lie the neighbouring territories of Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe; to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland; while Lesotho is an enclave surrounded by South African territory.[12]
South Africa is multi-ethnic and has diverse cultures and languages. Eleven official languages are recognised in the constitution.[11] Two of these languages are of European origin: South African English and Afrikaans, a language which originated mainly from Dutch that is spoken by the majority of white and Coloured South Africans. Though English is commonly used in public and commercial life, it is only the fifth most-spoken home language.[11] All ethnic and language groups have political representation in the country's constitutional democracy comprising a parliamentary republic; unlike most parliamentary republics, the positions of head of state and head of government are merged in a parliament-dependent President.
About 79.5% of the South African population is of black African ancestry,[4] divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different Bantu languages, nine of which have official status.[11] South Africa also contains the largest communities of European, Asian, and racially mixed ancestry in Africa.
Today South Africa enjoys a relatively stable mixed economy that draws on its fertile agricultural lands, abundant mineral resources, tourist attractions, and highly evolved intellectual capital. Greater political equality and economic stability, however, do not necessarily mean social tranquility. South African society at the start of the 21st century continued to face steep challenges: high crime rates, ethnic tensions, great disparities in housing and educational opportunities, and the AIDS pandemic. It is ranked as an upper-middle income economy by the World Bank, one of only four countries in Africa in this category (the others being Botswana, Gabon and Mauritius).[13] It has the largest economy in Africa, and the 28th-largest in the world.[14] About a quarter of the population is unemployed[15] and lives on less than US $1.25 a day.[16]
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Contents
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History
Main article: History of South Africa
Prehistoric finds
South Africa contains some of the oldest archaeological and human fossil sites in the world.[17][18][19] Extensive fossil remains have been recovered from a series of caves in Gauteng Province. The area is a UNESCO World Heritage site and has been termed the Cradle of Humankind. The sites include Sterkfontein, which is one of the richest hominin fossil sites in the world. Other sites include Swartkrans, Gondolin Cave Kromdraai, Coopers Cave and Malapa. The first hominin fossil discovered in Africa, the Taung Child was found near Taung in 1924. Further hominin remains have been recovered from the sites of Makapansgat in Limpopo, Cornelia and Florisbad in the Free State, Border Cave in KwaZulu-Natal, Klasies River Mouth in eastern Cape and Pinnacle Point, Elandsfontein and Die Kelders Cave in Western Cape. These sites suggest that various hominid species existed in South Africa from about three million years ago starting with Australopithecus africanus.[20] These were succeeded by various species, including Australopithecus sediba, Homo ergaster, Homo erectus, Homo rhodesiensis, Homo helmei and modern humans, Homo sapiens.
Settlements of Bantu-speaking peoples, who were iron-using agriculturists and herdsmen, were already present south of the Limpopo River (now the northern border with Botswana and Zimbabwe) by the fourth or fifth century CE. (See Bantu expansion.) They displaced, conquered and absorbed the original Khoisan speakers, the Khoikhoi and San peoples. The Bantu slowly moved south. The earliest ironworks in modern-day KwaZulu-Natal Province are believed to date from around 1050. The southernmost group was the Xhosa people, whose language incorporates certain linguistic traits from the earlier Khoisan people. The Xhosa reached the Great Fish River, in today's Eastern Cape Province. As they migrated, these larger Iron Age populations displaced or assimilated earlier peoples.
Modern humans have inhabited Southern Africa for at least 170,000 years. At the time of European contact, the dominant indigenous peoples were Bantu-speaking peoples who had migrated from other parts of Africa about one thousand years before. The two major historic groups were the Xhosa and Zulu peoples.
In 1487, the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias led the first European voyage to land in southern Africa.[21] On 4 December, he landed at Walfisch Bay (now known as Walvis Bay in present-day Namibia). This was south of the furthest point reached in 1485 by his predecessor, the Portuguese navigator Diogo Cão (Cape Cross, north of the bay). Dias continued down the western cost of southern Africa. After 8 January 1488, prevented by storms from proceeding along the coast, he sailed out of sight of land and passed the southernmost point of Africa without seeing it. He reached as far up the eastern coast of Africa as, what he called, Rio do Infante, probably the present-day Groot River, in May 1488, but on his return he saw the Cape, which he first named Cabo das Tormentas (Cape of Storms). His King, John II, renamed the point Cabo da Boa Esperança, or Cape of Good Hope, as it led to the riches of the East Indies.[22] Dias' feat of navigation was later memorialised in Luís de Camões' epic Portuguese poem, The Lusiads (1572).
Colonization
In 1652, a century and a half after the discovery of the Cape Sea Route, Jan van Riebeeck established a refreshment station at the Cape of Good Hope, at what would become Cape Town,[23] on behalf of the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch transported slaves from Indonesia, Madagascar, and India as labour for the colonists in Cape Town. As they expanded east, the Dutch settlers met the southwesterly migrating Xhosa people in the region of the Fish River. A series of wars, called the Cape Frontier Wars, were fought over conflicting land and livestock interests.
The discovery of diamonds, and later gold, was one of the catalysts that triggered the 19th-century conflict known as the Anglo-Boer War, as the Boers (original Dutch, Flemish, German, and French settlers) and the British fought for the control of the South African mineral wealth. Cape Town became a British colony in 1806. European settlement expanded during the 1820s as the Boers and the British 1820 Settlers claimed land in the north and east of the country. Conflicts arose among the Xhosa, Zulu, and Afrikaner groups who competed for territory.
Great Britain took over the Cape of Good Hope area in 1795, to prevent it from falling under control of the French First Republic, which had invaded the Dutch Republic. Given its standing interests in Australia and India, Great Britain wanted to use Cape Town as an interim port for its merchants' long voyages. The British returned Cape Town to the Dutch Batavian Republic in 1803, the Dutch East India Company having effectively gone bankrupt by 1795.
The British finally annexed the Cape Colony in 1806 and continued the frontier wars against the Xhosa; the British pushed the eastern frontier through a line of forts established along the Fish River. They consolidated the territory by encouraging British settlement. Due to pressure of abolitionist societies in Britain, the British parliament stopped its global slave trade with the passage of the Slave Trade Act 1807 and then abolished slavery in all its colonies with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.
In the first two decades of the 19th century, the Zulu people grew in power and expanded their territory under their leader, Shaka.[24] Shaka's warfare led indirectly to the Mfecane ("crushing") that devastated and depopulated the inland plateau in the early 1820s.[25][26] An offshoot of the Zulu, the Matabele people created a larger empire that included large parts of the highveld under their king Mzilikazi.
During the 1830s, approximately 12,000 Boers (later known as Voortrekkers), departed from the Cape Colony, where they had been subjected to British control. They migrated to the future Natal, Orange Free State, and Transvaal regions. The Boers founded the Boer Republics: the South African Republic (now Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West provinces) and the Orange Free State (Free State).
The discovery of diamonds in 1867 and gold in 1884 in the interior started the Mineral Revolution and increased economic growth and immigration. This intensified the European-South African subjugation of the indigenous people. The struggle to control these important economic resources was a factor in relations between Europeans and the indigenous population and also between the Boers and the British.[27]
The Boer Republics successfully resisted British encroachments during the First Boer War (1880–1881) using guerrilla warfare tactics, which were well suited to local conditions. The British returned with greater numbers, more experience, and new strategy in the Second Boer War (1899–1902) but suffered heavy casualties through attrition; in spite of which they were ultimately successful.
Within the country, anti-British policies among white South Africans focused on independence. During the Dutch and British colonial years, racial segregation was mostly informal, though some legislation was enacted to control the settlement and movement of native people, including the Native Location Act of 1879 and the system of pass laws.[28][29][30] Power was held by the ethnic European colonists.
After four years of negotiating, the South Africa Act 1909 created the Union of South Africa from the Cape and Natal colonies, as well as the republics of Orange Free State and Transvaal, on 31 May 1910, eight years after the end of the Second Boer War. The newly created Union of South Africa was a dominion of the British Empire. The Natives' Land Act of 1913 severely restricted the ownership of land by blacks; at that stage natives controlled only seven per cent of the country. The amount of land reserved for indigenous peoples was later marginally increased.[31]
In the Boer republics,[32] from as early as the Pretoria Convention (chapter XXVI),[33] and subsequent South African governments, the legislature passed legally institutionalised segregation, later known as apartheid. The government established three racial classes: white, coloured (people of Asian or mixed racial ancestry), and black, with rights and restrictions for each.
In 1931 the union was effectively granted independence from the United Kingdom with the passage of the Statute of Westminster. In 1934, the South African Party and National Party merged to form the United Party, seeking reconciliation between Afrikaners and English-speaking "Whites". In 1939 the party split over the entry of the Union into World War II as an ally of the United Kingdom, a move which the National Party followers strongly opposed.
In 1948, the National Party was elected to power. It strengthened the racial segregation begun under Dutch and British colonial rule, and subsequent South African governments since the Union was formed[citation needed]. The Nationalist Government classified all peoples into three races, developed rights and limitations for each, such as pass laws and residential restrictions[citation needed]. The white minority controlled the vastly larger black majority. The system of segregation became known collectively as apartheid.
While the White minority enjoyed the highest standard of living in all of Africa, comparable to First World Western nations, the Black majority remained disadvantaged by almost every standard, including income, education, housing, and life expectancy.
Republic
On 31 May 1961, following a whites-only referendum, the country became a republic and left the Commonwealth. Queen Elizabeth II ceased to be head of state, and the last Governor-General became State President.
Despite opposition both within and outside the country, the government legislated for a continuation of apartheid. Apartheid became increasingly controversial, and some Western nations and institutions began to boycott doing business with South Africa because of its racial policies and oppression of civil rights. International sanctions, divestment of holdings by investors accompanied growing unrest and oppression within South Africa. The government harshly oppressed resistance movements, and violence became widespread, with anti-apartheid activists using strikes, marches, protests, and sabotage by bombing and other means. The African National Congress (ANC) was a major resistance movement.
In the late 1970s, South Africa began a programme of nuclear weapons development. In the following decade, it produced six deliverable nuclear weapons.[34][35]
The Mahlabatini Declaration of Faith, signed by Mangosuthu Buthelezi and Harry Schwarz in 1974, enshrined the principles of peaceful transition of power and equality for all, the first of such agreements by acknowledged black and white political leaders in South Africa. Ultimately, F. W. de Klerk negotiated with Nelson Mandela in 1993 for a transition of policies and government.
In 1990 the National Party government took the first step towards dismantling discrimination when it lifted the ban on the African National Congress and other political organisations. It released Nelson Mandela from prison after twenty-seven years' serving a sentence for sabotage. A negotiation process followed. The government repealed apartheid legislation. South Africa destroyed its nuclear arsenal and acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. South Africa held its first universal elections in 1994, which the ANC won by an overwhelming majority. It has been in power ever since. The country rejoined the Commonwealth of Nations.
In post-apartheid South Africa, unemployment has been extremely high as the country has struggled with many changes. While many blacks have risen to middle or upper classes, the overall unemployment rate of blacks worsened between 1994 and 2003.[36] Poverty among whites, previously rare, increased.[37] In addition, the current government has struggled to achieve the monetary and fiscal discipline to ensure both redistribution of wealth and economic growth. Since the ANC-led government took power, the United Nations Human Development Index of South Africa has fallen, while it was steadily rising until the mid-1990s.[38] Some may be attributed to the AIDS pandemic, and the failure of the government to take steps to address it in the early years.[39]
In May 2008, riots left over sixty people dead.[40] The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions estimates over 100,000 people were driven from their homes.[41] Migrants and refugees seeking asylum were the targets, but a third of the victims were South African citizens.[40] In a 2006 survey, the South African Migration Project concluded that South Africans are more opposed to immigration than anywhere else in the world.[42] The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 2008 over 200,000 refugees applied for asylum in South Africa, almost four times as many as the year before.[43] These people were mainly from Zimbabwe, though many also come from Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia.[43] Competition over jobs, business opportunities, public services and housing has led to tension between refugees and host communities.[43] While xenophobia is still a problem, recent violence has not been as widespread as initially feared.[43]
Politics
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South Africa is a parliamentary republic, although unlike most such republics the President is both head of state and head of government, and depends for his tenure on the confidence of Parliament. The executive, legislature and judiciary are all subject to the supremacy of the Constitution, and the superior courts have the power to strike down executive actions and acts of Parliament if they are unconstitutional.
The National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, consists of 400 members and is elected every five years by a system of party-list proportional representation. In the most recent election, held on 22 April 2009, the African National Congress (ANC) won 65.9 per cent of the vote and 264 seats, while the main opposition, the Democratic Alliance (DA) won 16.7 per cent of the vote and 67 seats. The National Council of Provinces, the upper house, consists of ninety members, with each of the nine provincial legislatures electing ten members.
After each parliamentary election, the National Assembly elects one of its members as President; hence the President serves a term of office the same as that of the Assembly, normally five years. No President may serve more than two terms in office. The President appoints a Deputy President and Ministers, who form the Cabinet. The President and the Cabinet may be removed by the National Assembly by a motion of no confidence.
South Africa has three capital cities: Cape Town, as the seat of Parliament, is the legislative capital; Pretoria, as the seat of the President and Cabinet, is the administrative capital; and Bloemfontein, as the seat of the Supreme Court of Appeal, is the judicial capital.
Since the end of apartheid in 1994, South African politics have been dominated by the African National Congress (ANC), which has been the dominant party with 60–70 per cent of the vote. The main challenger to the rule of the ANC is the Democratic Alliance. The National Party, which ruled from 1948 to 1994, renamed itself in 1997 to the New National Party, and chose to merge with the ANC in 2005. Other major political parties represented in Parliament are the Congress of the People, which split from the ANC and won 7.4 per cent of the vote in 2009, and the Inkatha Freedom Party, which mainly represents Zulu voters and took 4.6 per cent of the vote in the 2009 election.
Since 2004, the country has had many thousands of popular protests, some violent, making it, according to one academic, the "most protest-rich country in the world".[44] Many of these protests have been organised from the growing shanty towns that surround South African cities.
In 2008, South Africa placed 5th out of 48 sub-Saharan African countries on the Ibrahim Index of African Governance. South Africa scored well in the categories of Rule of Law, Transparency & Corruption and Participation & Human Rights, but was let down by its relatively poor performance in Safety & Security. The Ibrahim Index is a comprehensive measure of African governance, based on a number of different variables which reflect the success with which governments deliver essential political goods to its citizens.[45] In November 2006, South Africa became the first African country to legalize gay marriage.[46]
Law
The primary sources of South African law are Roman-Dutch mercantile law and personal law with English Common law, as imports of Dutch settlements and British colonialism.[47] The first European based law in South Africa was brought by the Dutch East India Company and is called Roman-Dutch law. It was imported before the codification of European law into the Napoleonic Code and is comparable in many ways to Scots law. This was followed in the 19th century by English law, both common and statutory. Starting in 1910 with unification, South Africa had its own parliament which passed laws specific for South Africa, building on those previously passed for the individual member colonies. During the years of apartheid, the country's political scene was dominated by figures like B. J. Vorster and P. W. Botha, as well as opposition figures such as Harry Schwarz, Joe Slovo and Helen Suzman.
The judicial system consists of the magistrates' courts, which hear lesser criminal cases and smaller civil cases; the High Courts, which are courts of general jurisdiction for specific areas; the Supreme Court of Appeal, which is the highest court in all but constitutional matters; and the Constitutional Court, which hears only constitutional matters.
According to a survey for the period 1998–2000 compiled by the United Nations, South Africa was ranked second for murder and first for assaults and rapes per capita.[48] Nearly 50 murders are committed each day in South Africa.[49] Total crime per capita is 10th out of the 60 countries in the data set.[citation needed] Middle-class South Africans seek security in gated communities.[citation needed] Many emigrants from South Africa also state that crime was a big motivator for them to leave.[50] Crime against the farming community has continued to be a major problem.[51]
It is estimated that 500,000 women are raped in South Africa every year[52] with the average woman more likely to be raped than complete secondary school.[53] A 2009 survey found one in four South African men admitted to raping someone[54] and another survey found one in three women out of 4000 surveyed women said they had been raped in the past year.[55] Rapes are also perpetrated by children (some as young as ten).[56] Child and baby rape incidences are some of the highest in the world and a number of high profile cases have outraged the nation.[57]
Foreign relations
Main article: Foreign relations of South Africa
As the Union of South Africa, the country was a founding member of the United Nations. The then Prime Minister Jan Smuts wrote the preamble to the United Nations Charter.[58][59] The country is one of the founding members of the African Union (AU), and has the largest economy of all the members. It is also a founding member of the AU's New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). South Africa has played a key role as a mediator in African conflicts over the last decade, such as in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Comoros, and Zimbabwe. After apartheid ended, South Africa was readmitted to the Commonwealth of Nations. The country is a member of the Group of 77 and chaired the organisation in 2006. South Africa is also a member of the Southern African Development Community, South Atlantic Peace and Cooperation Zone, Southern African Customs Union, Antarctic Treaty System, World Trade Organization, International Monetary Fund, G20 and G8+5. South African President Jacob Zuma and Chinese President Hu Jintao upgraded bilateral ties between the two countries on 24 August 2010, when they signed the Beijing Agreement, which elevated South Africa's earlier "strategic partnership" with China to the higher level of "comprehensive strategic partnership" in both economic and political affairs, including the strengthening of exchanges between their respective ruling parties and legislatures.[60][61] In April 2011, South Africa formally joined the Brazil-Russia-India-China (BRICS) grouping of countries, identified by President Zuma as the country's largest trading partners, and also the largest trading partners with Africa as a whole. All five BRICS member countries are currently on the UN Security Council; Brazil, India and South Africa as non-permanent members. Zuma asserted that BRICS member countries would also work with each other through the UN, the Group of Twenty (G20) and the India, Brazil South Africa (IBSA) forum.[62]
Military
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Main articles: South African National Defence Force and South Africa and weapons of mass destruction
The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) was created in 1994,[63][64] as an all volunteer force composed of the former South African Defence Force, the forces of the African nationalist groups (Umkhonto we Sizwe and Azanian People's Liberation Army), and the former Bantustan defence forces.[63] The SANDF is subdivided into four branches, the South African Army, the South African Air Force, the South African Navy, and the South African Medical Service.[65] In recent years, the SANDF has become a major peacekeeping force in Africa,[66] and has been involved in operations in Lesotho, the Democratic Republic of the Congo,[66] and Burundi,[66] amongst others. It has also served in multi-national UN peacekeeping forces.
South Africa is the only African country to have successfully developed nuclear weapons. It became the first country (followed by Ukraine) with nuclear capability to voluntarily renounce and dismantle its programme and in the process signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1991.[67] South Africa undertook a nuclear weapons programme in the 1970s[67] According to former state president FW de Klerk, the decision to build a "nuclear deterrent" was taken "as early as 1974 against a backdrop of a Soviet expansionist threat."[68] South Africa may have conducted a nuclear test over the Atlantic in 1979,[69] though De Klerk asserted that South Africa had "never conducted a clandestine nuclear test."[68] Six nuclear devices were completed between 1980 and 1990, but all were destroyed before South Africa signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1991.[68]
Provinces
Main article: Provinces of South Africa
At the end of apartheid in 1994, the "independent" and "semi-independent" Bantustans were abolished, as were the four original provinces (Cape, Natal, Orange Free State and Transvaal), and nine new provinces were created. Each province is governed by a unicameral legislature, which is elected every five years by party-list proportional representation. The legislature elects a Premier as head of government, and the Premier appoints an Executive Council as a provincial cabinet. The powers of provincial governments are limited to topics listed in the Constitution; these topics include such fields as health, education, public housing and transport.
| Province | Provincial capital | Largest city | Area (km²)[70] | Population (2011 est.)[71] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern Cape | Bhisho | Port Elizabeth | 168,966 | 6,829,958 |
| Free State | Bloemfontein | Bloemfontein | 129,825 | 2,759,644 |
| Gauteng | Johannesburg | Johannesburg | 18,178 | 11,328,203 |
| KwaZulu-Natal | Pietermaritzburg | Durban | 94,361 | 10,819,130 |
| Limpopo | Polokwane | Polokwane | 125,754 | 5,554,657 |
| Mpumalanga | Nelspruit | Nelspruit | 76,495 | 3,657,181 |
| North West | Mafikeng | Rustenburg | 104,882 | 3,253,390 |
| Northern Cape | Kimberley | Kimberley | 372,889 | 1,096,731 |
| Western Cape | Cape Town | Cape Town | 129,462 | 5,287,863 |
The provinces are in turn divided into 52 districts: 8 metropolitan and 44 district municipalities. The district municipalities are further subdivided into 226 local municipalities. The metropolitan municipalities, which govern the largest urban agglomerations, perform the functions of both district and local municipalities.
Geography
Main article: Geography of South Africa
South Africa is located at the southernmost region of Africa, with a long coastline that stretches more than 2,500 km (1,553 mi) and along two oceans (the South Atlantic and the Indian). At 1,219,912 km2 (471,011 sq mi),[72] South Africa is the 25th-largest country in the world and is comparable in size to Colombia. Mafadi in the Drakensberg at 3,450 m (11,320 ft) is the highest peak in South Africa. Excluding the Prince Edward Islands, the country lies between latitudes 22° and 35°S, and longitudes 16° and 33°E.
The interior of South Africa is a vast, flat, and sparsely populated scrubland, the Karoo, which is drier towards the northwest along the Namib desert. In contrast, the eastern coastline is lush and well-watered, which produces a climate similar to the tropics.
To the north of Johannesburg, the altitude drops beyond the escarpment of the Highveld, and turns into the lower lying Bushveld, an area of mixed dry forest and an abundance of wildlife. East of the Highveld, beyond the eastern escarpment, the Lowveld stretches towards the Indian Ocean. It has particularly high temperatures, and is also the location of extended subtropical agriculture.
South Africa also has one possession, the small sub-Antarctic archipelago of the Prince Edward Islands, consisting of Marion Island (290 km2/110 sq mi) and Prince Edward Island (45 km2/17 sq mi) (not to be confused with the Canadian province of the same name).
Climate
Main article: Climate of South Africa
South Africa has a generally temperate climate, due in part to being surrounded by the Atlantic and Indian Oceans on three sides, by its location in the climatically milder southern hemisphere and due to the average elevation rising steadily towards the north (towards the equator) and further inland. Due to this varied topography and oceanic influence, a great variety of climatic zones exist. Winters in South Africa occur between June and August.
The climatic zones vary, from the extreme desert of the southern Namib in the farthest northwest to the lush subtropical climate in the east along the Mozambique border and the Indian ocean. From the east, the land quickly rises over a mountainous escarpment towards the interior plateau known as the Highveld. Even though South Africa is classified as semi-arid, there is considerable variation in climate as well as topography.
The extreme southwest has a climate remarkably similar to that of the Mediterranean with wet winters and hot, dry summers, hosting the famous Fynbos biome of shrubland and thicket. This area also produces much of the wine in South Africa. This region is also particularly known for its wind, which blows intermittently almost all year. The severity of this wind made passing around the Cape of Good Hope particularly treacherous for sailors, causing many shipwrecks. Further east on the south coast, rainfall is distributed more evenly throughout the year, producing a green landscape. This area is popularly known as the Garden Route.
The Free State is particularly flat because it lies centrally on the high plateau. North of the Vaal River, the Highveld becomes better watered and does not experience subtropical extremes of heat. Johannesburg, in the centre of the Highveld, is at 1,740 m (5,709 ft) and receives an annual rainfall of 760 mm (29.9 in). Winters in this region are cold, although snow is rare.
The high Drakensberg mountains, which form the south-eastern escarpment of the Highveld, offer limited skiing opportunities in winter. The coldest place in South Africa is Sutherland in the western Roggeveld Mountains, where midwinter temperatures can reach as low as −15 °C (5 °F). The deep interior has the hottest temperatures: a temperature of 51.7 °C (125.06 °F) was recorded in 1948 in the Northern Cape Kalahari near Upington.[73]
Flora and fauna
See also: Wildlife of South Africa and Protected areas of South Africa
South Africa is ranked sixth out of the world's seventeen megadiverse countries,[74] with more than 20,000 different plants, or about 10% of all the known species of plants on Earth, making it particularly rich in plant biodiversity. The most prevalent biome in South Africa is the grassland, particularly on the Highveld, where the plant cover is dominated by different grasses, low shrubs, and acacia trees, mainly camel-thorn and whitethorn. Vegetation becomes even more sparse towards the northwest due to low rainfall. There are several species of water-storing succulents like aloes and euphorbias in the very hot and dry Namaqualand area. The grass and thorn savannah turns slowly into a bush savannah towards the north-east of the country, with denser growth. There are significant numbers of baobab trees in this area, near the northern end of Kruger National Park.[75]
The Fynbos Biome, which makes up the majority of the area and plant life in the Cape floristic region, one of the six floral kingdoms, is located in a small region of the Western Cape and contains more than 9,000 of those species, making it among the richest regions on earth in terms of floral biodiversity. The majority of the plants are evergreen hard-leaf plants with fine, needle-like leaves, such as the sclerophyllous plants. Another uniquely South African plant is the protea genus of flowering plants. There are around 130 different species of protea in South Africa.
While South Africa has a great wealth of flowering plants, only 1% of South Africa is forest, almost exclusively in the humid coastal plain of KwaZulu-Natal, where there are also areas of Southern Africa mangroves in river mouths. There are even smaller reserves of forests that are out of the reach of fire, known as montane forests. Plantations of imported tree species are predominant, particularly the non-native eucalyptus and pine. South Africa has lost a large area of natural habitat in the last four decades, primarily due to overpopulation, sprawling development patterns and deforestation during the nineteenth century. South Africa is one of the worst affected countries in the world when it comes to invasion by alien species with many (e.g. Black Wattle, Port Jackson, Hakea, Lantana and Jacaranda) posing a significant threat to the native biodiversity and the already scarce water resources. The original temperate forest found by the first European settlers was exploited ruthlessly until only small patches remained. Currently, South African hardwood trees like Real Yellowwood (Podocarpus latifolius), stinkwood (Ocotea bullata), and South African Black Ironwood (Olea laurifolia) are under government protection.
Numerous mammals are found in the bushveld including lions, leopards, white rhinos, blue wildebeest, kudus, impalas, hyenas, hippopotamus and giraffes. A significant extent of the bushveld exists in the north-east including Kruger National Park and the Mala Mala Reserve, as well as in the far north in the Waterberg Biosphere. Statistics from South African National Parks show a record 333 rhinos have been killed in 2010.[76]
Climate change is expected to bring considerable warming and drying to much of this already semi-arid region, with greater frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, flooding and drought. According to computer generated climate modelling produced by the South African National Biodiversity Institute[77] parts of southern Africa will see an increase in temperature by about one degree Celsius along the coast to more than four degrees Celsius in the already hot hinterland such as the Northern Cape in late spring and summertime by 2050.
The Cape Floral Kingdom has been identified as one of the global biodiversity hotspots since it will be hit very hard by climate change and has such a great diversity of life. Drought, increased intensity and frequency of fire and climbing temperatures are expected to push many of these rare species towards extinction.
South Africa houses many endemic species, among them the critically endangered Riverine Rabbit (Bunolagus monticullaris) in the Karoo.
Flora and fauna of South Africa
The Protea, national flower of South Africa
Fynbos, a floral kingdom unique to South Africa, is found near Cape Town
The Blue Crane is the national bird of South Africa
A field of flowers in the West Coast National Park
Economy
Main article: Economy of South Africa
South Africa has a mixed economy with a high rate of poverty and low GDP per capita. Unemployment is high and South Africa is ranked in the top 10 countries in the world for income inequality,[78][79][80] measured by the Gini coefficient. Unlike most of the world's poor countries, South Africa does not have a thriving informal economy; according to OECD estimates, only 15 per cent of South African jobs are in the shadow economy,[clarification needed] compared with around half in Brazil and India and nearly three-quarters in Indonesia. The OECD attributes this difference to South Africa's widespread welfare system.[81] World Bank research shows that South Africa has one of the widest gaps between per capita GNP versus its Human Development Index ranking, with only Botswana showing a larger gap.[82]
After 1994 government policy brought down inflation, stabilised public finances, and some foreign capital was attracted, however growth was still subpar.[83] From 2004 onward economic growth picked up significantly; both employment and capital formation increased.[83]
South Africa is a popular tourist destination, and a substantial amount of revenue comes from tourism.[84] Illegal immigrants are involved in informal trading.[85] Many immigrants to South Africa continue to live in poor conditions, and the immigration policy has become increasingly restrictive since 1994.[86]
Principal international trading partners of South Africa—besides other African countries—include Germany, the United States, China, Japan, the United Kingdom and Spain.[87]
Labour market
During 1995–2003, the number of formal jobs decreased and informal jobs increased; overall unemployment worsened.[36]
The government's Black Economic Empowerment policies have drawn criticism from the Development Bank of Southern Africa's lead economist[who?] for focusing "almost exclusively on promoting individual ownership by black people (which) does little to address broader economic disparities, though the rich may become more diverse."[88] Official affirmative action policies have seen a rise in black economic wealth and an emerging black middle class.[89] Other problems include state ownership and interference, which impose high barriers to entry in many areas.[90] Restrictive labour regulations have contributed to the unemployment malaise.[36]
Along with many African nations, South Africa has been experiencing a "brain drain" in the past 20 years. This is believed to be potentially damaging for the regional economy,[91][not in citation given][clarification needed] and is almost certainly detrimental for the well-being of those reliant on the healthcare infrastructure.[92] The skills drain in South Africa tends to demonstrate racial contours given the skills distribution legacy of South Africa and has thus resulted in large white South African communities abroad.[93] However, the statistics which purport to show a brain drain are disputed and also do not account for repatriation and expiry of foreign work contracts. According to several surveys[94][95] there has been a reverse in brain drain following the global financial crisis of 2008-2009 and expiration of foreign work contracts. In the first quarter of 2011, confidence levels for graduate professionals were recorded at a level of 84 per cent in a PPS survey.[96]
Agriculture
Main article: Agriculture in South Africa
The South African agricultural industry contributes around 10% of formal employment, relatively low compared to other parts of Africa, as well as providing work for casual labourers and contributing around 2.6 per cent of GDP for the nation.[97] Due to the aridity of the land, only 13.5 per cent can be used for crop production, and only 3 per cent is considered high potential land.[98]
According to FAOSTAT, South Africa is one of world's largest producers of: chicory roots (4th); grapefruit (4th); cereals (5th); green maize and maize (7th); castor oil seed (9th); pears (9th); sisal (10th); fibre crops (10th).[99] The dairy industry consists of around 4,300 milk producers providing employment for 60,000 farm workers and contributing to the livelihoods of around 40,000 others.[100]
The South African government has set a target of transferring 30% of productive farmland from whites to 'previously disadvantaged' blacks by 2014.[101] Land reform has been criticised both by farmers' groups and by landless workers, the latter alleging that the pace of change has not been fast enough, and the former alleging 'racist' treatment and expressing concerns that a similar situation to Zimbabwe's land reform policy may develop,[102] a fear exacerbated by comments made by former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.[103][104]
The government has been accused of either putting in too much effort,[105][dated info] or not enough effort,[106] to tackle the problem of farm attacks as opposed to other forms of violent crime.
Some predictions show surface water supply could decrease by 60 per cent by the year 2070 in parts of the Western Cape.[107] To reverse the damage caused by land mismanagement, the government has supported a scheme which promotes sustainable development and the use of natural resources.[108] Maize production, which contributes to a 36% majority of the gross value of South Africa's field crops, has also experienced negative effects due to climate change. The estimated value of loss, which takes into consideration scenarios with and without the carbon dioxide fertilisation effect,[109] ranges between tens and hundreds of millions of Rands.[110]
Science and technology
Main article: Science and technology in South Africa
Several important scientific and technological developments have originated in South Africa. The first human-to-human heart transplant was performed by cardiac surgeon Christiaan Barnard at Groote Schuur Hospital in December 1967. Max Theiler developed a vaccine against Yellow Fever, Allan McLeod Cormack pioneered x-ray Computed tomography, and Aaron Klug developed crystallographic electron microscopy techniques. These advancements were all (with the exception of that of Barnard) recognised with Nobel Prizes. Sydney Brenner won most recently, in 2002, for his pioneering work in molecular biology.
Mark Shuttleworth founded an early Internet security company Thawte, that was subsequently bought out by world-leader VeriSign. Despite government efforts to encourage entrepreneurship in biotechnology, IT and other high technology fields, no other notable groundbreaking companies have been founded in South Africa. It is the expressed objective of the government to transition the economy to be more reliant on high technology, based on the realisation that South Africa cannot compete with Far Eastern economies in manufacturing, nor can the republic rely on its mineral wealth in perpetuity.
South Africa has cultivated a burgeoning astronomy community. It hosts the Southern African Large Telescope, the largest optical telescope in the southern hemisphere. South Africa is currently building the Karoo Array Telescope as a pathfinder for the €1.5 billion Square Kilometer Array project.[111] South Africa is a finalist, with Australia, to be the host of the SKA.
Demographics
Main article: Demographics of South Africa
| Historical populations | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
| 1900 | 5,014,000 | — |
| 1910 | 5,842,000 | +16.5% |
| 1920 | 6,953,000 | +19.0% |
| 1930 | 8,580,000 | +23.4% |
| 1940 | 10,341,000 | +20.5% |
| 1950 | 13,310,000 | +28.7% |
| 1960 | 16,385,000 | +23.1% |
| 1970 | 21,794,000 | +33.0% |
| 1980 | 24,261,000 | +11.3% |
| 1990 | 37,944,000 | +56.4% |
| 2000 | 43,686,000 | +15.1% |
| 2010[112] | 49,991,300 | +14.4% |
| 2012 (est.)[5] | 48,810,427 | −2.4% |
Demographics of South Africa
The many migrations that formed the modern Rainbow Nation
Map of population density in South Africa
|
<1 /km²
1–3 /km²
3–10 /km²
10–30 /km²
30–100 /km²
|
100–300 /km²
300–1000 /km²
1000–3000 /km²
>3000 /km²
|
|
South Africa is a nation of about 50 million people of diverse origins, cultures, languages, and religions. The last census was held in 2011. Even though the population of South Africa has increased in the past decade,[113][114] the country had an annual population growth rate of −0.412% in 2012 (CIA est.),[5] where the birth rate is higher than the death rate[115] but there is a net emigration rate. South Africa is home to an estimated 5 million illegal immigrants, including some 3 million Zimbabweans.[116][117][118] A series of anti-immigrant riots occurred in South Africa beginning on 11 May 2008.[119][120]
Statistics South Africa provided five racial categories by which people could classify themselves, the last of which, "unspecified/other" drew negligible responses, and these results were omitted.[113] The 2010 midyear estimated figures for the other categories were Black African at 79.4%, White at 9.2%, Coloured at 8.8%, and Indian or Asian at 2.6%.[121] The first census in South Africa in 1911 showed that whites made up 22% of the population; it declined to 16% in 1980.[122]
By far the major part of the population classified itself as African or black, but it is not culturally or linguistically homogeneous. Major ethnic groups include the Zulu, Xhosa, Basotho (South Sotho), Bapedi (North Sotho), Venda, Tswana, Tsonga, Swazi and Ndebele, all of which speak Bantu languages.
The Coloured population is mainly concentrated in the Cape region, and come from a combination of ethnic backgrounds including White, Khoi, San, Griqua, Chinese and Malay.[123]
White South Africans are descendants of Dutch, German, French Huguenots, English and other European and Jewish settlers.[123][124] Culturally and linguistically, they are divided into the Afrikaners, who speak Afrikaans, and English-speaking groups. The white population has been on the decrease due to a low birth rate and emigration; as a factor in their decision to emigrate, many cite the high crime rate and the affirmative action policies of the government.[125][126] Since 1994, approximately 440,000 white South Africans have permanently emigrated.[121] Despite high emigration levels, a few immigrants from Europe have settled in the country. By 2005, an estimated 212,000 British citizens were residing in South Africa. By 2011, this number may have grown to 500,000.[127] Some white Zimbabwean emigrated to South Africa. Some of the more nostalgic members of the community are known in popular culture as "Whenwes", because of their nostalgia for their lives in Rhodesia "when we were in Rhodesia".[128]
The Indian population came to South Africa as indentured labourers to work in the sugar plantations in Natal in the late 19th and early 20th century.[123] They came from different parts of the Indian subcontinent, adhered to different religions and spoke different languages.[123] Serious riots in Durban between Indians and Zulus erupted in 1949.[129] There is also a significant group of Chinese South Africans (approximately 100,000 individuals) and Vietnamese South Africans (approximately 50,000 individuals). In 2008, the Pretoria High Court has ruled that Chinese South Africans who arrived before 1994 are to be reclassified as Coloureds. As a result of this ruling, about 12,000–15,000[130] ethnically Chinese citizens who arrived before 1994, numbering 3%–5% of the total Chinese population in the country, will be able to benefit from government BEE policies.[131]
South Africa hosts a sizeable refugee and asylum seeker population. According to the World Refugee Survey 2008, published by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, this population numbered approximately 144,700 in 2007.[132] Groups of refugees and asylum seekers numbering over 10,000 included people from Zimbabwe (48,400), The Democratic Republic of the Congo (24,800), and Somalia (12,900).[132] These populations mainly lived in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town, and Port Elizabeth.[132] Many refugees have now also started to work and live in rural areas in provinces such as Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.
Religion
Main article: Religion in South Africa
According to the 2001 national census, Christians accounted for 79.7% of the population. This includes Zion Christian (11.1%), Pentecostal (Charismatic) (8.2%), Roman Catholic (7.1%), Methodist (6.8%), Dutch Reformed (6.7%), Anglican (3.8%); members of other Christian churches accounted for another 36% of the population. Muslims accounted for 1.5% of the population, Hindus about 1.3%, and Judaism 0.2%. 15.1% had no religious affiliation, 2.3% were other and 1.4% were unspecified.[87][133][134]
African Indigenous Churches were the largest of the Christian groups. It was believed that many of these persons who claimed no affiliation with any organised religion adhered to traditional indigenous religions. Many peoples have syncretic religious practices combining Christian and indigenous influences.[135]
South African Muslims constitute mostly of those are described as Coloureds and those who are described as Indians. They have been joined by black or white South African converts as well as others from other parts of Africa.[136] South African Muslims claim that their faith is the fastest-growing religion of conversion in the country, with the number of black Muslims growing sixfold, from 12,000 in 1991 to 74,700 in 2004[136][137]
The Hindu population was primarily established during British colonial period, but later waves of immigration from India have also contributed to it. Most Hindus are ethnically South Asian but there are many who come from mixed racial stock, and some are converts with the efforts of Hindu missionaries such as ISKCON.
Other minority religions in South Africa are Sikhism, Jainism, and Bahá'í Faith.[133]
Languages
|
Afrikaans
English
Ndebele
Xhosa
Zulu
Northern Sotho
|
Sotho
Tswana
Swazi
Venda
Tsonga
None dominant
|
Main article: Languages of South Africa
South Africa has eleven official languages:[138] Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa, and Zulu. In this regard it is third only to Bolivia and India in number. While all the languages are formally equal, some languages are spoken more than others. According to the 2001 National Census, the three most spoken first home languages are Zulu (23.8%), Xhosa (17.6%), and Afrikaans (13.3%).[113] Despite the fact that English is recognised as the language of commerce and science, it was spoken by only 8.2% of South Africans at home in 2001, an even lower percentage than in 1996 (8.6%).[113]
The country also recognises several unofficial languages, including Fanagalo, Khoe, Lobedu, Nama, Northern Ndebele, Phuthi, San, and South African Sign Language.[139] These unofficial languages may be used in certain official uses in limited areas where it has been determined that these languages are prevalent. Nevertheless, their populations are not such that they require nationwide recognition.
Many of the "unofficial languages" of the San and Khoikhoi people contain regional dialects stretching northwards into Namibia and Botswana, and elsewhere. These people, who are a physically distinct population from other Africans, have their own cultural identity based on their hunter-gatherer societies. They have been marginalised to a great extent, and many of their languages are in danger of becoming extinct.
Many white South Africans also speak other European languages, such as Portuguese (also spoken by black Angolans and Mozambicans), German, and Greek, while some Asians and Indians in South Africa speak South Asian languages, such as Tamil, Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu, and Telugu. French is spoken in South Africa by migrants from Francophone Africa.
Largest cities
|
Largest cities or towns of South Africa 2001 Census |
|||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | City name | Province | Pop. | Rank | City name | Province | Pop. | ||
 Johannesburg |
1 | Johannesburg | Gauteng | 1,009,035 | 11 | Soshanguve | Gauteng | 311,223 |  Cape Town |
| 2 | Soweto | Gauteng | 858,644 | 12 | Mamelodi | Gauteng | 256,117 | ||
| 3 | Cape Town | Western Cape | 827,218 | 13 | Ibhayi | Eastern Cape | 255,826 | ||
| 4 | Durban | KwaZulu-Natal | 536,644 | 14 | Port Elizabeth | Eastern Cape | 237,500 | ||
| 5 | Pretoria | Gauteng | 525,387 | 15 | Tshivhase | Limpopo | 226,622 | ||
| 6 | Mitchell's Plain | Western Cape | 398,650 | 16 | Pietermaritzburg | KwaZulu-Natal | 223,519 | ||
| 7 | Umlazi | KwaZulu-Natal | 388,687 | 17 | Sebokeng | Gauteng | 222,045 | ||
| 8 | Katlehong | Gauteng | 349,866 | 18 | Bloemfontein | Free State | 217,076 | ||
| 9 | Tembisa | Gauteng | 348,693 | 19 | Mabopane | Gauteng | 192,914 | ||
| 10 | Khayelitsha | Western Cape | 329,999 | 20 | Chatsworth | KwaZulu-Natal | 192,166 | ||
Health
Main articles: Healthcare in South Africa and HIV/AIDS in South Africa
The spread of AIDS (acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome) is an alarming problem in South Africa, with up to 31% of pregnant women found to be HIV infected in 2005 and the infection rate among adults estimated at 20%.[140] The link between HIV, a virus spread primarily by sexual contact, and AIDS was long denied by prior president Thabo Mbeki and then health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who insisted that the many deaths in the country are due to malnutrition, and hence poverty, and not HIV.[141] According to the South African Institute of Race Relations, the life expectancy in 2009 was 71 years for a white South African and 48 years for a black South African.[142]
In 2007, in response to international pressure, the government made efforts to fight AIDS.[143] In September 2008 Thabo Mbeki was recalled by the ANC and chose to resign and Kgalema Motlanthe was appointed for the interim. One of Motlanthe's first actions was to replace Tshabalala-Msimang with Barbara Hogan who immediately started working to improve the Government's approach to AIDS. After the 2009 General Elections, President Jacob Zuma appointed Dr Aaron Motsoaledi as the new minister and committed his government to increasing funding for and widening the scope of AIDS treatment.[144]
AIDS affects mainly those who are sexually active and is far more prevalent in the black population. Most deaths are people who are also economically active, resulting in many families losing their primary wage earners. This has resulted in many 'AIDS orphans' who in many cases depend on the state for care and financial support.[145] It is estimated that there are 1,200,000 orphans in South Africa.[145] Many elderly people also lose the support from lost younger members of their family. According to the 2011 UNAIDS Report, South Africa has an estimated 5.6 million people living with HIV - more than any other country in the world.[146]
Society and culture
Main article: Culture of South Africa
South African culture is diverse; foods from many cultures are enjoyed by all and especially marketed to tourists who wish to sample the large variety of South African cuisine. In addition to food, music and dance feature prominently.[citation needed]
South African cuisine is heavily meat-based and has spawned the distinctively South African social gathering known as a braai, or barbecue. South Africa has also developed into a major wine producer, with some of the best vineyards lying in valleys around Stellenbosch, Franschoek, Paarl and Barrydale.[147]
The South African black majority still has a substantial number of rural inhabitants who lead largely impoverished lives. It is among these people that cultural traditions survive most strongly; as blacks have become increasingly urbanised and Westernised, aspects of traditional culture have declined. Urban blacks usually speak English or Afrikaans in addition to their native tongue. There are smaller but still significant groups of speakers of Khoisan languages who are not included in the eleven official languages, but are one of the eight other officially recognised languages. There are small groups of speakers of endangered languages, most of which are from the Khoi-San family, that receive no official status; some groups within South Africa are attempting to promote their use and revival.
Members of the middle class, who are predominantly white but whose ranks include growing numbers of black, coloured and Indian people,[148] have lifestyles similar in many respects to that of people found in Western Europe, North America and Australasia. Members of the middle class often study and work abroad for greater exposure to the markets of the world.
Asians, predominantly of Indian origin, preserve their own cultural heritage, languages and religious beliefs, being either Christian, Hindu or Sunni Muslim and speaking English, with Indian languages like Hindi, Telugu, Tamil or Gujarati being spoken less frequently, but the majority of Indians being able to understand their mother tongue. The first Indians arrived on the famous Truro ship as indentured labourers in Natal to work the Sugar Cane Fields. There is a much smaller Chinese community in South Africa, although its numbers have increased due to immigration from Republic of China (Taiwan).
South Africa has also had a large influence in the Scouting movement, with many Scouting traditions and ceremonies coming from the experiences of Robert Baden-Powell (the founder of Scouting) during his time in South Africa as a military officer in the 1890s. The South African Scout Association was one of the first youth organisations to open its doors to youth and adults of all races in South Africa. This happened on 2 July 1977 at a conference known as Quo Vadis.[149]
In 2006, South Africa became the fifth country in the world, and the first in Africa, to legalise same-sex marriage.
Art
Main article: South African art
The oldest art objects in the world were discovered in a South African cave. Dating from 75,000 years ago,[150] these small drilled snail shells could have no other function than to have been strung on a string as a necklace. South Africa was one of the cradles of the human species. One of the defining characteristics of our species is the making of art (from Latin 'ars' meaning worked or formed from basic material).
The scattered tribes of Khoisan peoples moving into South Africa from around 10000 BC had their own fluent art styles seen today in a multitude of cave paintings. They were superseded by Bantu/Nguni peoples with their own vocabularies of art forms. In the 20th century, traditional tribal forms of art were scattered and re-melded by the divisive policies of apartheid.
New forms of art evolved in the mines and townships: a dynamic art using everything from plastic strips to bicycle spokes. The Dutch-influenced folk art of the Afrikaner Trekboers and the urban white artists earnestly following changing European traditions from the 1850s onwards also contributed to this eclectic mix, which continues to evolve today.
Literature
Main article: South African literature
South Africa's unique social and political history have generated a strong group of local writers, with themes that span the days of apartheid to the lives of people in the "new South Africa".
Many of the first black South African authors were missionary-educated, and the majority of which thus wrote in either English or Afrikaans. One of the first well known novels written by a black author in an African language was Solomon Thekiso Plaatje's Mhudi, written in 1930.
Notable white South African authors include Nadine Gordimer who was, in Seamus Heaney's words, one of "the guerrillas of the imagination", and who became the first South African and the seventh woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991. Her most famous novel, July's People, was released in 1981, depicting the collapse of white-minority rule.
J.M. Coetzee was the second South African to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, in 2003. When awarding the prize, the Swedish Academy stated that Coetzee "in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider".[151] The press release for the award also cited his "well-crafted composition, pregnant dialogue and analytical brilliance", while focusing on the moral nature of his work.[151]
Athol Fugard, whose plays have been regularly premiered in fringe theatres in South Africa, London (The Royal Court Theatre) and New York. Olive Schreiner's The Story of an African Farm (1883) was a revelation in Victorian literature: it is heralded by many as introducing feminism into the novel form.
Alan Paton published the acclaimed novel Cry, the Beloved Country in 1948. He told the tale of a black priest who comes to Johannesburg to find his son, which became an international best-seller. During the 1950s, Drum magazine became a hotbed of political satire, fiction, and essays, giving a voice to urban black culture.
Afrikaans-language writers also began to write controversial material. Breyten Breytenbach was jailed for his involvement with the guerrilla movement against apartheid. Andre Brink was the first Afrikaner writer to be banned by the government after he released the novel A Dry White Season about a white South African who discovers the truth about a black friend who dies in police custody.
J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, was born in Bloemfontein in 1892.
Cinema
Main article: Cinema of South Africa
While many foreign films have been produced about South Africa (usually involving race relations), few local productions are known outside South Africa itself. One exception was the film The Gods Must Be Crazy in 1980, set in the Kalahari. This is about how life in a traditional community of Bushmen is changed when a Coke bottle, thrown out of an aeroplane, suddenly lands from the sky. The late Jamie Uys, who wrote and directed The Gods Must Be Crazy, also had success overseas in the 1970s with his films Funny People and Funny People II, similar to the TV series Candid Camera in the US. Leon Schuster's You Must Be Joking! films are in the same genre, and hugely popular among South Africans.
Arguably, the most high-profile film portraying South Africa in recent years was District 9. Directed by Neill Blomkamp, a native South African, and produced by Peter Jackson, the action/science-fiction film depicts a sub-class of alien refugees forced to live in the slums of Johannesburg in what many saw as a creative allegory for apartheid. The film was a critical and commercial success worldwide, and was nominated for Best Picture at the 82nd Academy Awards.
Other notable exceptions are the film Tsotsi, which won the Academy Award for Foreign Language Film at the 78th Academy Awards in 2006 as well as U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha, which won the Golden Bear at the 2005 Berlin International Film Festival.
Media
Main article: Media of South Africa
South Africa has a large mass media sector and is one of Africa's major media centres. While South Africa's many broadcasters and publications reflect the diversity of the population as a whole, the most commonly used language is English. However, all ten other official languages are represented to some extent or another.
Music
Main article: Music of South Africa
There is great diversity in music from South Africa. Many black musicians who sang in Afrikaans or English during apartheid have since begun to sing in traditional African languages, and have developed a unique style called Kwaito. Of note is Brenda Fassie, who launched to fame with her song "Weekend Special", which was sung in English. More famous traditional musicians include Ladysmith Black Mambazo, while the Soweto String Quartet performs classic music with an African flavour. White and Coloured South African singers are historically influenced by European musical styles. South Africa has produced world-famous jazz musicians, notably Hugh Masekela, Jonas Gwangwa, Abdullah Ibrahim, Miriam Makeba, Jonathan Butler, Chris McGregor, and Sathima Bea Benjamin. Afrikaans music covers multiple genres, such as the contemporary Steve Hofmeyr and the punk rock band Fokofpolisiekar. Crossover artists such as Verity (internationally recognised for innovation in the music industry) and Johnny Clegg and his bands Juluka and Savuka have enjoyed various success underground, publicly, and abroad.
The South African music scene includes Kwaito, a new music genre that had developed in the mid 80s and has since developed to become the most popular social economical form of representation among the populous. Though some may argue that the political aspects of Kwaito has since diminished after Apartheid, and the relative interest in politics has become a minor aspect of daily life. Some argue that in a sense, Kwaito is in fact a political force that shows activism in its apolitical actions. Today, major corporations like Sony, BMG, and EMI have appeared on the South African scene to produce and distribute Kwaito music. Due to its overwhelming popularity, as well as the general influence of DJs, who are among the top 5 most influential types of people within the country[citation needed], Kwaito has taken over radio, television, and magazines.[152]
Sports
Main article: Sport in South Africa
South Africa's most popular sports are soccer, rugby and cricket.[153] Other sports with significant support are swimming, athletics, golf, boxing, tennis and netball. Although soccer commands the greatest following among the youth, other sports like basketball, surfing and skateboarding are increasingly popular.
Soccer players who have played for major foreign clubs include Steven Pienaar (Tottenham), Lucas Radebe and Philemon Masinga (both formerly of Leeds United), Quinton Fortune (Atlético Madrid and Manchester United), Benni McCarthy (Ajax Amsterdam, F.C. Porto, Blackburn Rovers and West Ham United), Aaron Mokoena (Ajax Amsterdam, Blackburn Rovers and Portsmouth), and Delron Buckley (Borussia Dortmund). Famous boxing personalities include Baby Jake Jacob Matlala, Vuyani Bungu, Welcome Ncita, Dingaan Thobela, Gerrie Coetzee and Brian Mitchell. Durban Surfer Jordy Smith won the 2010 Billabong J-Bay competition making him the no 1 ranked surfer in the world. South Africa produced Formula One motor racing's 1979 world champion Jody Scheckter. Famous current cricket players include Herschelle Gibbs, Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis, JP Duminy, etc. Most of them also participate in the Indian Premier League.
South Africa has also produced numerous world class rugby players, including Francois Pienaar, Joost van der Westhuizen, Danie Craven, Frik du Preez, Naas Botha and Bryan Habana. South Africa hosted and won the 1995 Rugby World Cup and won the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France. It followed the 1995 Rugby World Cup by hosting the 1996 African Cup of Nations, with the national team going on to win the tournament. It also hosted the 2003 Cricket World Cup, the 2007 World Twenty20 Championship, and it was the host nation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which was the first time the tournament was held in Africa. FIFA president Sepp Blatter awarded South Africa a grade 9 out of 10 for successfully hosting the event.[154]
In 2004, the swimming team of Roland Schoeman, Lyndon Ferns, Darian Townsend and Ryk Neethling won the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Athens, simultaneously breaking the world record in the 4x100 freestyle relay. Penny Heyns won Olympic Gold in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.
In golf, Gary Player is generally regarded as one of the greatest golfers of all time, having won the Career Grand Slam, one of five golfers to have done so. Other South African golfers to have won major tournaments include Bobby Locke, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Trevor Immelman and Louis Oosthuizen .
Education
Main article: Education in South Africa
South Africa has a 3 tier system of education starting with primary school, followed by high school and tertiary education in the form of (academic) universities and universities of technology. Learners have twelve years of formal schooling, from grade 1 to 12. Grade R is a pre-primary foundation year. [155] Primary schools span the first seven years of schooling.[156] High School education spans a further five years. The Senior Certificate examination takes place at the end of grade 12 and is necessary for tertiary studies at a South African university.[155]
Public universities in South Africa are divided into three types: traditional universities, which offer theoretically oriented university degrees; universities of technology ("Technikons"), which offer vocational oriented diplomas and degrees; and comprehensive universities, which offer both types of qualification. There are 23 public universities in South Africa: 11 traditional universities, 6 universities of technology and 6 comprehensive universities. Public institutions are usually English medium, although instruction may take place in Afrikaans as well. There are also a large number of other educational institutions in South Africa – some are local campuses of foreign universities, some conduct classes for students who write their exams at the distance-education University of South Africa and some offer unaccredited or non-accredited diplomas. Both public and private universities and colleges register with the Department of Higher Education and Training and are accredited by the Council on Higher Education (CHE). Rankings of universities and business schools in South Africa are largely based on international university rankings, because there have not as yet been published any specifically South African rankings.
Under apartheid, schools for blacks were subject to discrimination through inadequate funding and a separate syllabus called Bantu Education which was only designed to give them sufficient skills to work as labourers.[157] In 2004 South Africa started reforming its higher education system, merging and incorporating small universities into larger institutions, and renaming all higher education institutions "university" in order to redressing these imbalances.
Public expenditure on education was at 5.4 % of the 2002–05 GDP.[158]
See also
 |
Book: South Africa |
| Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print. | |
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Further reading
- A History of South Africa, Third Edition. Leonard Thompson. Yale University Press. 1 March 2001. 384 pages. ISBN 0-300-08776-4.
- Emerging Johannesburg: Perspectives on the Postapartheid City. Richard Tomlinson, et al. 1 January 2003. 336 pages. ISBN 0-415-93559-8.
- Making of Modern South Africa: Conquest, Segregation and Apartheid. Nigel Worden. 1 July 2000. 194 pages. ISBN 0-631-21661-8.
- South Africa: A Narrative History. Frank Welsh. Kodansha America. 1 February 1999. 606 pages. ISBN 1-56836-258-7.
- South Africa in Contemporary Times. Godfrey Mwakikagile. New Africa Press. February 2008. 260 pages. ISBN 978-0-9802587-3-8.
- The Atlas of Changing South Africa. A. J. Christopher. 1 October 2000. 216 pages. ISBN 0-415-21178-6.
- The Politics of the New South Africa. Heather Deegan. 28 December 2000. 256 pages. ISBN 0-582-38227-0.
- Twentieth-Century South Africa. William Beinart Oxford University Press 2001, 414 pages, ISBN 0-19-289318-1
External links
| Find more about South Africa on Wikipedia's sister projects: | |
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Textbooks from Wikibooks |
- Government of South Africa
- Chief of State and Cabinet Members
- South Africa entry at The World Factbook
- South Africa from UCB Libraries GovPubs
- South Africa at the Open Directory Project
- SouthAfrica.info
- Wikimedia Atlas of South Africa
- South Africa travel guide from Wikitravel
- Stunning South Africa – slideshow by Life magazine
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "South Africa". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.- Key Development Forecasts for South Africa from International Futures
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This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Translations:
Top
South Africa
Français (French)
n. - Afrique du Sud
Deutsch (German)
n. - Südafrika
Português (Portuguese)
n. - África do Sul
Español (Spanish)
n. - Sudáfrica
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
南非
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 南非
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - דרום אפריקה
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Mentioned in
S.Afr.
(abbreviation)
Republic of South Africa
(Geography)
Rand
(in banking)
.za
(abbreviation)
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