South Africa - History, Politics, Administrative divisions, Geography, Flora and fauna, Economy, Agriculture, Demographics, Culture, Crime, Military, Media

Official name Republic of South Africa, Afrikaans Republiek van Suid-Afrika

Local name South Africa Timezone GMT +2 Area 1 233 404 km²/476 094 sq mi population total (2002e) 45 172 000 Status Republic Date of independence 1961 Capitals Cape Town (legislative); Pretoria (administrative); Bloemfontein (judicial) Languages (co-official) Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu Ethnic groups Black African (70%), White (18%), Asian (3%), Coloured (9%) Religions Christian (most Whites and Coloureds and c.60% Africans), traditional beliefs, Hindu, Muslim, and Jewish minorities Physical features Occupies the S extremity of the African plateau; fringed by fold mountains and a lowland coastal margin to the W, E, and S; N interior comprises the Kalahari Basin, scrub grassland, and arid desert; Great Escarpment rises E to 3482 m/11 424 ft at Thabana Ntlenyana; Orange R flows W to meet the Atlantic; chief tributaries, Vaal and Caledon rivers. Climate Subtropical in E; average annual temperature 4°C (Jan), 17°C (Jul) in Cape Town; average annual rainfall 1008 mm/39·7 in Durban; dry moistureless climate on W coast; desert region further N, annual average rainfall less than 30 mm/1·2 in. Currency 1 Rand (ZAR) = 100 cents Economy Industrial growth as a result of 19th-c gold (c.50% of export income) and diamond discoveries; grain, wool, sugar, tobacco, cotton, citrus fruit, dairy products, livestock, fishing; motor vehicles, machinery, chemicals, fertilizers, textiles, clothes, metal products, electronics, computers, tourism. GDP (2002e) $427·7 bn, per capita $10 000 Human Development Index (2002) 0·695 History Originally inhabited by Khoisan tribes; Portuguese reached the Cape of Good Hope in late 15th-c; settled by Dutch, 1652; arrival of British, 1795; British annexation of the Cape, 1806; Great Trek by Boers NE across the Orange R to Natal, 1836; first Boer republic founded, 1839; Natal annexed by the British in 1843, but the Boer republics of Transvaal (founded 1852) and Orange Free State (1854) were recognized; Zulu War, 1879; South African Wars, 1880–1, 1899–1902; Transvaal, Natal, Orange Free State, and Cape Province joined as the Union of South Africa, a dominion of the British Empire, 1910; sovereign state within the Commonwealth, 1931–61; independent republic, 1961; independence granted by South Africa to Transkei (1976), Bophuthatswana (1977), Venda (1979) and Ciskei (1981), not recognized internationally; politics dominated by treatment of non-White majority following the apartheid (racial segregation) policy after 1948; continuing racial violence and strikes led to a state of emergency in 1986, and several countries imposed economic and cultural sanctions; progressive dismantling of apartheid system by F W de Klerk from 1990; Black Nationalist leader Nelson Mandela freed after more than 27 years in prison, and the African National Congress unbanned, 1990; readmitted into international sport, USA lifted trade and investment sanctions, 1991; most remaining apartheid legislation abolished, 1991; new constitution, 1996; governed by a President, Cabinet, National Assembly and Senate; elections in May 1994 brought victory to the ANC.    

Republic of South Africa
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: !ke e: ǀxarra ǁke  (ǀXam) "Unity In Diversity" (literally "Diverse People Unite")
Anthem: National anthem of South Africa
Capital	Pretoria (administrative) Cape Town (legislative) Bloemfontein (judicial)
Largest city	Johannesburg
Official language	Afrikaans, English, Zulu, Xhosa, Swati, Ndebele, Southern Sotho, Northern Sotho, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda
Government	Parliamentary democracy
- President	Thabo Mbeki
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
- Water (%)	negligible
Population
- 2005 estimate	47,432,000 (26th)
- 2001 census	44,819,278
- Density	39/km² (163rd) 101/sq mi
GDP (PPP)	2005 estimate
- Total	$570.2 billion (18th)
- Per capita	$12,161 (55th)
HDI  (2003)	0.658 (medium) (120th)
Currency	South African rand (ZAR)
Time zone	SAST (UTC+2)
Internet TLD	.za
Calling code	+27

The Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of the African continent. Lesotho is an independent enclave entirely surrounded by South African territory.

South Africa has experienced a significantly different evolution from other nations in Africa as a result of two facts. As a result of the former, South Africa is a very racially diverse nation. Black South Africans account for slightly less than 80% of the population.

Racial strife between the white minority and the black majority has played a large part in the country's history and politics, culminating in apartheid, which was instituted in 1948 by the National Party (although segregation existed prior to that date). The laws that defined apartheid began to be repealed or abolished by the National Party in 1990 after a long and sometimes violent struggle (including economic sanctions from the international community) by the Black majority as well as many White, Coloured, and Indian South Africans.

Two philosophies originated in South Africa: ubuntu (the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity); and Gandhi's notion of "passive resistance" (Satyagraha), developed while he lived in South Africa.

The country is one of the few in Africa never to have had a coup d'état, and regular elections have been held for almost a century; however, the vast majority of black South Africans were not enfranchised until 1994. The economy of South Africa is the largest and best developed on the continent, with modern infrastructure common throughout the country.

South Africa is often referred to as "The Rainbow Nation", a term coined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and later adopted by then-President Nelson Mandela as a metaphor to describe the country's newly-developing multicultural diversity in the wake of segregationist apartheid ideology.

South Africa will be the host nation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

History

South Africa contains some of the oldest archaeological sites in Africa. Extensive fossil remains at the Sterkfontein, Kromdraai and Makapansgat caves suggest that various australopithecines existed in South Africa from about three million years ago. Bantu-speaking peoples (the term Bantu is a linguistic term not an ethnic one), iron-using agriculturists and herdsmen, moved south of the Limpopo River into modern-day South Africa by the fourth or fifth century (the Bantu expansion) displacing the original Khoi and San speakers. They slowly moved south and the earliest ironworks in modern-day KwaZulu-Natal Province are believed to date from around 1050.

The written history of South Africa begins with the accounts of European navigators passing South Africa on the East Indies trade routes. Furthermore, troublesome leaders, often of royal descent, were banished from Dutch colonies to South Africa. Further intermingling within the Cape Coloured population itself, as well as with Xhosa and other South African people, now means that they constitute roughly 50% of the population in the Western Cape Province. The Boers' attempt to ally themselves with German South West Africa provided the British with yet another excuse to take control of the Boer Republics. The Treaty of Vereeniging specified full British sovereignty over the South African republics, and the British government agreed to assume the £3,000,000 war debt owed by the Afrikaner governments.

After four years of negotiations, the Union of South Africa was created from the Cape and Natal colonies, as well as the republics of Orange Free State and Transvaal, on May 31, 1910, exactly eight years after the end of the Second Boer War. The newly-created Union of South Africa was a dominion. In 1934, the South African Party and National Party merged to form the United Party, seeking reconciliation between Afrikaners and English-speaking 'Whites', but split in 1939 over the Union's entry into World War II as an ally of the United Kingdom. While the White minority enjoyed the highest standard of living in all of Africa, often comparable to "First World" western nations, the Black majority remained disadvantaged by almost every standard, including income, education, housing, and life expectancy. However, the average income and life expectancy of a black, 'Indian' or 'colored' South African compared favorably to many other African states, such as Ghana and Tanzania.

Apartheid became increasingly controversial, leading to widespread sanctions and divestment abroad and growing unrest and oppression within South Africa. (See also special section on History of South Africa in the apartheid era.) A long period of harsh suppression by the government, and resistance, strikes, marches, protests, and sabotage, by various anti-apartheid movements, most notably the African National Congress (ANC), followed.

Despite the end of apartheid, millions of South Africans, mostly black, continue to live in poverty.

Politics

South Africa has a bicameral parliament: the ninety members of the National Council of Provinces (the upper house);

Current South African politics are dominated by the African National Congress (ANC), which received 69.7% of the vote during the last 2004 general election and 66.3% of the vote in the 2006 municipal election.

Administrative divisions

When apartheid ended in 1994, the South African government had to integrate the formerly independent and semi-independent Bantustans into the political structure of South Africa. To this end, it abolished the four former provinces of South Africa (Cape Province, Natal, Orange Free State, and Transvaal) and replaced them with nine fully integrated provinces. The new provinces are:

Province	Former Homelands and Provinces	Capital	Area (km²)	Area (mi²)	Population (2001)
Eastern Cape	Cape Province, Transkei, Ciskei	Bisho	169,580	65,475	6,436,761
Free State	Orange Free State. QwaQwa	Bloemfontein	129,480	49,992	2,706,776
Gauteng	Transvaal	Johannesburg	17,010	6,568	8,837,172
KwaZulu-Natal	Natal. KwaZulu	Pietermaritzburg	92,100	35,560	9,426,018
Limpopo	Transvaal, Venda. Lebowa, Gazankulu	Polokwane	123,900	47,838	5,273,637
Mpumalanga	Transvaal, KwaNdebele, KaNgwane. Bophuthatswana, Lebowa	Nelspruit	79,490	30,691	3,122,994
Northern Cape	Cape Province	Kimberley	361,830	139,703	822,726
North West	Transvaal, Cape Province, Bophuthatswana	Mafikeng	116,320	44,911	3,669,349
Western Cape	Cape Province	Cape Town	129,370	49,950	4,524,335

Geography

South Africa is located at the southern most region of Africa, with a long coastline that stretches more than 2,500 kilometres (1,550 mi) and across two oceans (the Atlantic and the Indian). At 470,979 mi² (1,219,912 km²), South Africa is the world's 25th-largest country (after Mali). Njesuthi in the Drakensberg at 3,408 m is the highest peak in South Africa.

South Africa has a great variety of climate zones, from the extreme desert of the southern Namib in the farthest northwest to the lush subtropical climate in the east along the border with Mozambique and the Indian ocean. Even though South Africa is classified as semi-arid, there is considerable variation in climate as well as topography.

The interior of South Africa is a giant, rather flat, and sparsely populated scrubland Karoo , which is drier towards the northwest along the Namib desert. This area also produces much of South Africa's wine. Further east on the country's south coast, rainfall is distributed more evenly throughout the year, producing a green landscape. Many people think that the coldest place in South Africa is Sutherland in the western Roggeveld Mountains, where midwinter temperatures can reach as low as −15 degrees Celsius (5 °F).

South Africa also has one possession, the small sub-antarctic archipelago of the Prince Edward Islands, consisting of Marion Island (290 km²/112 mi²) and Prince Edward Island (45 km²/17.3 mi²) (not to be confused with the Canadian province of the same name).

Flora and fauna

South Africa has 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.

South Africa's most prevalent biome is grassland, particularly on the Highveld, where the plant cover is dominated by different grasses, low shrubs, and acacia trees, mainly camel-thorn and whitethorn. 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, it has few forests. Only 1% of South Africa is forest, almost exclusively in the humid coastal plain along the Indian Ocean in KwaZulu-Natal. South Africa has lost extensive acreage 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. The original temperate forest that met the first European settlers to South Africa 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. According to computer generated climate modelling produced by the South African National Biodiversity Institute or SANBI (along with many of its partner institutions), parts of southern Africa will see an increase in temperature by about 1°C along the coast to more than 4°C in the already hot hinterland such as the Northern Cape in late spring and summertime by 2050. Scorched : South Africa's changing climate takes much of the modelling produced by SANBI and presents it in an accessible travelogue-style collection of essays .

Economy

By UN classification South Africa is a middle-income country with an abundant supply of resources, well-developed financial, legal, communications, energy, and transport sectors, a stock exchange (the JSE Securities Exchange), that ranks among the ten largest in the world, and a modern infrastructure supporting an efficient distribution of goods to major urban centres throughout the region. South Africa's per capita GDP, corrected for purchasing power parity, positions the country as one of the fifty wealthiest in the world. In many respects, South Africa is developed; Large income gaps and a dual economy designate South Africa as developing; South Africa has one of the highest rates of income inequality in the world. It is estimated that South Africa accounts for up to 30% of the gross domestic product of the entire African continent. South Africa is also the continent's largest energy producer and consumer. The South African rand (ZAR) was the best performing currency against the US dollar between 2002 and 2005, according to the Bloomberg Currency Scorecard. The rand has since recovered, trading at R5.99 to the dollar as of January 2006 while the South African Reserve Bank's policy of inflation targeting has brought inflation under control.

21.5% of the adult South African population have been estimated to be HIV positive in 2003. With high unemployment levels amongst poorer South Africans, xenophobia is a very real fear and many people born in South Africa feel resentful of immigrants who are seen to be depriving the native population of jobs, a feeling which has been given credibility by the fact that many South African employers have employed migrants from other countries for lower pay than South African citizens, especially in the construction, tourism, agriculture and domestic service industries. However, many immigrants to South Africa continue to live in poor conditions, and the South African immigration policy has become increasingly restrictive since 1994.

Agriculture

South Africa has a large agricultural sector and is a net exporter of farming products. There are almost a thousand agricultural cooperatives and agribusinesses throughout the country, and agricultural exports have constituted 8% of South Africa's total exports for the past five years. South Africa is a net exporter of agricultural products and foodstuffs, the largest number of exported items being sugar, grapes, citrus, nectarines, wine and deciduous fruit. Livestock are also popular on South African farms, with the country producing 85% of all meat consumed.

Another issue which affects South African agriculture is environmental damage caused by misuse of the land and global climate change. South Africa is unusually vulnerable to climate change and resultant diminution of surface waters.

Demographics

South Africa is a nation of over 47 million people of diverse origins, cultures, languages, and beliefs. The 2005 Statistics South Africa census provided five racial categories by which people could classify themselves, the last of which, "unspecified/other" drew negligible responses, and these results were omitted. South Africa has a yearly population growth rate of -0.40% .

By far the major part of the population classified itself as African or black, but it is not culturally or linguistically homogenous. Major ethnic groups include the Zulu, Xhosa, Basotho (South Sotho), Bapedi (North Sotho), Venda, Tswana, Tsonga, Swazi and Ndebele. Some, such as the Zulu, Xhosa, Bapedi and Venda groups, are unique to South Africa.

Other groups are distributed across the borders with South Africa's neighbours: The Basotho group is also the major ethnic group in Lesotho.

The term "Coloured" is still largely used for the people of mixed race descended from slaves brought in from East and Central Africa, the indigenous Khoisan who lived in the Cape at the time, indigenous African Blacks, Whites (mostly the Dutch/Afrikaner and British settlers) as well as an admixture of Javanese, Malay, Indian, Malagasy and other European (such as Portuguese) and Asian blood (such as Burmese).

The major part of the Asian population of the country is Indian in origin, many of them descended from indentured workers brought in the nineteenth century to work on the sugar plantations of the eastern coastal area then known as Natal. There is also a significant group of Chinese South Africans (approximately 100 000 individuals).

HIV/AIDS

As in many African countries, the spread of AIDS (acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome) is a serious problem in South Africa. An estimate made by the South African government shows that the number of Blacks with HIV has decreased (-5.66%), and the number of Whites with HIV is rapidly increasing (9.77% per year). It is estimated that there are 1,100,000 orphans in South Africa.

Culture

It may be argued that there is no "single" culture in South Africa because of its ethnic diversity. Today, the diversity in foods from many cultures is enjoyed by all and especially marketed to tourists who wish to sample the large variety of South African cuisine.

South African cuisine is heavily meat-based and has spawned the distinctively South African social gathering known as a braai. South Africa has also developed into a major wine producer, with some of the best vineyards in the world lying in valleys around Stellenbosch, Franschoek, Paarl and Barrydale.

There is great diversity in music from South Africa. White and Coloured South African singers tend to avoid traditional African musical themes, instead preferring more European musical styles including such western metal bands such as Seether. however, some groups within South Africa are attempting to promote their use and revival.

Despite considerable discrimination under apartheid, Coloureds tend to relate more to white South African culture rather than black South African culture, especially Afrikaans-speaking Coloured people whose language and religious beliefs are similar or identical to white Afrikaners. There is a much smaller Chinese community in South Africa, although its numbers have increased due to immigration from Taiwan.

Languages

South Africa has eleven official languages: Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, Swati, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu. There are eleven official names for South Africa, one for each of the official national languages.

The country also recognises eight non-official languages: Fanagalo, Khoe, Lobedu, Nama, Northern Ndebele, Phuthi, San and South African Sign Language.

Many white South Africans also speak other European languages, such as Portuguese (also spoken by Angolan and Mozambican blacks), German, and Greek, while many Asians and Indians in South Africa speak South Asian languages, such as Hindi, Gujarati and Tamil.

Crime

Crime has been a major problem in South Africa. According to a survey for the period 1998-2000 compiled by the United Nations, South Africa was ranked second for assault and murder (by all means) per capita, in addition to being ranked second for rape and first for rapes per capita. Nevertheless, crime has had a pronounced effect on society: many wealthier South Africans moved into gated communities, abandoning the central business districts of some cities for the relative security of suburbs. Many emigrants from South Africa also state that crime was a big motivator for them to leave.

Military

South Africa's armed forces, known as the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), was created in 1994. Previously known simply as the South African Defence Force (SADF), the new force consists of the forces of the old SADF, as well as the forces of the African nationalist groups, namely Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), Azanian People's Liberation Army (APLA), and the former homeland defence forces. The SANDF is subdivided into four branches, the South African Army, the South African Air Force, the South African Navy, and the South African Military Health Services.

In recent years, the SANDF has become a major peacekeeping force in Africa, and has been involved in operations in Lesotho, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Burundi, amongst others.

South Africa undertook a nuclear weapons program in the 1970s and may have conducted a nuclear test over the Atlantic in 1979.

Media

South Africa has a large, free, and active press that regularly challenges the government, a habit formed during the apartheid era when the press was the medium least controlled by the government.

Even though South Africa now has the most sophisticated media network in Africa, it was one of the last countries in the world to allow television, with colour TV broadcasts commencing in 1975.

During the Apartheid era the majority of commercial and all public-service radio stations and all of the television channels were operated by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), and were subject to strict control and censorship by the government, with a few independent regional stations allowed.

An African language channel was introduced to the SABC in 1981 (during apartheid) with a second African language channel added later in the decade.

South Africa currently has two terrestrial free-to-air television networks (SABC and e.tv), one subscription based terrestrial network (M-Net), as well as has access to satellite television (DStv) which is operated by M-Net's owners, Multichoice.

International rankings

Organisation	Survey	Ranking
A.T. Kearney/Foreign Policy Magazine	Globalization Index 2005	48 out of 62
Heritage Foundation/The Wall Street Journal	2006 Index of Economic Freedom	50 out of 157
IMD International	World Competitiveness Yearbook 2005	46 out of 60
Reporters Without Borders	Press Freedom Index (2005)	31 out of 167
Save the Children	Children's Index Rank 2005	65 out of 110
The Economist	Worldwide Quality-of-Life Index 2005	92 out of 111
Transparency International	Corruption Perceptions Index 2006	51 out of 163
United Nations Development Programme	Human Development Index 2006	121 out of 177
World Economic Forum	Global Competitiveness Report 2006-2007	45 out of 125
Yale University Center for Environmental Law and Policy and Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network	Environmental Sustainability Index	96 out of 146 countries