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Capital Cape Town (legislative)
Pretoria (Administrative)
Bloemfontein (Judicial)
33°55? S 18°25? E Largest city Johannesburg Official language(s) Afrikaans, English, Zulu, Xhosa, Swati, Ndebele, Southern Sotho, Northern Sotho, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda From Great Britain
May 31, 1910 Area
• Total
• Water (%)
44,344,136 (26th)
36/km˛ (136th)
{{{population_densitymi˛}}}/mi˛ 2005 estimate
$527,400,000,000 (24th)
$11,900 (76th) 0.658 (120th) – medium Currency Time zone
• Summer (DST) (UTC+2)
(UTC+2) Internet TLD .za Calling code +27 |
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South Africa Information
 The central area of Pretoria, the administrative capital of South Africa.
The central area of Pretoria, the administrative capital of South Africa.
Main article: Politics of South Africa
South Africa has a bicameral Parliament, comprising the National Council of Provinces (or upper house) with 90 members, and a National Assembly (or lower house) with 400 members. Members of the lower house are elected on a population basis by proportional representation: half of the members are elected from national lists and half are elected from provincial lists. Ten members are elected to represent each province in the National Council of Provinces, regardless of the population of the province. Elections for both chambers are held every five years. The government is formed in the lower house, and the leader of the majority party in the National Assembly is the President.
Current South African politics is dominated by the African National Congress (ANC), which received 69.7 % of the vote during the 2004 general election. The main challenger to the ANC's rule is the Democratic Alliance party, which received only 12.4 % of the vote. The formerly dominant New National Party, who introduced apartheid through its predecessor, the National Party, has suffered increasing humiliation at election polls since 1994, and finally voted to disband on 9 April 2005.
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 Map of South Africa
Main article: Geography of South Africa
South Africa is located at the extreme south 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). South Africa has a great variety of climate zones, from the extreme desert of the Kalahari near Namibia to lush subtropical climate along the border with Mozambique. It 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 interior of South Africa is a giant, mountainous, and sparsely populated scrubland Karoo plateau, which is drier towards the north-west along the Kalahari desert. In contrast, the eastern coastline is lush and well-watered which produces a climate similar to the tropics. The extreme south west has a climate remarkably similar to that of the Mediterranean with wet winters and hot, dry summers. This area also produces much of South Africa's wine. 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 country's south coast rainfall is distributed more evenly throughout the year, producing a green landscape. This area is popularly known as the Garden Route.
The Johannesburg, in the centre of the Highveld, is at 1,740 metres (5,709 ft) and receives an annual rainfall of 760 millimetres (30 in). Winters in this region are cold, although snow is rare.
To the north and east of Johannesburg, the altitude drops beyond the Highveld's escarpment, and turns into the Lowveld. The Lowveld has particularly high temperatures, and is also the location of traditional South African Bushveld. The high Drakensberg mountains, which form the 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 degrees Celsius (5 °F). The deep interior has the hottest temperatures: A temperature of 51.7 °C (125 °F) was recorded in 1948 in the Northern Cape Kalahari near Upington.[1]
South Africa also has one possession, the small sub-antarctic archipelago of the Prince Edward Islands, consisting of Marion Island (290 km˛/112 mi˛) and Prince Edward Island (45 km˛/17.3 mi˛; not to be confused with the Canadian province of the same name).
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South Africa has many thousands of species of Wildlife.
The Kruger National Park is South Africa's largest game reserve and contains a checklist for the following (indigenous) mammals
Grysbok Sharpe's, Hartebeest, Hyena (Spotted), Hippopotamus, Jackal, Impala, Klipspringer, Kudu, Leopard, Lion, Mongoose (various), Monkey (Samango), Nyala, Reedbuck, Rhinoceros, Wildebeest, Waterbuck, Warthog, Zebra
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 Women agricultural workers, 1989
Women agricultural workers, 1989
Main article: Agriculture in South Africa
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 constitute eight per cent of South Africa's total exports for the past five years. The agricultural industry contributes to around 30% of formal employment, relatively low compared to other parts of Africa, as well as providing work for casual labourers and contributing towards around 2.6% of GDP for the nation. However, due to the aridity of the land, only 15% can be used for crop production.
deciduous fruit. The largest locally produced crop is maize, and it has been estimated that 9 million tons is produced every year, with 7.4 million tons being consumed. Livestock are also popular on South African farms, with the country producing 85% of all meat consumed. The dairy industry consists of around 4300 milk producers providing employment for 60 000 farm workers and contributing to the livelihoods of around 40 000 others.
In recent years, the agricultural sector has introduced several reforms, some of which are controversial, such as land reform and the deregulation of the market for agricultural products. 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, [6] and the former alleging racist treatment (many commercial farmers are white) and expressing concerns that a similar situation to Robert Mugabe's land reform policy may develop, a fear exacerbated by comments made by the country's deputy president [7]. The sector continues to face problems with increased foreign competition and crime being two of the major challenges for the industry.
Crime against commercial farmers is often, although not always, racially motivated as many South African commercial farmers are white. The rural farmer population has shouldered a great increase in attacks and harassment and has suffered as many as 1,700 farm murders since the end of apartheid in 1994, and this has caused many commercial farmers, who are often white, to flee the countryside for the protection of the gated communities of the cities and that offered by other nations. The government has been accused of not devoting enough time and money to tackle the problem as opposed to other forms of violent crime, or simply inefficiency and incompetence.
Another issue which continues to affect South African agriculture is environmental damage caused by misuse of the land. To reverse the damage caused by land mismanagement, the government have supported a scheme which promotes sustainable development and the use of natural resources. [8]
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Education is in a state of flux. Under the apartheid system schools were segregated, and the quantity and quality of education varied significantly across racial groups. Although the laws governing this segregation have been abolished, the long and arduous process of restructuring the country's educational system is just beginning. The challenge is to create a single nondiscriminatory, nonracial system that offers the same standards of education to all people.
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Main article: Crime in South Africa
Crime has been a major problem in South Africa since the end of the Apartheid. According to a survey for the period 1998 - 2000 compiled by the United Nations, South Africa was ranked first for murder by firearm (both absolute and per capita) and rape per capita. It was also number two for assault and murder (by all means) per capita. On the positive side, total crime per capita is 10th out of the 60 countries in the data set. 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. This effect is most pronounced in Johannesburg, although the trend is noticeable in other cities as well. Many emigrants from South Africa also state that crime was a big motivator for them to leave. Crime against commercial farmers has continued to be a major problem in the country, and has resulted in thousands either emigrating or giving up the profession. South Africa also has a bad record for car hijackings.
However, violent crimes such as National Crime Prevention Strategy in 1996, which aimed to prevent crime through reinforcing community structures and helping individuals back into work. [11]
The government is criticised for doing too little to stop crime. Some question the effectiveness of the South African Police Service, which is known to make use of private security firms to protect its police stations. It must be pointed out, however, that due to the high crime rate in South Africa, many private individuals also make use of these systems.
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Main article: Media in South Africa
South Africa also has a large, free, and active press that regularly challenges the government, a habit formed during the apartheid era when the press was the media least controlled by the government. Major scandals have erupted when the press reported charges of corruption that were proven to be true in cases such as that of Schabir Shaik, in which deputy president Jacob Zuma was implicated, and the corruption allegations that led to the dismissal of Winnie Mandela from parliament. The government's stance on the 2005 Zimbabwe parliamentary elections and AIDS have also attracted plenty of coverage.
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. By the end of apartheid in 1994, television networks covered all urban areas and some less populated areas, while radio networks covered almost all of the country.
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 independant regional stations allowed. The creation of the independant black homelands (or Bantustans) in the 1970's allowed for the establishment of TV and radio stations outside of the control of the apartheid Government. Following the demise of Apartheid, the broadcasting industry was de-regulated with many of the commercial regional SABC stations and former Bantustan stations privatised and sold to companies and consortiums that were majority owned by blacks.
An African language channel was introduced to the SABC in 1981 with a second African language channel added later in the decade. The SABC's television monopoly was eventually challenged in 1986 when a new privately owned subscription television network, M-Net, was launched. M-Net was forbidden to operate a news service.
South Africa currently has two terrestial free-to-air television networks (SABC and e.tv), one subscription based terrestial network (M-Net), as well as has access to satellite television (DStv) which is operated by M-Net's owners, Multichoice. e.TV is allowed to operate an independant television news service. The SABC broadcasts news and entertainment channels Africa-wide via satellite.
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