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  • South Africa 1

    South Africa

    Motto:

    Anthem:National anthem of South Africa

    Capital Pretoria (executive)Bloemfontein (judicial)Cape Town (legislative)

    Largest Johannesburg (2006)[1]

    Official languages

    Ethnicgroups 79.2% Black African8.9% Coloured8.9% White2.5% Indian / Asian0.5% Other[2]:21

    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

  • South Africa 2

    Independencefrom the United Kingdom

    - Union 31 May 1910

    - Statute of Westminster 11 December 1931

    - Republic 31 May 1961

    Area

    - Total 1,221,037km2(25th)471,443sqmi

    - Water(%) Negligible

    Population

    - 2011census 51,770,560[2]:18

    - Density 42.4/km2(169th)109.8/sqmi

    GDP(PPP) 2012estimate

    - Total $578.640billion[3]

    - Per capita $11,302[3](105[4])

    GDP(nominal) 2012estimate

    - Total $390.919billion[3]

    - Per capita $7,635[3]

    Gini(2009) 63.1[5](high/ 2nd)

    HDI (2011) 0.619 (medium/ 123rd)

    Currency South African rand (ZAR)

    Time zone SAST (UTC+2)

    Drives on the left

    Calling code +27

    ISO 3166 code ZA

    Internet TLD .za

    South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is a country located at the southern tip of Africa. It is dividedinto nine provinces and has 2,798 kilometres (1,739mi) of coastline.[6][7][8] To the north lie the neighbouringcountries of Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe; to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland; while Lesotho is anenclave surrounded by South African territory.[9] South Africa is the 25th largest country in the world by area andthe 24th most populous country with over 51 million people.South Africa is a multi-ethnic nation and has diverse cultures and languages. Eleven official languages arerecognised in the constitution.[8] Two of these languages are of European origin: English and Afrikaans, a languagewhich originated mainly from Dutch that is spoken by the majority of white and Coloured South Africans. ThoughEnglish is commonly used in public and commercial life, it is only the fifth most-spoken home language.[8] Allethnic and language groups have political representation in the country's constitutional democracy comprising aparliamentary republic; unlike most parliamentary republics, the positions of head of state and head of governmentare merged in a parliament-dependent President.About 80% of the South African population is of black African ancestry,[2]:21 divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different Bantu languages, nine of which have official status.[8] South Africa also contains the

  • South Africa 3

    largest communities of European, Asian, and racially mixed ancestry in Africa.South Africa is ranked as an upper-middle income economy by the World Bank.[10] It has the largest economy inAfrica, and the 28th-largest in the world.[11] By purchasing power parity, South Africa has the 5th highest per capitaincome in Africa. It is considered a newly industrialised country. However, about a quarter of the population isunemployed[12] and lives on less than US $1.25 a day.[13]

    History

    Prehistoric findsSouth Africa contains some of the oldest archaeological and human fossil sites in the world.[14][15][16] Extensivefossil remains have been recovered from a series of caves in Gauteng Province. The area is a UNESCO WorldHeritage site and has been termed the Cradle of Humankind. The sites include Sterkfontein, which is one of therichest hominin fossil sites in the world. Other sites include Swartkrans, Gondolin Cave Kromdraai, Coopers Caveand Malapa. The first hominin fossil discovered in Africa, the Taung Child was found near Taung in 1924. Furtherhominin remains have been recovered from the sites of Makapansgat in Limpopo, Cornelia and Florisbad in the FreeState, Border Cave in KwaZulu-Natal, Klasies River Mouth in eastern Cape and Pinnacle Point, Elandsfontein andDie Kelders Cave in Western Cape. These sites suggest that various hominid species existed in South Africa fromabout three million years ago starting with Australopithecus africanus.[17] These were succeeded by various species,including Australopithecus sediba, Homo ergaster, Homo erectus, Homo rhodesiensis, Homo helmei and modernhumans, Homo sapiens.

    Mapungubwe Hill, the site of the ancient capitalof the Kingdom of Mapungubwe

    Settlements of Bantu-speaking peoples, who were iron-usingagriculturists and herdsmen, were already present south of theLimpopo River (now the northern border with Botswana andZimbabwe) by the fourth or fifth century CE. (See Bantu expansion.)They displaced, conquered and absorbed the original Khoisanspeakers, the Khoikhoi and San peoples. The Bantu slowly movedsouth. The earliest ironworks in modern-day KwaZulu-Natal Provinceare believed to date from around 1050. The southernmost group wasthe Xhosa people, whose language incorporates certain linguistic traitsfrom the earlier Khoisan people. The Xhosa reached the Great FishRiver, in today's Eastern Cape Province. As they migrated, these larger

    Iron Age populations displaced or assimilated earlier peoples.

    In Mpumalanga, several stone circles have been found along with the stone arrangement that has been namedAdam's Calendar.Modern humans have inhabited Southern Africa for at least 170,000 years. At the time of European contact, thedominant indigenous peoples were Bantu-speaking peoples who had migrated from other parts of Africa about onethousand 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.[18] 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 Co (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 Esperana, or Cape of Good Hope, as it led to the riches of the East Indies.[19] Dias' feat of navigation was later memorialised in Lus de Cames' epic Portuguese poem, The

  • South Africa 4

    Lusiads (1572).

    Colonization

    The arrival of Jan van Riebeeck, the firstEuropean to settle in South Africa, with Devil's

    Peak in the background

    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 GoodHope, at what would become Cape Town,[20] on behalf of the DutchEast India Company. The Dutch transported slaves from Indonesia,Madagascar, and India as labour for the colonists in Cape Town. Asthey expanded east, the Dutch settlers met the southwesterly migratingXhosa people in the region of the Fish River. A series of wars, calledthe Cape Frontier Wars, were fought over conflicting land andlivestock interests.

    The discovery of diamonds, and later gold, was one of the catalyststhat 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 in1806. European settlement expanded during the 1820s as the Boers and the British 1820 Settlers claimed land in thenorth and east of the country. Conflicts arose among the Xhosa, Zulu, and Afrikaner groups who competed forterritory.

    Great Britain took over the Cape of Good Hope area in 1795, to prevent it from falling under control of the FrenchFirst Republic, which had invaded the Dutch Republic. Given its standing interests in Australia and India, GreatBritain wanted to use Cape Town as an interim port for its merchants' long voyages. The British returned Cape Townto the Dutch Batavian Republic in 1803, the Dutch East India Company having effectively gone bankrupt by 1795.

    Depiction of a Zulu attack on a Boer camp inFebruary 1838.

    The British finally annexed the Cape Colony in 1806 and continued thefrontier wars against the Xhosa; the British pushed the eastern frontierthrough a line of forts established along the Fish River. Theyconsolidated the territory by encouraging British settlement. Due topressure of abolitionist societies in Britain, the British parliamentstopped its global slave trade with the passage of the Slave Trade Act1807 and then abolished slavery in all its colonies with the SlaveryAbolition Act 1833.

    In the first two decades of the 19th century, the Zulu people grew inpower and expanded their territory under their leader, Shaka.[21]

    Shaka's warfare led indirectly to the Mfecane ("crushing") thatdevastated and depopulated the inland plateau in the early1820s.[22][23] An offshoot of the Zulu, the Matabele people created a larger empire that included large parts of thehighveld 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, andTransvaal 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 increasedeconomic growth and immigration. This intensified the European-South African subjugation of the indigenouspeople. The struggle to control these important economic resources was a factor in relations between Europeans andthe indigenous population and also between the Boers and the British.[24]

  • South Africa 5

    Boers in combat (1881)

    The Boer Republics successfully resisted British encroachments duringthe First Boer War (18801881) using guerrilla warfare tactics, whichwere well suited to local conditions. The British returned with greaternumbers, more experience, and new strategy in the Second Boer War(18991902) but suffered heavy casualties through attrition; in spite ofwhich they were ultimately successful.

    Within the country, anti-British policies among white South Africansfocused on independence. During the Dutch and British colonial years,racial segregation was mostly informal, though some legislation wasenacted to control the settlement and movement of native people,including the Native Location Act of 1879 and the system of passlaws.[25][26][27] Power was held by the ethnic European colonists.

    After four years of negotiating, the South Africa Act 1909 created theUnion of South Africa from the Cape and Natal colonies, as well as the republics of Orange Free State andTransvaal, on 31 May 1910, eight years after the end of the Second Boer War. The newly created Union of SouthAfrica was a British dominion. The Natives' Land Act of 1913 severely restricted the ownership of land by blacks; atthat stage natives controlled only seven per cent of the country. The amount of land reserved for indigenous peopleswas later marginally increased.[28]

    In the Boer republics,[29] from as early as the Pretoria Convention (chapter XXVI).[30]

    In 1931 the union was effectively granted independence from the United Kingdom with the passage of the Statute ofWestminster. In 1934, the South African Party and National Party merged to form the United Party, seekingreconciliation between Afrikaners and English-speaking "Whites". In 1939 the party split over the entry of the Unioninto World War II as an ally of the United Kingdom, a move which the National Party followers strongly opposed.

    "For use by white persons" sign from theapartheid era

    In 1948, the National Party was elected to power. It strengthened theracial segregation begun under Dutch and British colonial rule. TheNationalist Government classified all peoples into three races anddeveloped rights and limitations for each. The white minoritycontrolled the vastly larger black majority. The legally institutionalisedsegregation became known as apartheid. While the White minorityenjoyed the highest standard of living in all of Africa, comparable toFirst World Western nations, the Black majority remaineddisadvantaged by almost every standard, including income, education,housing, and life expectancy.

    Republic

    On 31 May 1961, following a whites-only referendum, the countrybecame a republic and left the Commonwealth. Queen Elizabeth II ceased to be head of state, and the lastGovernor-General became State President.

    Despite opposition both within and outside the country, the government legislated for a continuation of apartheid.The government harshly oppressed resistance movements, and violence became widespread, with anti-apartheidactivists using strikes, marches, protests, and sabotage by bombing and other means. The African National Congress(ANC) was a major resistance movement. Apartheid became increasingly controversial, and some Western nationsand institutions began to boycott doing business with South Africa because of its racial policies and oppression ofcivil rights. International sanctions, divestment of holdings by investors accompanied growing unrest and oppressionwithin South Africa.

  • South Africa 6

    F. W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela shake handsin January 1992

    In the late 1970s, South Africa began a programme of nuclear weaponsdevelopment. In the following decade, it produced six deliverablenuclear weapons.[31][32]

    The Mahlabatini Declaration of Faith, signed by Mangosuthu Butheleziand Harry Schwarz in 1974, enshrined the principles of peacefultransition of power and equality for all, the first of such agreements byacknowledged black and white political leaders in South Africa.Ultimately, F. W. de Klerk negotiated with Nelson Mandela in 1993for a transition of policies and government.

    In 1990 the National Party government took the first step towardsdismantling discrimination when it lifted the ban on the African

    National Congress and other political organizations. It released Nelson Mandela from prison after twenty-sevenyears' serving a sentence for sabotage. A negotiation process followed. The government repealed apartheidlegislation. South Africa destroyed its nuclear arsenal and acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. SouthAfrica held its first universal elections in 1994, which the ANC won by an overwhelming majority. It has been inpower 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 manychanges. While many blacks have risen to middle or upper classes, the overall unemployment rate of blacksworsened between 1994 and 2003.[33] Poverty among whites, previously rare, increased.[34] In addition, the currentgovernment has struggled to achieve the monetary and fiscal discipline to ensure both redistribution of wealth andeconomic growth. Since the ANC-led government took power, the United Nations Human Development Index ofSouth Africa has fallen, while it was steadily rising until the mid-1990s.[35] Some may be attributed to theHIV/AIDS pandemic, and the failure of the government to take steps to address it in the early years.[36]

    In May 2008, riots left over sixty people dead.[37] The Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions estimates over100,000 people were driven from their homes.[38] Migrants and refugees seeking asylum were the targets, but a thirdof the victims were South African citizens.[37] In a 2006 survey, the South African Migration Project concluded thatSouth Africans are more opposed to immigration than anywhere else in the world.[39] The United Nations HighCommissioner for Refugees in 2008 over 200,000 refugees applied for asylum in South Africa, almost four times asmany as the year before.[40] These people were mainly from Zimbabwe, though many also come from Burundi,Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia.[40] Competition over jobs, businessopportunities, public services and housing has led to tension between refugees and host communities.[40] Whilexenophobia is still a problem, recent violence has not been as widespread as initially feared.[40]

    Politics

    The Union Buildings in Pretoria, seat of theexecutive

    South Africa is a parliamentary republic, although unlike most suchrepublics the President is both head of state and head of government,and depends for his tenure on the confidence of Parliament. Theexecutive, legislature and judiciary are all subject to the supremacy ofthe Constitution, and the superior courts have the power to strike downexecutive actions and acts of Parliament if they are unconstitutional.

    The National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, consists of 400members and is elected every five years by a system of party-listproportional representation. In the most recent election, held on 22

  • South Africa 7

    The Houses of Parliament in Cape Town, seat ofthe legislature

    April 2009, the African National Congress (ANC) won 65.9 per cent ofthe vote and 264 seats, while the main opposition, the DemocraticAlliance (DA) won 16.7 per cent of the vote and 67 seats. The NationalCouncil 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 ofits members as President; hence the President serves a term of officethe same as that of the Assembly, normally five years. No Presidentmay serve more than two terms in office. The President appoints aDeputy President and Ministers, who form the Cabinet. The Presidentand the Cabinet may be removed by the National Assembly by amotion of no confidence.

    South Africa has three capital cities: Cape Town, as the seat of Parliament, is the legislative capital; Pretoria, as theseat of the President and Cabinet, is the administrative capital; and Bloemfontein, as the seat of the Supreme Court ofAppeal, is the judicial capital.

    Since the end of apartheid in 1994, South African politics have been dominated by the ANC, which has been thedominant party with 6070 per cent of the vote. The main challenger to the rule of the ANC is the DemocraticAlliance. The National Party, which ruled from 1948 to 1994, renamed itself in 1997 to the New National Party, andchose to merge with the ANC in 2005. Other major political parties represented in Parliament are the Congress of thePeople, which split from the ANC and won 7.4 per cent of the vote in 2009, and the Inkatha Freedom Party, whichmainly 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 oneacademic, the "most protest-rich country in the world".[41] Many of these protests have been organised from thegrowing 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 AfricanGovernance. South Africa scored well in the categories of Rule of Law, Transparency & Corruption andParticipation & Human Rights, but was let down by its relatively poor performance in Safety & Security. TheIbrahim Index is a comprehensive measure of African governance, based on a number of different variables whichreflect the success with which governments deliver essential political goods to its citizens.[42] In November 2006,South Africa became the first African country to legalize gay marriage.[43]

    Law

    The Constitutional Court in Johannesburg

    The primary sources of South African law are Roman-Dutchmercantile law and personal law with English Common law, as importsof Dutch settlements and British colonialism.[44] The first Europeanbased law in South Africa was brought by the Dutch East IndiaCompany and is called Roman-Dutch law. It was imported before thecodification of European law into the Napoleonic Code and iscomparable in many ways to Scots law. This was followed in the 19thcentury by English law, both common and statutory. Starting in 1910with unification, South Africa had its own parliament which passedlaws specific for South Africa, building on those previously passed forthe individual member colonies. During the years of apartheid, the country's political scene was dominated byfigures like B. J. Vorster and P. W. Botha, as well as opposition figures such as Harry Schwarz, Joe Slovo and HelenSuzman.

  • South Africa 8

    The judicial system consists of the magistrates' courts, which hear lesser criminal cases and smaller civil cases; theHigh Courts, which are courts of general jurisdiction for specific areas; the Supreme Court of Appeal, which is thehighest court in all but constitutional matters; and the Constitutional Court, which hears only constitutional matters.According to a survey for the period 19982000 compiled by the United Nations, South Africa was ranked secondfor murder and first for assaults and rapes per capita.[45] Nearly 50 murders are committed each day in SouthAfrica.[46] Total crime per capita is 10th out of the 60 countries in the data set. Middle-class South Africans seeksecurity in gated communities. Many emigrants from South Africa also state that crime was a big motivator for themto leave.[47] Crime against the farming community has continued to be a major problem.[48]

    Foreign relationsAs the Union of South Africa, the country was a founding member of the United Nations. The then Prime MinisterJan Smuts wrote the preamble to the United Nations Charter.[49][50] The country is one of the founding members ofthe African Union (AU), and has the largest economy of all the members. It is also a founding member of the AU'sNew Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). South Africa has played a key role as a mediator in Africanconflicts 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 ofthe Group of 77 and chaired the organisation in 2006. South Africa is also a member of the Southern AfricanDevelopment Community, South Atlantic Peace and Cooperation Zone, Southern African Customs Union, AntarcticTreaty System, World Trade Organization, International Monetary Fund, G20 and G8+5. South African PresidentJacob 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 tothe higher level of "comprehensive strategic partnership" in both economic and political affairs, including thestrengthening of exchanges between their respective ruling parties and legislatures.[51][52] In April 2011, SouthAfrica formally joined the Brazil-Russia-India-China (BRICS) grouping of countries, identified by President Zumaas the country's largest trading partners, and also the largest trading partners with Africa as a whole. Zuma assertedthat BRICS member countries would also work with each other through the UN, the Group of Twenty (G20) and theIndia, Brazil South Africa (IBSA) forum.[53]

    Human rightsThere have been a number of incidents of political repression as well as threats of future repression in violation ofthis constitution leading some analysts and civil society organisations to conclude that there is or could be a newclimate of political repression[54][55] or a decline in political tolerance.[56]

    It is estimated that 500,000 women are raped in South Africa every year[57] with the average woman more likely tobe raped than complete secondary school.[58] A 2009 survey found one in four South African men admitted to rapingsomeone[59] and another survey found one in three women out of 4000 surveyed women said they had been raped inthe past year.[60] Rapes are also perpetrated by children (some as young as ten).[61] Child and baby rape incidencesare some of the highest in the world, largely as a result of the virgin cleansing myth, and a number of high profilecases have outraged the nation.[62]

  • South Africa 9

    Military

    South African Denel AH-2 Rooivalk attackhelicopter

    The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) was created in1994,[63][64] as an all volunteer force composed of the former SouthAfrican Defence Force, the forces of the African nationalist groups(Umkhonto we Sizwe and Azanian People's Liberation Army), and theformer Bantustan defence forces.[63] The SANDF is subdivided intofour branches, the South African Army, the South African Air Force,the South African Navy, and the South African Medical Service.[65] Inrecent years, the SANDF has become a major peacekeeping force inAfrica,[66] and has been involved in operations in Lesotho, theDemocratic Republic of the Congo,[66] and Burundi,[66] amongstothers. 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 theprocess signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1991.[67] South Africa undertook a nuclear weaponsprogramme in the 1970s[67] According to former state president FW de Klerk, the decision to build a "nucleardeterrent" was taken "as early as 1974 against a backdrop of a Soviet expansionist threat."[68] South Africa may haveconducted a nuclear test over the Atlantic in 1979,[69] though De Klerk asserted that South Africa had "neverconducted a clandestine nuclear test."[68] Six nuclear devices were completed between 1980 and 1990, but all weredestroyed before South Africa signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1991.[68]

    Provinces

    Provinces of South Africa

    At the end of apartheid in 1994, the"independent" and "semi-independent"Bantustans were abolished, as were thefour original provinces (Cape, Natal,Orange Free State and Transvaal), andnine new provinces were created. Eachprovince is governed by a unicamerallegislature, which is elected every fiveyears by party-list proportionalrepresentation. The legislature elects aPremier as head of government, andthe Premier appoints an ExecutiveCouncil as a provincial cabinet. Thepowers of provincial governments arelimited to topics listed in theConstitution; these topics include suchfields as health, education, publichousing and transport.

  • South Africa 10

    Province Provincial capital Largest city Area (km2)[70]

    Population (2011)[2]:18

    Eastern Cape Bhisho Port Elizabeth 168,966 6,562,053

    Free State Bloemfontein Bloemfontein 129,825 2,745,590

    Gauteng Johannesburg Johannesburg 18,178 12,272,263

    KwaZulu-Natal Pietermaritzburg Durban 94,361 10,267,300

    Limpopo Polokwane Polokwane 125,754 5,404,868

    Mpumalanga Nelspruit Nelspruit 76,495 4,039,939

    North West Mahikeng Rustenburg 104,882 3,509,953

    Northern Cape Kimberley Kimberley 372,889 1,145,861

    Western Cape Cape Town Cape Town 129,462 5,822,734

    The provinces are in turn divided into 52 districts: 8 metropolitan and 44 district municipalities. The districtmunicipalities are further subdivided into 226 local municipalities. The metropolitan municipalities, which governthe largest urban agglomerations, perform the functions of both district and local municipalities.

    Geography

    Satellite picture of South Africa

    The Drakensberg mountains, the highestmountain range in South Africa

    South Africa is located at the southernmost region of Africa, with along coastline that stretches more than 2,500km (1,553mi) and alongtwo oceans (the South Atlantic and the Indian). At 1,219,912 km2

    (471,011sqmi),[71] South Africa is the 25th-largest country in theworld and is comparable in size to Colombia. Mafadi in theDrakensberg at 3,450m (11,320ft) is the highest peak in South Africa.Excluding the Prince Edward Islands, the country lies betweenlatitudes 22 and 35S, and longitudes 16 and 33E.

    The interior of South Africa is a vast, flat, and sparsely populatedscrubland, the Karoo, which is drier towards the northwest along theNamib desert. In contrast, the eastern coastline is lush andwell-watered, which produces a climate similar to the tropics.

    To the north of Johannesburg, the altitude drops beyond theescarpment of the Highveld, and turns into the lower lying Bushveld,an area of mixed dry forest and an abundance of wildlife. East of theHighveld, beyond the eastern escarpment, the Lowveld stretchestowards the Indian Ocean. It has particularly high temperatures, and isalso the location of extended subtropical agriculture.

    South Africa also has one possession, the small sub-Antarcticarchipelago of the Prince Edward Islands, consisting of Marion Island(290km2/110sqmi) and Prince Edward Island (45km2/17sqmi) (notto be confused with the Canadian province of the same name).

  • South Africa 11

    ClimateSouth Africa has a generally temperate climate, due in part to being surrounded by the Atlantic and Indian Oceans onthree sides, by its location in the climatically milder southern hemisphere and due to the average elevation risingsteadily towards the north (towards the equator) and further inland. Due to this varied topography and oceanicinfluence, a great variety of climatic zones exist. The climatic zones range from the extreme desert of the southernNamib in the farthest northwest to the lush subtropical climate in the east along the Mozambique border and theIndian ocean. Winters in South Africa occur between June and August.The extreme southwest has a climate remarkably similar to that of the Mediterranean with wet winters and hot, drysummers, hosting the famous Fynbos biome of shrubland and thicket. This area also produces much of the wine inSouth Africa. This region is also particularly known for its wind, which blows intermittently almost all year. Theseverity of this wind made passing around the Cape of Good Hope particularly treacherous for sailors, causing manyshipwrecks. Further east on the south coast, rainfall is distributed more evenly throughout the year, producing agreen 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 Highveldbecomes better watered and does not experience subtropical extremes of heat. Johannesburg, in the centre of theHighveld, is at 1,740m (5,709ft) and receives an annual rainfall of 760mm (29.9in). Winters in this region arecold, although snow is rare.The high Drakensberg mountains, which form the south-eastern escarpment of the Highveld, offer limited skiingopportunities in winter. The coldest place in South Africa is Sutherland in the western Roggeveld Mountains, wheremidwinter temperatures can reach as low as 15 C (5F). The deep interior has the hottest temperatures: atemperature of 51.7 C (125.06F) was recorded in 1948 in the Northern Cape Kalahari near Upington.,[72] but thistemperature is unofficial and was not recorded with standard equipment, the official highest temperature is 48.8 C atVioolsdrif in January 1993.[73]

    BiodiversitySouth Africa signed the Rio Convention on Biological Diversity on 4 June 1994, and became a party to theconvention on 2 November 1995.[74] It has subsequently produced a National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan,which was received by the convention on 7 June 2006.[75] The country is ranked sixth out of the world's seventeenmegadiverse countries.[76]

    Animals

    South African giraffe, Kruger National Park

    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 existsin the north-east including Kruger National Park and the Mala MalaReserve, as well as in the far north in the Waterberg Biosphere. SouthAfrica houses many endemic species, among them the criticallyendangered Riverine Rabbit (Bunolagus monticullaris) in the Karoo.

    Fungi

    There is no recent estimate of the number of fungal species recordedfrom South Africa. Up to 1945, more than 4900 species of fungi(including lichen-forming species) had been recorded,[77] and the number now after more than 60 years of further

  • South Africa 12

    exploration must be much higher. In 2006, the total number of fungi which occur in South Africa was conservativelyestimated at about 200,000 species, but that did not take into account fungi associated with insects.[78] If correct,then the number of South African fungi dwarfs that of its plants. In at least some major South African ecosystems, anexceptionally high percentage of fungi are highly specific in terms of the plants with which they occur.[79] Thenumber of South African fungi which are endemic and the number which are endangered must therefore be very highindeed, and much higher than the number of endangered plants. The country's biodiversity strategy and action plandoes not mention fungi (including lichen-forming fungi).[75]

    PlantsWith more than 20,000 different plants, or about 10% of all the known species of plants on Earth, South Africa isparticularly rich in plant diversity. The most prevalent biome in South Africa is the grassland, particularly on theHighveld, where the plant cover is dominated by different grasses, low shrubs, and acacia trees, mainly camel-thornand whitethorn. Vegetation becomes even more sparse towards the northwest due to low rainfall. There are severalspecies of water-storing succulents like aloes and euphorbias in the very hot and dry Namaqualand area. The grassand 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.[80]

    The Fynbos biome, which makes up the majority of the area and plant life in the Cape floristic region, one of the sixfloral 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 plant diversity. Most of the plants are evergreen hard-leafplants with fine, needle-like leaves, such as the sclerophyllous plants. Another uniquely South African floweringplant group is the genus Protea. 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 inthe 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 ofimported tree species are predominant, particularly the non-native eucalyptus and pine.

    Conservation issuesSouth 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 worstaffected countries in the world when it comes to invasion by alien species with many (e.g. Black Wattle, PortJackson, Hakea, Lantana and Jacaranda) posing a significant threat to the native biodiversity and the already scarcewater resources. The original temperate forest found by the first European settlers was exploited ruthlessly until onlysmall 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.Statistics from South African National Parks show a record 333 rhinos have been killed in 2010.[81]

    Climate change is expected to bring considerable warming and drying to much of this already semi-arid region, withgreater frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, flooding and drought. According tocomputer generated climate modelling produced by the South African National Biodiversity Institute[82] parts ofsouthern Africa will see an increase in temperature by about one degree Celsius along the coast to more than fourdegrees Celsius in the already hot hinterland such as the Northern Cape in late spring and summertime by 2050. TheCape Floral Kingdom, been identified as one of the global biodiversity hotspots, it will be hit very hard by climatechange. Drought, increased intensity and frequency of fire and climbing temperatures are expected to push many rarespecies towards extinction.

  • South Africa 13

    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

    JSE is the largest stock exchange onthe African continent

    South Africa has a mixed economy with a high rate of poverty and low GDP percapita. Unemployment is high and South Africa is ranked in the top 10 countriesin the world for income inequality,[83][84][85] measured by the Gini coefficient.Unlike most of the world's poor countries, South Africa does not have a thrivinginformal economy; according to OECD estimates, only 15 per cent of SouthAfrican jobs are in the shadow economy, compared with around half in Braziland India and nearly three-quarters in Indonesia. The OECD attributes thisdifference to South Africa's widespread welfare system.[86] World Bank researchshows that South Africa has one of the widest gaps between per capita GNPversus its Human Development Index ranking, with only Botswana showing alarger gap.[87]

    After 1994 government policy brought down inflation, stabilised public finances,and some foreign capital was attracted, however growth was still subpar.[88]

    From 2004 onward economic growth picked up significantly; both employmentand capital formation increased.[88]

  • South Africa 14

    South Africa is a popular tourist destination, and a substantial amount of revenue comes from tourism.[89] Illegalimmigrants are involved in informal trading.[90] Many immigrants to South Africa continue to live in poorconditions, and the immigration policy has become increasingly restrictive since 1994.[91]

    Principal international trading partners of South Africabesides other African countriesinclude Germany, theUnited States, China, Japan, the United Kingdom and Spain.[92]

    The South African agricultural industry contributes around 10% of formal employment, relatively low compared toother parts of Africa, as well as providing work for casual labourers and contributing around 2.6 per cent of GDP forthe nation.[93] Due to the aridity of the land, only 13.5 per cent can be used for crop production, and only 3 per centis considered high potential land.[94]

    Labour market

    Workers packing pears for export in a packinghouse in the Ceres valley.

    During 19952003, the number of formal jobs decreased and informaljobs increased; overall unemployment worsened.[33]

    The government's Black Economic Empowerment policies have drawncriticism from Neva Makgetla, lead economist for research andinformation at the Development Bank of Southern Africa, for focusing"almost exclusively on promoting individual ownership by blackpeople (which) does little to address broader economic disparities,though the rich may become more diverse."[95] Official affirmativeaction policies have seen a rise in black economic wealth and anemerging black middle class.[96] Other problems include stateownership and interference, which impose high barriers to entry inmany areas.[97] Restrictive labour regulations have contributed to theunemployment malaise.[33]

    Along with many African nations, South Africa has been experiencing a "brain drain" in the past 20 years. This isbelieved to be potentially damaging for the regional economy,[98] and is almost certainly detrimental for thewell-being of those reliant on the healthcare infrastructure.[99] The skills drain in South Africa tends to demonstrateracial contours given the skills distribution legacy of South Africa and has thus resulted in large white South Africancommunities abroad.[100] However, the statistics which purport to show a brain drain are disputed and also do notaccount for repatriation and expiry of foreign work contracts. According to several surveys[101][102] there has been areverse in brain drain following the global financial crisis of 2008-2009 and expiration of foreign work contracts. Inthe first quarter of 2011, confidence levels for graduate professionals were recorded at a level of 84 per cent in a PPSsurvey.[103]

  • South Africa 15

    Science and technology

    Mark Shuttleworth in space

    Several important scientific and technological developments haveoriginated in South Africa. The first human-to-human heart transplantwas performed by cardiac surgeon Christiaan Barnard at GrooteSchuur Hospital in December 1967. Max Theiler developed a vaccineagainst Yellow Fever, Allan McLeod Cormack pioneered x-rayComputed tomography, and Aaron Klug developed crystallographicelectron microscopy techniques. These advancements were all (withthe exception of that of Barnard) recognised with Nobel Prizes. SydneyBrenner won most recently, in 2002, for his pioneering work inmolecular biology.

    Mark Shuttleworth founded an early Internet security companyThawte, that was subsequently bought out by world-leader VeriSign. Despite government efforts to encourageentrepreneurship in biotechnology, IT and other high technology fields, no other notable groundbreaking companieshave been founded in South Africa. It is the expressed objective of the government to transition the economy to bemore reliant on high technology, based on the realisation that South Africa cannot compete with Far Easterneconomies 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, thelargest optical telescope in the southern hemisphere. South Africa is currently building the Karoo Array Telescope asa pathfinder for the 1.5billion Square Kilometer Array project.[104] On 25 May 2012 it was announced that hostingof the Square Kilometer Array Telescope will be split over both the South African and the Australia/New Zealandsites.[105]

    Demographics

    Historical populationYear 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[106] 49,991,300 +14.4%

    2011[2] 51,770,560 +3.6%

  • South Africa 16

    The many migrations that formed the modern Rainbow Nation

    Map of population density in South Africa

    3000 /km2

    South Africa is a nation of about 52 million people of diverse origins, cultures, languages, and religions. The lastcensus was held in 2011. South Africa is home to an estimated 5million illegal immigrants, including some3million Zimbabweans.[107][108][109] A series of anti-immigrant riots occurred in South Africa beginning on 11 May2008.[110][111]

    Statistics South Africa defines five racial categories by which people can classify themselves in the census. The 2011census figures for these categories were Black African at 79.2%, White at 8.9%, Coloured at 8.9%, Indian or Asianat 2.5%, and Other/Unspecified at 0.5%.[2]:21 The first census in South Africa in 1911 showed that whites made up22% of the population; it declined to 16% in 1980.[112]

    By far the major part of the population classified itself as African or black, but it is not culturally or linguisticallyhomogeneous. 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 ethnicbackgrounds including White, Khoi, San, Griqua, Chinese and Malay.[113]

    White South Africans are descendants of Dutch, German, French Huguenots, English and other European and Jewishsettlers.[113][114] Culturally and linguistically, they are divided into the Afrikaners, who speak Afrikaans, andEnglish-speaking groups. The white population has been on the decrease due to a low birth rate and emigration; as afactor in their decision to emigrate, many cite the high crime rate and the affirmative action policies of thegovernment.[115][116] Since 1994, approximately 440,000 white South Africans have permanently emigrated.[117]

    Despite high emigration levels, a few immigrants from Europe have settled in the country. By 2005, an estimated212,000 British citizens were residing in South Africa. By 2011, this number may have grown to 500,000.[118] Somewhite Zimbabwean emigrated to South Africa. Some of the more nostalgic members of the community are known inpopular culture as "Whenwes", because of their nostalgia for their lives in Rhodesia "when we were inRhodesia".[119]

    The Indian population came to South Africa as indentured labourers to work in the sugar plantations in Natal in thelate 19th and early 20th century.[113] They came from different parts of the Indian subcontinent, adhered to differentreligions and spoke different languages.[113] Serious riots in Durban between Indians and Zulus erupted in 1949.[120]

    There is also a significant group of Chinese South Africans (approximately 100,000 individuals) and VietnameseSouth Africans (approximately 50,000 individuals). In 2008, the Pretoria High Court has ruled that Chinese SouthAfricans who arrived before 1994 are to be reclassified as Coloureds. As a result of this ruling, about12,00015,000[121] ethnically Chinese citizens who arrived before 1994, numbering 3%5% of the total Chinesepopulation in the country, will be able to benefit from government BEE policies.[122]

    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.[123] 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).[123] These populations mainly lived in

  • South Africa 17

    Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town, and Port Elizabeth.[123] Many refugees have now also started to workand live in rural areas in provinces such as Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.

    Religion

    Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk inWolmaransstad

    According to the 2001 national census, Christians accounted for 79.8%of the population. This includes Zion Christian (11.1%), Pentecostal(Charismatic) (8.2%), Roman Catholic (7.1%), Methodist (6.8%),Dutch Reformed (Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk; 6.7%), Anglican(3.8%). Members of other Christian churches accounted for another36% of the population. Muslims accounted for 1.5% of the population,Hindus 1.2%, traditional African religion 0.3% and Judaism 0.2%.15.1% had no religious affiliation, 0.6% were other and 1.4% wereunspecified.[92][124][125]

    Sangoma/Inyanga performing a traditionalbaptism on a baby in Alexandra, Johannesburg

    African Indigenous Churches formed the largest of the Christiangroups. It was believed that many of the persons who claimed noaffiliation with any organised religion adhered to traditional Africanreligion. There are an estimated 200 000 indigenous traditional healersin South Africa, and up to 60% of South Africans consult thesehealers,[126] generally called sangomas or inyangas. These healers usea combination of ancestral spiritual beliefs and a belief in the spiritualand medicinal properties of local fauna and flora, commonly known asmuti, in order to facilitate healing in clients. Many peoples havesyncretic religious practices combining Christian and indigenousinfluences.[127]

    South African Muslims comprise mainly of those who are described asColoureds and those who are described as Indians. They have beenjoined by black or white South African converts as well as others fromother parts of Africa.[128] South African Muslims claim that their faithis the fastest-growing religion of conversion in the country, with thenumber of black Muslims growing sixfold, from 12,000 in 1991 to

    74,700 in 2004.[128][129]

    There is also a Hindu minority from India.[124]

    Languages

    South Africa has eleven official languages:[130] 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 thelanguages 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%).[131] Despitethe fact that English is recognised as the language of commerce and science, it was spoken by only 8.2% of SouthAfricans at home in 2001, a slight decline from the comparable figure in 1996 (8.6%).[131]

    The country also recognises several unofficial languages, including Fanagalo, Khoe, Lobedu, Nama, Northern Ndebele, Phuthi, San, and South African Sign Language.[132] These unofficial languages may be used in certain

  • South Africa 18

    official uses in limited areas where it has been determined that these languages are prevalent. Nevertheless, theirpopulations are not such that they require nationwide recognition.Many of the "unofficial languages" of the San and Khoikhoi people contain regional dialects stretching northwardsinto Namibia and Botswana, and elsewhere. These people, who are a physically distinct population from otherAfricans, have their own cultural identity based on their hunter-gatherer societies. They have been marginalised to agreat 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 blackAngolans and Mozambicans), German, and Greek, while some Asians and Indians in South Africa speak SouthAsian languages, such as Tamil, Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu, and Telugu. French is spoken in South Africa by migrantsfrom Francophone Africa.

    Health

    The impact of AIDS has caused a fall in lifeexpectancy.

    The spread of AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) is a majorproblem in South Africa, with up to 31% of pregnant women found tobe HIV infected in 2005 and the infection rate among adults estimatedat 20%.[133] The link between HIV, a virus spread primarily by sexualcontact, and AIDS was long denied by prior president Thabo Mbekiand then health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, who insisted thatthe many deaths in the country are due to malnutrition, and hencepoverty, and not HIV.[134] According to the South African Institute ofRace Relations, the life expectancy in 2009 was 71 years for a whiteSouth African and 48 years for a black South African.[135]

    In 2007, in response to international pressure, the government madeefforts to fight AIDS.[136] In September 2008 Thabo Mbeki was recalled by the ANC and chose to resign andKgalema Motlanthe was appointed for the interim. One of Motlanthe's first actions was to replace MinisterTshabalala-Msimang with Barbara Hogan who immediately started working to improve the Government's approachto AIDS. After the 2009 General Elections, President Jacob Zuma appointed Dr Aaron Motsoaledi as the newminister and committed his government to increasing funding for and widening the scope of AIDS treatment.[137]

    AIDS affects mainly those who are sexually active and is far more prevalent in the black population than it is amongracial minorities. Most deaths are experienced by economically active individuals, resulting in many families losingtheir primary wage earners. This has resulted in many 'AIDS orphans' who in many cases depend on the state for careand financial support.[138] It is estimated that there are 1,200,000 orphans in South Africa.[138] Many elderly peoplealso lose the support from lost younger members of their family. According to the 2011 UNAIDS Report, SouthAfrica has an estimated 5.6 million people living with HIV more than any other country in the world.[139]

  • South Africa 19

    Society and culture

    Cuisine

    Traditional South African cuisine

    Meat on a traditional South African braai

    A freshly baked melktert

    Sweet koeksisters

    South African culture is diverse; foods from many cultures are enjoyedby all and especially marketed to tourists who wish to sample the largevariety of South African cuisine. In addition to food, music and dancefeature prominently.South African cuisine is heavily meat-based and has spawned thedistinctively South African social gathering known as a braai, orbarbecue. South Africa has also developed into a major wine producer,with some of the best vineyards lying in valleys around Stellenbosch,Franschhoek, Paarl and Barrydale.[140]

  • South Africa 20

    Different lifestyles

    Decorated houses, Drakensberg Mountains

    The South African black majority still has a substantial number of ruralinhabitants who lead largely impoverished lives. It is among thesepeople that cultural traditions survive most strongly; as blacks havebecome increasingly urbanised and Westernised, aspects of traditionalculture have declined. Urban blacks usually speak English or Afrikaansin addition to their native tongue. There are smaller but still significantgroups of speakers of Khoisan languages who are not included in theeleven official languages, but are one of the eight other officiallyrecognised languages. There are small groups of speakers ofendangered 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,[141] 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 tothe markets of the world.

    Zulu dancers

    Asians, predominantly of Indian origin, preserve their own culturalheritage, languages and religious beliefs, being either Christian, Hinduor Sunni Muslim and speaking English, with Indian languages likeHindi, Telugu, Tamil or Gujarati being spoken less frequently, but themajority of Indians being able to understand their mother tongue. Thefirst Indians arrived on the famous Truro ship as indentured labourersin Natal to work the Sugar Cane Fields. There is a much smallerChinese community in South Africa, although its numbers haveincreased 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 ofScouting) during his time in South Africa as a military officer in the 1890s. The South African Scout Associationwas one of the first youth organisations to open its doors to youth and adults of all races in South Africa. Thishappened on 2 July 1977 at a conference known as Quo Vadis.[142]

    In 2006, South Africa became the fifth country in the world, and the first in Africa, to legalise same-sex marriage.

    Art

    Eland, rock painting, Drakensberg, South Africa

    The oldest art objects in the world were discovered in a South Africancave. Dating from 75,000 years ago,[143] these small drilled snail shellscould have no other function than to have been strung on a string as anecklace. 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 fromaround 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.

  • South Africa 21

    New forms of art evolved in the mines and townships: a dynamic art using everything from plastic strips to bicyclespokes. The Dutch-influenced folk art of the Afrikaner Trekboers and the urban white artists earnestly followingchanging European traditions from the 1850s onwards also contributed to this eclectic mix, which continues toevolve today.

    Literature

    Olive Schreiner

    South Africa's unique social and political history have generated a strong groupof local writers, with themes that span the days of apartheid to the lives of peoplein the "new South Africa".Many of the first black South African authors were missionary-educated, and themajority thus wrote in either English or Afrikaans. One of the first well knownnovels written by a black author in an African language was Solomon ThekisoPlaatje's Mhudi, written in 1930.

    Notable white South African authors include Nadine Gordimer who was, inSeamus Heaney's words, one of "the guerrillas of the imagination", and whobecame the first South African and the seventh woman to be awarded the NobelPrize for Literature in 1991. Her most famous novel, July's People, was releasedin 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 "ininnumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider".[144] The press release for the award alsocited his "well-crafted composition, pregnant dialogue and analytical brilliance", while focusing on the moral natureof his work.[144]

    Athol Fugard, whose plays have been regularly premiered in fringe theatres in South Africa, London (The RoyalCourt Theatre) and New York. Olive Schreiner's The Story of an African Farm (1883) was a revelation in Victorianliterature: 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 whocomes to Johannesburg to find his son, which became an international best-seller. During the 1950s, Drum magazinebecame 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 hisinvolvement with the guerrilla movement against apartheid. Andre Brink was the first Afrikaner writer to be bannedby the government after he released the novel A Dry White Season about a white South African who discovers thetruth 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 in1892.

    CinemaWhile many foreign films have been produced about South Africa (usually involving race relations), few localproductions are known outside South Africa itself. One exception was the film The Gods Must Be Crazy in 1980, setin 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 GodsMust Be Crazy, also had success overseas in the 1970s with his films Funny People and Funny People II, similar tothe TV series Candid Camera in the US. Leon Schuster's You Must Be Joking! films are in the same genre, andhugely popular among South Africans.

  • South Africa 22

    Arguably, the most high-profile film portraying South Africa in recent years was District 9. Directed by NeillBlomkamp, a native South African, and produced by Peter Jackson, the action/science-fiction film depicts asub-class of alien refugees forced to live in the slums of Johannesburg in what many saw as a creative allegory forapartheid. The film was a critical and commercial success worldwide, and was nominated for Best Picture at the82nd Academy Awards.Other notable exceptions are the film Tsotsi, which won the Academy Award for Foreign Language Film at the 78thAcademy Awards in 2006 as well as U-Carmen e-Khayelitsha, which won the Golden Bear at the 2005 BerlinInternational Film Festival.

    MediaSouth Africa has a large mass media sector and is one of Africa's major media centres. While South Africa's manybroadcasters and publications reflect the diversity of the population as a whole, the most commonly used language isEnglish. However, all ten other official languages are represented to some extent or another.

    MusicThere is great diversity in music from South Africa. Many black musicians who sang in Afrikaans or English duringapartheid have since begun to sing in traditional African languages, and have developed a unique style calledKwaito. Of note is Brenda Fassie, who launched to fame with her song "Weekend Special", which was sung inEnglish. More famous traditional musicians include Ladysmith Black Mambazo, while the Soweto String Quartetperforms classic music with an African flavour. White and Coloured South African singers are historicallyinfluenced by European musical styles. South Africa has produced world-famous jazz musicians, notably HughMasekela, Jonas Gwangwa, Abdullah Ibrahim, Miriam Makeba, Jonathan Butler, Chris McGregor, and Sathima BeaBenjamin. Afrikaans music covers multiple genres, such as the contemporary Steve Hofmeyr and the punk rock bandFokofpolisiekar. 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-1980s and hassince developed to become the most popular social economical form of representation among the populace. Thoughsome may argue that the political aspects of Kwaito has since diminished after Apartheid, and the relative interest inpolitics has become a minor aspect of daily life. Some argue that in a sense, Kwaito is in fact a political force thatshows activism in its apolitical actions. Today, major corporations like Sony, BMG, and EMI have appeared on theSouth African scene to produce and distribute Kwaito music. Due to its overwhelming popularity, as well as thegeneral influence of DJs, who are among the top 5 most influential types of people within the country, Kwaito hastaken over radio, television, and magazines.[145]

  • South Africa 23

    Sports

    Soccer City during a soccer match between SouthAfrica and Colombia

    The Springboks in a bus parade after winning the2007 Rugby World Cup

    South Africa's most popular sports are soccer, rugby and cricket.[146]

    Other sports with significant support are swimming, athletics, golf,boxing, tennis and netball. Although soccer commands the greatestfollowing among the youth, other sports like basketball, surfing andskateboarding are increasingly popular.

    Soccer players who have played for major foreign clubs include StevenPienaar (Tottenham), Lucas Radebe and Philemon Masinga (bothformerly of Leeds United), Quinton Fortune (Atltico Madrid andManchester United), Benni McCarthy (Ajax Amsterdam, F.C. Porto,Blackburn Rovers and West Ham United), Aaron Mokoena (AjaxAmsterdam, Blackburn Rovers and Portsmouth), and Delron Buckley(Borussia Dortmund). Famous boxing personalities include Baby JakeJacob Matlala, Vuyani Bungu, Welcome Ncita, Dingaan Thobela,Gerrie Coetzee and Brian Mitchell. Durban Surfer Jordy Smith won the2010 Billabong J-Bay competition making him the no 1 ranked surferin the world. South Africa produced Formula One motor racing's 1979world champion Jody Scheckter. Famous current cricket playersinclude 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 andwon the 1995 Rugby World Cup and won the 2007 Rugby World Cupin France. It followed the 1995 Rugby World Cup by hosting the 1996 African Cup of Nations, with the nationalteam going on to win the tournament. It also hosted the 2003 Cricket World Cup, the 2007 World Twenty20Championship, and it was the host nation for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which was the first time the tournamentwas held in Africa. FIFA president Sepp Blatter awarded South Africa a grade 9 out of 10 for successfully hostingthe event.[147]

    In 2004, the swimming team of Roland Schoeman, Lyndon Ferns, Darian Townsend and Ryk Neethling won thegold 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 2012 Oscar Pistorius became the firstdouble amputee sprinter to compete at the Olympic Games in London. Pistorius also won two gold medals at the2012 Paralympic Games and is the T44 world record holder for the 200 and 400 metres events. The South Africanteam of Pistorius, Arnu Fourie, Zivan Smith and Samkelo Radebe won a gold medal and set a Paralympic record inthe 4x100m relay. Fourie also set a world record in the heats of the T44 200 m event and won a bronze medal in the100 meter event.In golf, Gary Player is generally regarded as one of the greatest golfers of all time, having won the Career GrandSlam, one of five golfers to have done so. Other South African golfers to have won major tournaments includeBobby Locke, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Trevor Immelman, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel .

  • South Africa 24

    Education

    School children in Mitchell's Plain

    South Africa has a 3 tier system of education starting with primaryschool, followed by high school and tertiary education in the form of(academic) universities and universities of technology. Learners havetwelve years of formal schooling, from grade 1 to 12. Grade R is apre-primary foundation year. [148] Primary schools span the first sevenyears of schooling.[149] High School education spans a further fiveyears. The Senior Certificate examination takes place at the end ofgrade 12 and is necessary for tertiary studies at a South Africanuniversity.[148]

    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 offerboth types of qualification. There are 23 public universities in South Africa: 11 traditional universities, 6 universitiesof technology and 6 comprehensive universities. Public institutions are usually English medium, although instructionmay take place in Afrikaans as well. There are also a large number of other educational institutions in South Africasome are local campuses of foreign universities, some conduct classes for students who write their exams at thedistance-education University of South Africa and some offer unaccredited or non-accredited diplomas. Both publicand private universities and colleges register with the Department of Higher Education and Training and areaccredited by the Council on Higher Education (CHE). Rankings of universities and business schools in South Africaare largely based on international university rankings, because there have not as yet been published any specificallySouth African rankings.

    Under apartheid, schools for blacks were subject to discrimination through inadequate funding and a separatesyllabus called Bantu Education which was only designed to give them sufficient skills to work as labourers.[150] In2004 South Africa started reforming its higher education system, merging and incorporating small universities intolarger institutions, and renaming all higher education institutions "university" in order to redress these imbalances.Public expenditure on education was at 5.4% of the 200205 GDP.[151]

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