[189][190][191] A series of anti-immigrant riots occurred in South Africa beginning on 11 May 2008. It followed the 1995 Rugby World Cup by hosting the 1996 African Cup of Nations, with the national team, Bafana Bafana, going on to win the tournament. In the south-west corner of the country, the Cape Peninsula forms the southernmost tip of the coastal strip which borders the Atlantic Ocean and ultimately terminates at the country's border with Namibia at the Orange River. South Africa held its first universal elections in 1994, which the ANC won by an overwhelming majority. Members of the middle class, who are predominantly white but whose ranks include growing numbers of black, coloured and Indian people,[230] have lifestyles similar in many respects to that of people found in Western Europe, North America and Australasia. 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.[235]. Rainbow nation, as a spoken metaphor for South African unity is uniquely, although not deliberately, represented by the South African flag, which sports six different colours.[3]. [citation needed] Most of the plants are evergreen hard-leaf plants with fine, needle-like leaves, such as the sclerophyllous plants. Each of the nine provinces is governed by a unicameral legislature, which is elected every five years by party-list proportional representation. [195], South Africa hosts a sizeable refugee and asylum seeker population. Readers Digest Association, Cape Town. p. 151. [225] It is estimated that there are 1,200,000 orphans in South Africa. [212] South Africa has a three-tier system of education starting with primary school, followed by high school and tertiary education in the form of (academic) universities and universities of technology. There are around 130 different species of Protea in South Africa. South Africa is found at the southernmost region of Africa, with a long coastline that reaches more than 2,500 km (1,553 mi) and along two oceans (the South Atlantic and the Indian).At 1,219,912 km 2 (471,011 sq mi), South Africa is the 25th-largest country in the world and is almost the size of Colombia. The area, a UNESCO World Heritage site, has been branded "the Cradle of Humankind". It has been classified by the World Bank as a newly industrialised country, with the second-largest economy in Africa, and the 33rd-largest in the world. [16] It is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World or the Eastern Hemisphere, and the most populous country located entirely south of the equator. The legislature elects a Premier as head of government, and the Premier appoints an Executive Council as a provincial cabinet. There are an estimated 200,000 indigenous traditional healers in South Africa, and up to 60% of South Africans consult these healers,[207] generally called sangomas or inyangas. [105] It has subsequently produced a National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan, which was received by the convention on 7 June 2006. The most southerly portion of this coastal belt is known as the Swartland and Malmesbury Plain, which is an important wheat growing region, relying on winter rains. Religious Demography", "In South Africa, many blacks convert to Islam / The Christian Science Monitor", "Muslims say their faith growing fast in Africa", "National adult literacy rates (15+), youth literacy rates (15–24) and elderly literacy rates (65+)", "Peoples Budget Coalition Comments on the 2011/12 Budget", "Motsoaledi to reform private health care", "What does the demand for healthcare look like in SA? [9] The two next ones are of European origin: Afrikaans (13.5%) developed from Dutch and serves as the first language of most coloured and white South Africans; English (9.6%) reflects the legacy of British colonialism, and is commonly used in public and commercial life. [45], Great Britain occupied Cape Town between 1795 and 1803 to prevent it from falling under the control of the French First Republic, which had invaded the Low Countries. Council for Geoscience, Geological Survey of South Africa. Why would the official abbreviation come from the country's name in Dutch? A significant extent of the Bushveld exists in the north-east including Kruger National Park and the Sabi Sand Game Reserve, as well as in the far north in the Waterberg Biosphere. The southernmost group was the Xhosa people, whose language incorporates certain linguistic traits from the earlier Khoisan people. Note the course of the Great Escarpment to the north of these mountain ranges.) [117] The President appoints a Deputy President and Ministers, who form the Cabinet which consists of Departments and Ministries. This relatively well-watered area is home to a great proportion of the country's commercial farmlands and contains its largest conurbation (Gauteng). [165], The South African agricultural industry contributes around 10% of formal employment, relatively low compared to other parts of Africa, as well as providing work for casual labourers and contributing around 2.6% of GDP for the nation. They were superseded by Bantu/Nguni peoples with their own vocabularies of art forms. [78] The targets were mainly legal and illegal migrants and refugees seeking asylum, but a third of the victims were South African citizens. [164], Principal international trading partners of South Africa—besides other African countries—include Germany, the United States, China, Japan, the United Kingdom and Spain. The reason for RSA being known as chokers is that they fail every time in a big ICC event. The security forces cracked down on internal dissent, and violence became widespread, with anti-apartheid organisations such as the African National Congress (ANC), the Azanian People's Organisation (AZAPO), and the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) carrying out guerrilla warfare[64] and urban sabotage. [167], In August 2013, South Africa was ranked as the top African Country of the Future by fDi magazine based on the country's economic potential, labour environment, cost-effectiveness, infrastructure, business friendliness, and foreign direct investment strategy.[168]. The lowland area (700–800 m above sea level) to the north of the Swartberg mountain range up to the Great Escarpment is the lowland part of the Great Karoo (see map at top right), which is climatically and botanically almost indistinguishable from the Karoo above the Great Escarpment. One of the first well known novels written by a black author in an African language was Solomon Thekiso Plaatje's Mhudi, written in 1930. [174] The skills drain in South Africa tends to demonstrate racial contours given the skills distribution legacy of South Africa and has thus resulted in large white South African communities abroad. [132] In an attempt to reduce crime rate, the police arrested over 500 undocumented foreigners in a raid in August 2019. [63] Queen Elizabeth II lost the title Queen of South Africa, and the last Governor-General, Charles Robberts Swart, became State President. [88], The south and south-western parts of the plateau (at approximately 1,100–1,800 m above sea level), and the adjoining plain below (at approximately 700–800 m above sea level – see map on the right) is known as the Great Karoo, which consists of sparsely populated scrubland. Learners have twelve years of formal schooling, from grade 1 to 12. (1984). [113]South Africa is one of the worst affected countries in the world when it comes to invasion by alien species with many (e.g., black wattle, Port Jackson willow, Hakea, Lantana and Jacaranda) posing a significant threat to the native biodiversity and the already scarce water resources. [39] Dutch interest was aroused after 1647, when two employees of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) were shipwrecked at the Cape for several months. Winters in this region are cold, although snow is rare. Upon formation, the country was named the Union of South Africa in English and Unie van Zuid-Afrika in Dutch, reflecting its origin from the unification of four formerly separate British colonies. The coastal belt to the north of the Cape Peninsula is bounded on the west by the Atlantic Ocean and the first row of north–south running Cape Fold Mountains to the east. In 1874, Sir Henry Bartle Frere was sent to South Africa as the British High Commissioner to bring such plans into being. South Africa or South Africans are not chokers. White South Africans may also speak European languages, including Italian, Portuguese (also spoken by black Angolans and Mozambicans), Dutch, German, and Greek, while some Indian South Africans speak Indian languages, such as Gujarati, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu. [209][210], South Africa is also home to a substantial Jewish population, descended from European Jews who arrived as a minority among other European settlers. They have been joined by black or white South African converts as well as others from other parts of Africa. The executive, legislature and judiciary are all subject to the supremacy of the Constitution, and the superior courts have the power to strike down executive actions and acts of Parliament if they are unconstitutional. The secondary metaphor the rainbow allows is more political. The grass and thorn savannah turns slowly into a bush savannah towards the north-east of the country, with denser growth. [80] Nevertheless, as South Africa continues to grapple with racial issues, one of the proposed solutions has been to pass legislation, such as the pending Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Bill, to uphold South Africa's ban on racism and commitment to equality. They displaced, conquered and absorbed the original Khoisan speakers, the Khoikhoi and San peoples. 'free citizens'), former company employees who stayed in Dutch territories overseas after serving their contracts. [52] The Boers inability to subdue Sekhukhune and the Pedi led to the departure of Burgers in favour of Paul Kruger and the British annexation of the South African Republic(Transvaal) on 12 April 1877 by Sir Theophilus Shepstone, secretary for native affairs of Natal. His King, John II, renamed the point Cabo da Boa Esperança, or Cape of Good Hope, as it led to the riches of the East Indies. [233] Of note is Brenda Fassie, who launched to fame with her song "Weekend Special", which was sung in English. In 1487, the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias led the first European voyage to land in southern Africa. The deep interior of mainland South Africa has the hottest temperatures: a temperature of 51.7 °C (125.06 °F) was recorded in 1948 in the Northern Cape Kalahari near Upington,[98] but this temperature is unofficial and was not recorded with standard equipment, the official highest temperature is 48.8 °C (119.84 °F) at Vioolsdrif in January 1993. Nadine Gordimer became the first South African to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, in 1991. Footballers who have played for major foreign clubs include Steven Pienaar, Lucas Radebe and Philemon Masinga, Benni McCarthy, Aaron Mokoena, and Delron Buckley. Durban surfer Jordy Smith won the 2010 Billabong J-Bay Open making him the highest ranked surfer in the world. [221] The rest pay for private care "out of pocket" or through in-hospital-only plans. South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. between the Outeniqua and Langeberg ranges to the south and the Swartberg range to the north) is known as the Little Karoo,[87] which consists of semi-desert scrubland similar to that of the Great Karoo, except that its northern strip along the foothills of the Swartberg Mountains, has a somewhat higher rainfall and is, therefore, more cultivated than the Great Karoo. [209] South African Muslims claim that their faith is the fastest-growing religion of conversion in the country, with the number of black Muslims growing sixfold, from 12,000 in 1991 to 74,700 in 2004. Unlike the primary metaphor, the room for different cultural interpretations of the colour spectrum is slight. [188] South Africa is home to an estimated five million illegal immigrants, including some three million Zimbabweans. Encyclopædia Britannica (1975); Micropaedia Vol. It is famous for the most extensive areas of indigenous forests in South Africa (a generally forest-poor country). [36] On 4 December, he landed at Walfisch Bay (now known as Walvis Bay in present-day Namibia). South Africa is often referred to as the "rainbow nation" to describe the country's multicultural diversity, especially in the wake of apartheid.[17]. Since 1994, all ethnic and linguistic groups have held political representation in the country's liberal democracy, which comprises a parliamentary republic and nine provinces. [180], The Human Rights Watch reported on 26 August 2019 about foreign national truck drivers being subjected to deadly attacks carried out by South African truck drivers. The phrase was elaborated upon by President Nelson Mandela in his first month of office, when he proclaimed: "Each of us is as intimately attached to the soil of this beautiful country as are the famous jacaranda trees of Pretoria and the mimosa trees of the bushveld – a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world. RSA stands for Republic of South Africa. [59], The Natives' Land Act of 1913 severely restricted the ownership of land by blacks; at that stage natives controlled only seven percent of the country. They went on to win the tournament again in 2007 and in 2019. There is great diversity in South African music. [44] This led to the development of a new ethnic group, the Cape Coloureds, most of whom adopted the Dutch language and Christian faith. This varied topography and oceanic influence result in a great variety of climatic zones. It has also served in multinational UN Peacekeeping forces such as the UN Force Intervention Brigade for example. Grade R, or grade 0, is a pre-primary foundation year. South Africa has many major ports including Cape Town, Durban, and Port Elizabeth that allow ships and other boats to pass through, some carrying passengers and some carrying petroleum tankers. [45] The Boers formed loose militias, which they termed commandos, and forged alliances with Khoisan groups to repel Xhosa raids. It became the first country (followed by Ukraine) with nuclear capability to voluntarily renounce and dismantle its programme and in the process signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1991. [67][68], In the late 1970s, South Africa initiated a programme of nuclear weapons development. [22][23] Moreover, climate change is an important issue for South Africa: it is a major contributor to climate change as the 14th largest emitter of greenhouse gases as of 2018 (in large part due to its coal industry),[24] and is vulnerable to many of its impacts, because of its water-insecure environment and vulnerable communities. [9]:21 The first census in South Africa in 1911 showed that whites made up 22% of the population; this had declined to 16% by 1980. As the Union of South Africa, the country was a founding member of the UN. South African political commentators have been known to speculate on "rainbowism", whereby true domestic issues such as the legacy of racism, crime, and the like are glossed over and "sugar-coated" by the cover of rainbow peace. South Africa hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and FIFA president Sepp Blatter awarded South Africa a grade 9 out of 10 for successfully hosting the event.[237]. The Afrikaners are a South African ethnic group who are descended from 17th century Dutch, German, and French settlers to South Africa. South African literature emerged from a unique social and political history. Its pluralistic makeup is reflected in the constitution's recognition of 11 official languages, the fourth-highest number in the world. These finds suggest that various hominid species existed in South Africa from about three million years ago, starting with Australopithecus africanus. [94][95] The greater Cape Town metropolitan area is situated on the Cape Peninsula and is home to 3.7 million people according to the 2011 population census. After a long and sometimes violent struggle by the African National Congress (ANC) and other anti-apartheid activists both inside and outside the country, the repeal of discriminatory laws began in the mid-1980s. The organization urged the South African government to take immediate actions ensuring the safety of the foreign national truck drivers putting up with violence, harassment, intimidation, stoning, bombing, and shooting, by local truck drivers in the country.[181]. Over 27,000 Boer women and children died in the British concentration camps. In 2012, Oscar Pistorius became the first double amputee sprinter to compete at the Olympic Games in London. 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. In 1934, the South African Party and National Party merged to form the United Party, seeking reconciliation between Afrikaners and English-speaking whites. Mark Shuttleworth founded an early Internet security company Thawte, that was subsequently bought out by world-leader VeriSign. To the north of Highveld, from about the 25° 30' S line of latitude, the plateau slopes downwards into the Bushveld, which ultimately gives way to the Limpopo lowlands or Lowveld.[87]. [125] The first European based law in South Africa was brought by the Dutch East India Company and is called Roman-Dutch law. In 2004, the swimming team of Roland Schoeman, Lyndon Ferns, Darian Townsend and Ryk Neethling won the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Athens, simultaneously breaking the world record in the 4×100 Freestyle Relay. Although football (soccer) commands the greatest following among the youth, other sports like basketball, surfing and skateboarding are increasingly popular. [71], The government's Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policies have drawn criticism from Neva Makgetla, lead economist for research and information at the Development Bank of Southern Africa, for focusing "almost exclusively on promoting individual ownership by black people [which] does little to address broader economic disparities, though the rich may become more diverse. Within South African indigenous cultures, the rainbow is associated with hope and a bright future (as in Xhosa culture). [183], Two distinctive features of the South African water sector are the policy of free basic water and the existence of water boards, which are bulk water supply agencies that operate pipelines and sell water from reservoirs to municipalities. [109] If correct, then the number of South African fungi dwarfs that of its plants. By 2015, 1.4 million students in higher education have benefited from a financial aid scheme which was promulgated in 1999. [13] The remaining population consists of Africa's largest communities of European, Asian, and multiracial ancestry. Click on a coloured area to see an article about English in that country or region, Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}30°S 25°E / 30°S 25°E / -30; 25, This article is about the Republic of South Africa. [99], Climate change has highly impacted South Africa, primarily due to increased temperatures and rainfall variability. This intensified British efforts to gain control over the indigenous peoples. Than others in 1991 1994 and 2018, on average 57 murders were committed each day in South or. Time they play they somehow manage to … South Africa also State that crime was a major problem strips! 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