South Africa - Basic OverviewSouth Africa was when divided into 2 British Nests, specifically the Nest of Natal and the Cape Colony, and 2 "Boer" Afrikaner Republics, particularly the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. The Union of South Africa escorts was formed in 1910 after 8 years of arrangements after the Anglo-Boer War of 1899 - 1902. The Republic of South Africa as it is today was kind in 1961, which covers the southern tip of Africa and a location of 1,2 million square kilometers.
The country was divided into 9 provinces (states) in 1994 when we had our first democratic elections and Mr. Nelson Mandela ended up being president. The provinces are: Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, Free State, KwaZulu Natal, Mpumalanga, North West, Limpopo and Gauteng. Each province has its own capital and the country has three capital cities, specifically Pretoria the management capital, Bloemfontein the judicial capital and Cape Town the legal capital. The population is about 45,3 million people and is made up of 13 different groups, namely the Zulu, Xhosa, Shangaan, Ndebele, Swazi, Pedi, South Sotho, Tswana, Venda, Khoisan, Coloured, Asian and White. To mix things up even more, we have 11 main languages which English is the most typically spoken. Afrikaans is generally spoken between your white and coloured individuals and it is stemmed from Dutch, German and French. South Africa has 6 neighbouring nations, particularly Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Swaziland, Lesotho and unfortunately bad old Zimbabwe. Its 2700-kilometer shoreline includes 4 of Africa's biggest harbours - Durban and Richards Bay along the Indian Ocean and Cape Town and Saldanha Bay along the Atlantic Ocean. South Africa has a moderate environment with 3 rainfall regions, most of the country has summer rains, the South Western Cape has a Mediterranean environment with winter rain and a very small area along the south eastern coastline referred to as the "Garden Path" has throughout the year rainfall. Summer is generally from October to April and winter season is June, July and August.
South Africa has a two tier federal government, a nationwide government with a democratically chosen president and each province has its own provincial legislature. Considering that the political modification of 1994 the South African society has actually made great strides to a democratic, socially more fair and economically more internationally competitive country. It has, in fact, become a leader in many spheres of worldwide north-south relations. Current growth southern African economy is mainly based on the tourism sector, a slowly diversifying and significantly competitive manufacturing sector, value-adding beneficiation of mineral and farming raw materials and a sophisticated trading, monetary and expert services sector. Globally South Africa can be ranked among "upper middle earnings nations" like Chile, Portugal, Korea, Malaysia, Turkey, Brazil and Poland. |