Encyclopedia
The
Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of the
African
continent. It borders the countries of
Namibia,
Botswana,
Zimbabwe,
Mozambique, and
Swaziland.
Lesotho is an
enclave entirely surrounded by South African territory.
South Africa has experienced a significantly different evolution from other nations in Africa as a result of two facts. Firstly, immigration from
Europe reached levels not experienced in other African communities. Secondly, the strategic importance of the Cape Sea Route, as emphasised by the closure of the
Suez Canal during the
Six Day War, and mineralogical wealth made the country extremely important to
Western interests, particularly during the
Cold War. As a result of the former, South Africa is a very racially diverse nation. It has the largest population of people of Coloured , White, and Indian communities in Africa.
Black South Africans account for slightly less than 80% of the population.
Racial strife between the white minority and the black majority has played a large part in the country's
history and
politics, culminating in
apartheid, which was instituted in 1948 by the National Party, although
segregation existed prior to that date. The laws that defined apartheid began to be repealed or abolished by the National Party in 1990 after a long and sometimes violent struggle by the Black majority as well as many White, Coloured, and Indian South Africans.
The country is one of the few in Africa never to have had a
coup d'état, and regular elections have been held for almost a century; however, the vast majority of black South Africans were not enfranchised until 1994. The economy of South Africa is the largest and best developed on the continent, with modern infrastructure common throughout the country.
South Africa is often referred to as
The Rainbow Nation - a term coined by
Archbishop Desmond Tutu and later elaborated upon by then-President
Nelson Mandela as a metaphor to describe the country's newly-developing multicultural diversity in the wake of segregationist apartheid ideology.
South Africa will be the host nation for the
2010 FIFA World Cup. It will be the first time the tournament is held in Africa.
History
South Africa contains some of the oldest archaeological sites in Africa. Extensive
fossil remains at the
Sterkfontein, Kromdraai and Makapansgat caves suggest that various
australopithecines existed in South Africa from about three million years ago. These were succeeded by various species of
Homo, including
Homo habilis is a species [i] of the genus
Homo [i], which lived from approximately 2.5 ...
,
Homo erectus is an extinct species of genus
Homo [i]. ...
and modern man,
Homo sapiens.
Bantu-speaking peoples ,
iron-using agriculturists and herdsmen, moved south of the
Limpopo River into modern-day South Africa by the 4th or 5th century displacing the original Khoi and San speakers. They slowly moved south and the earliest ironworks in modern-day
KwaZulu-Natal Province are believed to date from around 1050. The southernmost group was the
Xhosa people, whose language incorporates certain linguistic traits from the earlier Khoi and San people, reaching the Fish River, in today's
Eastern Cape Province. These
Iron Age populations displaced earlier hunter-gatherer peoples as they migrated.
The written history of South Africa begins with the accounts of European navigators passing South Africa on the
East Indies trade routes. Subsequent to the first circumnavigation of the Cape in 1488 by the Portuguese Explorer
Bartolomeu Dias a number of shipwrecks occurred along the Southern African coast. Along with the accounts of the early navigators, the accounts of shipwreck survivors provide the earliest written accounts of Southern Africa. In the two centuries following 1488 a number of small fishing settlements were made along the coast by
Portuguese sailors, but no written account of these settlements survives. In 1652 a victualling station was established at the
Cape of Good Hope by
Jan van Riebeeck on behalf of the
Dutch East India Company. For most of the 17th and 18th centuries, the slowly expanding settlement was a
Dutch possession. The Dutch settlers eventually met the southwesterly expanding
Xhosa people in the region of the Fish River. A series of wars, called Cape Frontier Wars, ensued, mainly caused by conflicting land and livestock interests.
To ease Cape labour shortages slaves were brought from
Indonesia,
Madagascar, and
India. Furthermore, troublesome leaders, often of royal descent, were banished from Dutch colonies to South Africa. This group of slaves eventually gave rise to a population that now identifies themselves as "Cape Malays". Cape Malays have traditionally been accorded a higher social status by the European colonists - many became wealthy landowners, but became increasingly dispossessed as
Apartheid developed. Cape Malay mosques in District Six were spared, and now serve as monuments for the destruction that occurred around them.
Most of the descendants of these slaves, who often married with Dutch settlers, were later classified together with the remnants of the Khoikhoi as Cape Coloureds. Further intermingling within the Cape Coloured population itself, as well as with
Xhosa and other South African people, now means that they constitute roughly 50% of the population in the
Western Cape Province.
Great Britain seized the
Cape of Good Hope area in 1797 during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War. The
Dutch East India Company declared bankruptcy, and the British annexed the Cape Colony in 1805. The British continued the frontier wars against the AmaXhosa, pushing the eastern frontier eastward through a line of forts established along the Fish River and consolidating it by encouraging British settlement. Due to pressure of
abolitionist societies in Britain, the British parliament first stopped its global
slave trade in 1806, then abolished slavery in all its colonies in 1833.
The discovery of
diamonds in 1867 and
gold in 1886 encouraged economic growth and immigration, intensifying the subjugation of the natives. The Boers successfully resisted British encroachments during the First Boer War using tactics much better suited to local conditions. For example, the Boers wore khaki clothing, which was the same colour as the earth, whereas the British wore bright red uniforms, making them easy targets for Boer
sharpshooters. The British returned in greater numbers without their red jackets in the
Second Boer War , which was largely opposed by the Liberal Party in the
British Parliament. The Boers' attempt to ally themselves with German
South West Africa provided the British with yet another excuse to take control of the Boer Republics.
The Boers resisted fiercely, but the British eventually overwhelmed the Boer forces, using their superior numbers and external supply chains and
concentration camps as well as the controversial
scorched earth tactic. The Treaty of Vereeniging specified full British sovereignty over the South African republics, and the British government agreed to assume the
£3,000,000 war debt owed by the Afrikaner governments. One of the main provisions of the treaty ending the war was that 'Blacks' would not be allowed to vote, except in the Cape Colony.
After four years of negotiations, the
Union of South Africa was created from the
Cape and
Natal colonies, as well as the republics of
Orange Free State and
Transvaal, on May 31, 1910, exactly eight years after the end of the Second Boer War. The newly-created Union of South Africa was a dominion. In 1934 the South African Party and National Party merged to form the United Party, seeking reconciliation between Afrikaners and
English-speaking 'Whites', but split in 1939 over the Union's entry into
World War II as an ally of the
United Kingdom. The right-wing National Party sympathised with
Nazi Germany during the war, and sought greater racial segregation, or apartheid, after it.
In 1948, the National Party was elected to power, and began
implementing a series of harsh segregationist laws that would become known collectively as
apartheid. Not surprisingly, this segregation also applied to the wealth acquired during rapid industrialization of the 1950s, '60s, and '70s. While the White minority enjoyed the highest standard of living in all of Africa, often comparable to "
First World" western nations, the Black majority remained disadvantaged by almost every standard, including income, education, housing, and life expectancy. However, the average income and life expectancy of a black, 'Indian' or 'colored' South African compared favorably to many other African states, such as
Ghana and
Tanzania.
Apartheid became increasingly controversial, leading to widespread sanctions and divestment abroad and growing unrest and oppression within South Africa. A long period of harsh suppression by the government, and resistance,
strikes, marches, protests, and
sabotage, by various anti-apartheid movements, most notably the
African National Congress , followed. In 1990 the National Party government took the first step towards negotiating itself out of power when it lifted the ban on the African National Congress and other left-wing political organisations, and released
Nelson Mandela from prison after 27 years. Apartheid legislation was gradually removed from the statute books, and the first
multi-racial elections were held in 1994. The ANC won by an overwhelming majority, and has been in power ever since.
Despite the end of apartheid, millions of South Africans, mostly black, continue to live in
poverty. This is attributed to the legacy of the apartheid regime and, increasingly, what many see as the failure of the current government to tackle social issues, coupled with the monetary and fiscal discipline of the current government to ensure both redistribution of wealth and economic growth. However, the ANC's social housing policy has produced some improvement in living conditions in many areas by redirecting fiscal spending and improving the efficiency of the
tax collection system.
Politics
South Africa has a bicameral
Parliament: the National Council of Provinces with 90 members, and a National Assembly with 400 members. Members of the lower house are elected on a population basis by proportional representation: half of the members are elected from national lists and half are elected from provincial lists. Ten members are elected to represent each province in the National Council of Provinces, regardless of the population of the province. Elections for both chambers are held every five years. The government is formed in the lower house, and the leader of the majority party in the National Assembly is the President.
Current South African politics is dominated by the
African National Congress , which received 69.7% of the vote during the last
2004 general election and 66.3% of the vote in the
2006 municipal election. The main challenger to the ANC's rule is the Democratic Alliance party, which received 12.4% of the vote in the 2004 election and 14.8% in the 2006 election. The leader of this party is
Tony Leon. The formerly dominant New National Party, which introduced apartheid through its predecessor, the National Party, has suffered increasing humiliation at election polls since 1994, and finally voted to disband. It chose to merge with the ANC on 9 April 2005. Other major political parties represented in Parliament are the Inkatha Freedom Party, which mainly represents
Zulu voters, and the Independent Democrats, who took 6.97% and 1.7% of the vote respectively in the 2004 election.
Administrative divisions
When apartheid ended in 1994, the South African government had to integrate the formerly independent and semi-independent
Bantustans into the political structure of South Africa. To this end, it abolished the four former provinces of South Africa and replaced them with nine fully integrated provinces. The new provinces are usually much smaller than the former provinces, which theoretically is in order to give local governments more resources to distribute over smaller areas.
The nine provinces are further sub-divided into 52
districts, six of which are metropolitan and 46 district municipalities. The 46 district municipalities are further subdivided into 231 local municipalities. The district municipalities also contain 20 district management areas which are directly governed by the district municipalities. The six metropolitan municipalities perform the functions of both district and local municipalities.The new provinces are:
Geography
South Africa is located at the extreme south of Africa, with a long
coastline that stretches more than 2,500 kilometres and across two
oceans . At 470,979 mi² , South Africa is the world's 25th-largest country . It is comparable in size to
Colombia, and is nearly twice the size of the US state of
Texas.
South Africa has a great variety of climate zones, from the extreme
desert of the
Kalahari near
Namibia to lush subtropical climate along the border with
Mozambique. It quickly rises over a
mountainous escarpment towards the interior
plateau known as the Highveld. Even though South Africa is classified as semi-arid, there is considerable variation in
climate as well as
topography.
The interior of South Africa is a giant, mountainous, and sparsely populated scrubland
Karoo plateau, which is drier towards the northwest along the Kalahari desert. In contrast, the eastern coastline is lush and well-watered, which produces a climate similar to the tropics. The extreme southwest has a climate remarkably similar to that of the
Mediterranean with wet winters and hot, dry summers. This area also produces much of South Africa's
wine. This region is also particularly known for its wind, which blows intermittently almost all year. The severity of this wind made passing around the
Cape of Good Hope particularly treacherous for sailors, causing many
shipwrecks. Further east on the country's south coast, rainfall is distributed more evenly throughout the year, producing a green landscape. This area is popularly known as the
Garden Route.
The
Free State is particularly flat due to the fact that the eastern region of the Highveld does not extend as far north as the western region. North of the Vaal River, the Highveld becomes better watered and does not experience subtropical extremes of heat.
Johannesburg, in the centre of the Highveld, is at 1,740
metres and receives an annual rainfall of 760 millimetres . Winters in this region are cold, although
snow is rare.
To the north and east of Johannesburg, the altitude drops beyond the Highveld's escarpment, and turns into the Lowveld. The Lowveld has particularly high temperatures, and is also the location of traditional South African Bushveld. The high
Drakensberg mountains, which form the eastern escarpment of the Highveld, offer limited
skiing opportunities in winter. Many people think that the coldest place in South Africa is Sutherland in the western Roggeveld Mountains, where midwinter temperatures can reach as low as –15 degrees
Celsius . In fact, the coldest place is actually Buffelsfontein, which is in the Molteno district of the Eastern Cape. Buffelsfontein a low of –18.6 degrees
Celsius. The deep interior has the hottest temperatures: A temperature of 51.7 °C was recorded in 1948 in the
Northern Cape Kalahari near Upington.
South Africa also has one possession, the small sub-antarctic archipelago of the
Prince Edward Islands, consisting of Marion Island and Prince Edward Island .
Flora and fauna
South Africa has more than 20,000 different
plants, or about 10% of all the known species of plants on
Earth, making it particularly rich in plant biodiversity.
South Africa's most prevalent biome is
grassland, particularly on the Highveld, where the plant cover is dominated by different
grasses, low
shrubs, and
acacia trees, mainly camel-thorn and whitethorn.
Vegetation becomes even more sparse towards the northwest due to low rainfall. There are several species of water-storing
succulents like
aloes and euphorbias in the very hot and dry Namaqualand area. The grass and thorn
savannah turns slowly into a bush savannah towards the northeast of the country, with more dense growth. There are significant numbers of
baobab trees in this area, near the northern end of
Kruger National Park.
The
Fynbos Biome, one of the six floral 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 floral biodiversity. The majority of the plants are
evergreen hard-leaf plants with fine, needle-like
leaves, such as the sclerophyllous plants. Another uniquely South African plant is the
protea genus of flowering plants. There are around 130 different species of protea in South Africa.
While South Africa has a great wealth of flowering plants, it has few
forests. Only 1% of South Africa is forest, almost exclusively in the
humid coastal plain along the
Indian Ocean in
KwaZulu-Natal. There are even smaller reserves of forests that are out of the reach of
fire, known as montane forests.
Plantations of imported tree species are predominant, particularly the non-native
eucalyptus a
