South Africa

The Republic of South Africa (RSA) is a country in southern Africa. It is the most developed economic area on the African continent. South Africa borders the Indian Ocean to the south and southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. To the north are the neighboring states of Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the northeast Mozambique and to the east Eswatini. The Kingdom of Lesotho is enclosed as an enclave of South Africa.

The Republic of South Africa has three capitals: the government sits in Pretoria, the Parliament in Cape Town and the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein. The largest metropolises in the country by inhabitants are Johannesburg (as a metropolitan municipality) and Cape Town (as a metropolitan municipality). English is the lingua franca of the country, and Afrikaans and nine Bantu languages are the official languages. According to the TheReport, the University of Cape Town is considered the best university in Africa, while the Technical University of Tshwane in Pretoria is one of the largest universities on the continent.

South Africa (RSA) is the only African country to belong to the G20 economic powers and is counted among the five BRICS countries. The seat of the Parliament of the African Union is in Johannesburg-Midrand. South Africa is one of the founding members of the United Nations.It is also a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

Overview

The Republic of South Africa is a culturally diverse country where people of several ethnicities live and which is often referred to as the “rainbow nation” due to this diversity. Since the different population groups did not always live and live side by side without conflict, complex problems and unrest in the course of history strained the relationship, for example, between the non-European majority population and the European-born (“white”) immigrants and their descendants born in the country, but also between different nationalities within these groups defined during apartheid, with serious consequences for the History and politics of the country. The Khoisan indigenous population, which occasionally still lives in remains as game hunters, is now largely marginalized.

As a result of its election victory in 1948, the National Party, the party of Afrikaans-speaking People of European origin – mostly of Dutch, but also of German or French descent – reshaped all areas of South African society according to the programmatic principle of “separate development” it advocated. However, this development had already begun under the state governments, both British and Boer, and was officially declared state policy until shortly after the election of the moderate and communicative President Frederik Willem de Klerk.

The turning point in politics began in 1990. It was a consequence of years of struggle by the disadvantaged majority of the population under political leaders such as Nelson Mandela and was largely peaceful. The parliamentary elections of 1994 brought for the first time an equal right to vote for all citizens and fundamentally changed political life in the country.

South Africa is one of the few countries in Africa where such a great deal of freedom is given to non-European official languages and no coup d’état has taken place so far. Free and secret ballots, but only with a preference for the white population, have been held since the 19th century. The country’s economy is the most developed on the entire African continent.

Geography of South Africa

Layer

The country is located on the southernmost edge of the African continent between 22 and 35 degrees south latitude and between 17 and 33 degrees east longitude (excluding the Prince Edward Islands). It has over 2500 km of coastline on two oceans (the Atlantic and Indian Oceans). South Africa has an area of 1,219,912 km²; this corresponds to about 3.4 times the area of Germany.

The central plateau, also called Highveld, is located 900 meters to 2000 meters above sea level. The land belt sloping down to the coast is 20 to 250 km wide and is called Great Escarpment (Groot Randkant). Large parts of the country are geomorphologically and petrographically determined by the sediments of the Karoo main basin. In the north, especially in the Bushveld complex, igneous rocks and at Barberton very old metamorphites (greenstone facies, serpentinites) come to light.

Landscapes

The Drakensberg Mountains run through the country from the northeast to the enclave of Lesotho in the southeast, where they reach their highest point (3482 m) with the Thabana Ntlenyana. The highest mountain in South Africa is the Mafadi with 3450 m. Northwest of Bloemfontein, the Kalahari Desert stretches through Botswana to Namibia. At Cape Agulhas, the southern tip of the continent, the Atlantic and Indian Ocean meet, west of which lies the Cape of Good Hope (Cape of Good Hope or Kaap van die Goeie Hoop).

Most of South Africa’s rivers originate in the Drakensberg Mountains and flow east towards the Indian Ocean. The longest river at 1860 km, the Orange River, also rises in the Drakensberg Mountains, but flows westwards and flows into the Atlantic Ocean. The Augrabies Falls on the Orange River near Upington have a width of about 150 m and are about 56 m high. Other important rivers are the Limpopo, which flows into the Indian Ocean as a border river to Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique in a northeasterly direction after about 1600 km, and the Vaal (1251 km), a tributary of the Orange River. The water levels of these rivers fluctuate greatly.

South Africa includes the Prince Edward Islands in the southern Indian Ocean. South Africa gave up its territorial claims in Antarctica and to The Whale Bay in Namibia in 1994.

Climate and vegetation zones

South Africa has a great differentiation of climatic-orographic large units and vegetation zones. They range from the extreme desert in the Kalahari on the border with Namibia to subtropical laurel forests in the southeast and on the border with Mozambique. On the western coastal zone, an arid to strong maritime climate prevails.

On the south coast, the climate is semiarid to semihumid, which is due to the meeting of the cold Benguela Current and the warm Agulhas Current at the Cape of Good Hope. The climate in the interior is full to semi-arid, but becoming more humid to the east, so the Highveld plateau can already be counted in part to the ever-humid east side climate.

Today, anthropogenic subtropical grasslands thrive in the east and semi-desert in the west, which merge into various savannah areas in the north. In high altitudes above 1800 m above sea level, there is a highland steppe. After all, the east coast is characterized by a semi-feudal and distinctly maritime climate. The region around Cape Town has a Mediterranean climate. Snow in winter is only available in the higher mountains.

Due to its size and several other factors (ocean currents, altitude), the climate varies between different parts of the country. Several factors are fundamental to the climate distribution: On the east coast, the warm Agulhas Current, which comes from the Indian Ocean, allows warm and water-rich air to rise. These clouds are formed by complex convection currents between high and low-pressure areas and rain out in the area of the east coast of South Africa. In the direction of the interior, however, the amount of precipitation decreases rapidly. On the west coast, on the other hand, the cold Benguela Current, fed by Antarctic waters, flows. Together with the changing air pressure conditions, it leads to desertification on the west coast, as the coastal areas are deprived of moisture.

South Africa’s location in the southern hemisphere means that the seasons are opposite to those in the northern hemisphere. In winter, between June and August, there may be snow in the Drakensberg Mountains, on the Highveld and in Johannesburg (1753 m) and the surrounding area, at night the temperatures drop sharply. During the day the temperatures rise to about 23 °C, in summer to 30 °C. In Boland, the region around Cape Town (15 m), there is a cool climate with drizzle in winter. From November to March, it is warm to hot and dry. In the coastal areas of KwaZulu-Natal, including Durban (5 m) and along the east coast, the humidity is high, but usually, a cooling wind blows from the sea. The temperatures here are between 25 and 35 °C all year round.

The plateau in the east of the country is characterized by warm, rarely unpleasantly high temperatures. In the Karoo semi-desert and Namaqualand, on the other hand, extremely high temperatures occur. Here, the annual rainfall is less than 200 mm. The few winter rains occur very irregularly.

A constant, fresh breeze blows in the Western Cape. Summers are warm and even winters are mild. The south coast is characterized by a temperate climate. It is dominated by dry vegetation with extensive savannah areas that merge into the Kalahari Desert and Namaqualand in the west and into the Karoo in the southwest. Closed forest stands can only be found in the rainy east and southeast. There are only smaller contiguous areas that extend along the Great Rim Steps, for example in the Amathole Mountains and the Drakensberg Mountains of Natal, as well as in the coastal area of the Eastern Cape in the vicinity of Knysna. The summer rains can fall in catastrophic amounts, resulting in significant soil erosion.

Southern Africa lies in a predominantly semi-arid and arid zone, which is therefore very susceptible to climate change. The consequences of climate change are increasing heat, longer periods of drought and lower precipitation. In inland South Africa, the temperature has risen by about two degrees Celsius within 100 years. In addition, it is feared that the spread of malaria and schistosomiasis could be facilitated in some parts of the country.

The 2013 National Water Resource Strategy illustrates the current focus of South African government policy on the consequences of climate change in southern Africa. The landside effects are particularly noticeable by changes in soil moisture and runoff volumes in the waters, as well as in the consequences of increasing evaporation and changing temperatures in aquatic systems.

South Africa Nature

Biodiversity and biodiversity

South Africa is one of the megadiversity countries of the world, in which, in addition to a very large biodiversity and biodiversity, a very large number of endemic species, genera and families of plants and animals occur and there are also diverse ecosystems.

Among other things, it is home to more than 20,000 different plants. In the Fynbos region, a stretch of land in the province of Western Cape, there are more than 9000 species that make the area one of the most ecologically diverse places on earth. For this reason, this region is considered by botanists under the name Capensis as one of the six floral kingdoms of the earth. It is by far the smallest of these plant kingdoms. Due to its high-risk situation, Cape Flora is a hotspot of the earth’s biodiversity.

Flora

The majority of plants in South Africa are evergreen hardwood plants with fine, needle-shaped leaves. Other typical plants are the sugar bushes (genus Protea), which belong to the flowering plants and of which there are about 130 different species in the country.

While there is a large variety of flowering plants in South Africa, forests are very rare to find. Only about one percent of the total area is forest area, which is located almost exclusively in the humid coastal plain along the Indian Ocean in KwaZulu-Natal. Today, the forests consist mainly of imported tree species, such as eucalyptus and pine.

The original forest found by the European settlers upon their arrival was largely cut down; at the same time, a green belt of introduced tree species was planted around Johannesburg. Remnants of the endemic forest stands can be found, for example, in the Auckland Nature Reserve near Hogsback. A number of the tree species introduced have proven problematic in South Africa. They negatively change the water balance, lead to more intense bushfires and more soil erosion and displace native species. Programs such as Working for Water therefore specifically remove certain species.

At the beginning of the 21st century, South African hardwood trees such as the broad-leaved holm yew, the Stinkwood (Ocotea Bullata) and the Black Ironwood (Olea Capensis) were placed under conservation by the government. This is also intended to ensure the continued existence of the Kappapageis. This long-winged parrot species is considered the rarest African large parrot and occurs only in the highly fragmented holm yew forests of South Africa.

In the very hot and dry Namaqualand near the west coast, there are various types of water-retaining succulents such as aloe and euphorbia. The predominant vegetation inland is grassland, which is especially found on the Highveld. Here, various grasses, low shrubs and acacias dominate. The vegetation becomes sparser towards the northwest, which is due to the low rainfall. The grass and thorn savannah east of the Kalahari Desert changes in the course to the northeast to a wet savannah with denser vegetation. In the area around the northern end of the Kruger National Park, there are particularly many baobab trees.

Fauna

The species-rich wildlife can be observed in hundreds of small wildlife sanctuaries and large national parks, of which Kruger National Park is the largest. South Africa is home to more than 300 species of mammals, more than 500 species of birds, more than 100 species of reptiles and numerous insect species. The country is home to many large animal species, including the African “Big Five”, the five big game species once most feared among hunters: lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant and rhinoceros. The rhinos are represented by white rhinoceros and black rhinoceros.

Especially the savannas in the north are inhabited by numerous antelope species such as Impala, Kudu, Nyala, Streifengnu or waterbuck. Numerous other large animal species can be found here, such as giraffes, hippos, bush pigs, warthogs, steppe zebras, cheetahs, hyenas and wild dogs. In addition to the Kruger National Park, Hluhluwe iMfolozi Park and Addo National Park are among the most famous national parks. In the semi-desert of the south, the so-called Karoo, there are some species that are absent in the savannah areas of the north.

These include white-tailed gnus, blessbucks and mountain zebras. Once there was the now-extinct Quagga and the Bluebuck. The remaining typical Cape fauna can be found today in the Bergzebra National Park. In the semi-desert areas of the Kalahari, which extends into South Africa in the northeast, skewers and springboks are characteristic. They are protected together with other species, such as lions and cheetahs, for example in the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park. Among the birds of South Africa are ostriches, flamingos and numerous birds of prey. Furthermore, about 170,000 spectacled penguins live on the coasts and on the islands and are under strict nature conservation.

Population

Demography

The population has grown since 1996 from 40.6 million inhabitants to 51.7 million (2011), to 57.7 million (2018) and finally to 59.62 million (mid-2020).

South Africa is a multi-ethnic and multicultural country where the consequences of apartheid can still be found and population groups often live in separate residential regions. The authority responsible for demographic data collection and its evaluation is Statistics South Africa.

By 1991, the South African constitution divided the population into four major demographic groups: blacks, whites, coloreds and Asians. Although this classification is no longer made in the law, many South Africans continue to see themselves as belonging to one of these groups, and official government statistics continue to use this categorization. The black population groups make up about 79.2% of the total population of South Africa and can, in turn, be divided into different ethnic groups. The largest of these groups are the Zulu, Xhosa, Basotho, Venda, Tswana, Tsonga, Swazi and Ndebele. In addition, several million refugees, mainly from Zimbabwe, live illegally in South Africa.

The proportion of European-born whites in the total population is 8.9%; mainly descendants of Dutch, German, French and British settlers who immigrated here from the middle of the 17th century. The country thus has the largest population of European origin on the continent. The relative proportion of whites has been steadily declining since the 1990s due to a demographic shift in South Africa’s overall population growth, while the absolute number has risen slightly in recent years. Nearly a million white South Africans have left the country. The intensity of immigration from black African countries decreased in the second decade of the 21st century. According to Statistics South Africa, around 2.189 million people immigrated to South Africa in 2011, compared to only about 1.578 million in 2016.

The Coloureds are a population group of different ethnic origins in South Africa, mostly descendants of early European immigrants and their slaves, as well as members of indigenous groups originally living in the Cape region and to a lesser extent immigrants from Southeast Asia. The term Coloured gives an indication of the meaning that colonialism and later apartheid policies already assigned to the external characteristic of skin color. Even after the end of apartheid, it continues to be used and has taken on the character of a neutral self-designation. About 8.9% of the population are Coloureds.

Most Asians living in South Africa are of Indian descent and descendants of immigrants who initially came to the country as contract workers in the mid-19th century to work in Natal’s sugar cane fields, and increasingly lived as traders in the cities. Today, Asians make up 2.5% of the total population and live mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Town and Johannesburg. There is also a Chinese group of about 300,000 members (as of 2008).0.5% of the population belong to the “others”.

In 2017, 7.1% of the population was born abroad. The largest immigrant groups came from Mozambique (680,000), Zimbabwe (360,000) and Lesotho (310,000). It is believed that there are millions of unregistered immigrants in the country, mainly from Zimbabwe. Recently, the country has seen an increasing emigration of the white population. Their preferred destinations were the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, New Zealand and Canada.

In 2016, about 65% of South Africans lived in cities. In the city, the population was spread out with 28.3% under the age of 15, 66.1% from 15 to 64, and 5.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The population growth in 2019 was about 1.7%, the birth rate in the same year was 20.5 births per 1000 inhabitants, the infant mortality rate was 34.5 per 1000 live births. Life expectancy in 2020 averaged 67.9 years for women and 60.9 years for men, after having been significantly lower in previous years. The increase in life expectancy can be attributed to improved HIV/AIDS prevention and the intensive supply of antiretroviral drugs to infected people. A South African woman has an average of 2.3 children (2016 estimate). 94.3% of South Africans over the age of 15 can read and write (2015 estimate).

Religions in South Africa

Religion (as of 2016, based on data from Stats SA)	Persons	Percentage share
African Independent Churches, such as the Zion Christian Church	14.158.454	25,44
Pentecostal churches	8.483.677	15,24
Roman Catholic Church	3.778.332	6,79
Methodist	2.777.937	4,99
free Christian denominations	2.501.383	4,49
Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk	2.350.853	4,22
Anglican Church	1.765.287	3,17
Baptist	1.061.683	1,91
Lutheran largest group: Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa	946.086	1,70
Presbyterian	621.065	1,12
Seventh-day Adventists	311.269	0,56
Jehovah’s Witnesses	476.687	0,86
Mormons	114.807	0,21
Islam	892.685	1,60
Hinduism	561.268	1,01
Judaism	49.470	0,09
Buddhism	24.808	0,04
Bahai	6.881	0,01
African Ethnic Religions	2.454.887	4,41
other religions	6.265.703	11,26
non-denominational, agnostic	6.050.434	10,87
Total	55.653.656	100,00
no information	255.209	–

Languages

South Africa has had eleven official languages since the end of apartheid: English, Afrikaans, isiZulu, Siswati, South Ndebele, Sesotho, North Sotho, Xitsonga, Setswana, Tshivenda and isiXhosa. Thus, after Bolivia and India, the country is the one with the most official languages in the world. Accordingly, there are eleven different official country names.

About 0.7% of blacks and 59.1% of whites speak Afrikaans as their mother tongue, the mother tongue of the Coloureds is predominantly Afrikaans. English is spoken as a native language by 0.5% of all blacks and by 39.3% of whites. The other languages are spoken by the black Bantu population as their mother tongue. About 22.3% of blacks speak isiXhosa, 30.1% isiZulu, 11.9% Sepedi, 10.0% blacks learn Sesotho as their mother tongue, 10.3% Setswana, 3.4% SiSwati, 2.9% Tshivenda, 5.6% Xitsonga and 2.0% South Ndebele. Only about 0.3% of the black population and 1.1% of whites do not speak any of the eleven official languages as their mother tongue.

In addition to the languages mentioned, there are others that have no official status nationwide, such as Fanakalo, Lobedu, North Ndebele, Phuthi, Khoe, Nama and San. They are officially used only in the areas where their speakers mainly live. Many of the non-official languages of the San and Khoikhoi are also spoken in the neighboring northern countries of Namibia and Botswana. These indigenous peoples, who are different from the other Africans, have their own cultural identity, as they have always been hunter-gatherers (iSan) or nomadic cattle herders (Khoikhoi). The number of members of these peoples has declined rapidly in recent centuries, and their languages are threatened with extinction.

Many white South Africans speak other European languages besides Afrikaans or English, such as Portuguese, German or Greek. Furthermore, Indian languages such as Gujarati and Tamil are spoken in South Africa, especially by South Africans of Indian origin.

Although all eleven official languages are equal by law, English has emerged as the leading lingua franca, as it is understood beyond the different ethnic groups by most of the inhabitants of South Africa and is considered less burdened by the apartheid policies of yesteryear. Afrikaans influence declined at the end of the 20th century, as for many black South Africans it is more closely linked to the memory of the apartheid regime. In general, the influence of Afrikaans-speaking whites in society has declined in recent years due to political loss of power and demographic and economic change – at the same time, however, the end of apartheid strengthened the social position of the Coloureds, who are predominantly African-speaking.

History

Before the arrival of European settlers

In South Africa, some of the oldest paleoanthropological fossils in the world have been excavated. Remains of Australopithecus africanus have been found at Taung (“Child of Taung”) and in the caves of Sterkfontein (“Little Foot”), Kromdraai and Makapansgat, the oldest of which are dated to about 3.5 million years ago. After these pre-humans lived here various species of the genus Homo such as Homo habilis, Homo naledi, Homo erectus and finally modern man, Homo sapiens.

During the migration of the Bantu tribes, the Bantu crossed the Limpopo and settled in present-day South Africa as farmers and shepherds around 500 AD. In the course of their migration, they reached the Fish River, which is now in the eastern Cape province. The San and Khoikhoi hunter-gatherer peoples, who have been living in the areas of present-day South Africa for about 20,000 years, were pushed back further and further by the Bantu.

Dutch colonial period

The beginning of modern historiography in South Africa is set for April 6, 1652, when the Dutchman Jan van Riebeeck built a supply station at the Cape of Good Hope on behalf of the Dutch East India Company (Dutch Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, VOC). Due to its strategic location, this was to be a rest stop for merchant ships sailing between Europe and Southeast Asia. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the settlement, which slowly but steadily expanded, was in Dutch ownership. The settlers first spread to the western Cape region, which at that time was a refuge for the Khoisan. Several hundred French Huguenots, after being persecuted in France from 1686, came to the country via the Netherlands in 1688 and brought viticulture with them. The French-language names of wineries and fruit-growing farms in the Western Cape go back to them.

After reaching the Bantu settlement border eastwards in 1770, they fought a series of wars – the border wars – against the Xhosa people. The Cape Dutch brought numerous slaves from Indonesia, Madagascar and India into the country. At the beginning of 1743, the number of slaves in the province was significantly higher than that of the European settlers. The descendants of these slaves, who often married European settlers, were later classified together with the San in the population class of the “colored” or “Cape Malays” and today make up about 50% of the population in the western Cape province.

19th century

When the VOC was finally close to bankruptcy and the influence of Dutch traders waned, troops of the Kingdom of Great Britain occupied the region around the Cape of Good Hope in 1797. The Netherlands was occupied by Napoleon Bonaparte’s troops during the Coalition Wars, and the Batavian Republic, founded in 1795, was no longer allied with the British. The Cape region was therefore occupied against the background that this strategically important location for trade should not fall into the hands of the French. The British had to return the land to the Netherlands after the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, conquered it again in 1806 and permanently established a British crown colony here, the Cape Colony. The border wars with the Xhosa continued and enlarged the country further and further to the east bank of the Great Fish River.

The border of the new crown colony was heavily fortified by the British and the land behind it was quickly settled by whites. When in 1833 the British Parliament decreed the abolition of slavery in their worldwide sphere of influence, this deprived many Boers of their livelihoods. In order to escape the sphere of influence of British law and to be able to continue the exploitation of non-whites, they moved to the hinterland. In the Great Trek from 1835 to 1841, around 12,000 Boers, the so-called Voortrekker, emigrated to the areas north of the Orange River. There they founded numerous Boer republics, including the South African Republic, also known as the Transvaal, and the Orange Free State.

The discovery of diamonds in 1867 and gold in 1886 led to strong economic growth and the immigration of many Europeans, which further promoted the disadvantage and exploitation of the original population. The Boers resisted British expansion efforts during the so-called First Boer War (1880–1881). Although the Boers were far outnumbered, they successfully resisted as they adapted better strategically to local conditions. For example, the Boer soldiers wore khaki uniforms that better camouflaged them, while the British wore their traditional redcoats, which made them an easy target for Boer snipers.

20th century

Until 1945

In the years 1899–1902, the British returned even more frequently and fought against the Boers in the Second Boer War. Among other things, the war was aimed at controlling the rich gold deposits on the Witwatersrand. The Boer attempt to ally themselves with the German Reich and the colony German South West Africa was an additional reason for the British to take complete control of the Boer republics. The Boers resisted in vain this time, as the British were numerically superior and had a better supply of supplies.

In the Treaty of Vereeniging, the two Boer republics were incorporated into the British Empire, but otherwise, the Boers were granted generous peace conditions, such as the recognition of Dutch as an official language. In order to continue to pacify the Boers, the British also agreed to discriminatory provisions in the treaty that restricted the civil rights of the non-white inhabitants of Transvaal and the Orange Free State. After four years of negotiations, the South African Union was founded on 31 May 1910 from the four colonies of Natal, Transvaal, Orange River Colony and Cape Colony, exactly eight years to the day after the end of the Second Boer War.

In 1930, white women were given the right to vote for the first time. In 1934, the British South African Party and the right-wing National Party of the Boers merged to form the United Party, with the intention of reconciling the British and Boers. This community party fell apart again in 1939 because of the republic’s entry into the Second World War on the side of Great Britain. After the declaration of war on Germany on 5 September 1939, more than 330,000 South Africans fought as volunteers in the South African army in East Africa, North Africa, Italy and as members of the British Air Force and Navy in World War II. The National Party sympathized with Hitler’s Germany and sought radical racial segregation.

After 1945, Apartheid

After the end of World War II, the white minority, under the political leadership of the National Party, was able to consolidate their power and authoritarianly expand apartheid structures by having an increasing number of laws passed by parliament that consistently and systematically divided the country and everyday life into a two-tier law and comprehensively restricted many civil rights.

The concrete consequence of this policy was a progressive spatial separation of the dwellings between the European-born and the other population groups with increasing economic exploitation and disenfranchisement of the disadvantaged inhabitants, primarily blacks. In addition, the repression against the Coloureds, Indians and Cape Malays grew. The aim was the permanent settlement of Africans (black population) in areas long known as Native Reserves (the later Bantustans), whose formal state independence was gradually prepared and in four cases achieved. In the 20th century, several government commissions had dealt with the socioeconomic development of these areas and their populations, mainly from the point of view of “white” political models; there were also alternative approaches.

South Africa experienced a rapid economic rise in the 1960s and was the only country on the African continent to be counted among the First World. Investments flowed into the country and numerous foreign companies set up their own branches or subsidiaries because of the large number of cheap labor available. However, the wealth generated mainly benefited the white minority, which was also reflected in the country’s education, training and wage policy for several decades. After a referendum (1960) and with the Republic of South Africa Constitution Act (Act No. 32 / 1961), the former South African Union was renamed the Republic of South Africa and the reference to the Commonwealth was transformed into a new concept of state. The Republic of South Africa introduced the metric system on 1 January 1970.

Apartheid was an important area of conflict during the second half of the 20th century. At the insistence of African and Asian member states, South Africa had to leave the Commonwealth of Nations (1961) and was only resumed in 1994. The growing resentment of the oppressed sections of the population reached a peak in June 1976, when security forces cracked down on a student demonstration during the Soweto uprising, killing 176 black students. In the 1980s, South Africa continued to come under international pressure: it was increasingly subject to political and economic sanctions in order to bring about a change in the areas of its racist domestic and foreign policy. The imposition of UN sanctions and an international divestment campaign were effective: from the mid-1980s, there was a flight of capital.

End of apartheid

In 1990, after a long period of resistance with strikes, protest marches, international activities, sabotage and also terrorist attacks by various anti-apartheid movements – the most famous being the African National Congress (ANC) – the now internationally isolated government of the National Party took a first step towards its own disempowerment when it lifted the ban on the ANC and other political organizations and Nelson Mandela – one of the best-known Resistance fighter – released from prison after 27 years.

The apartheid structures gradually disappeared from the legislature and as a result the first elections free for all residents on 27 April 1994 became possible. The ANC won an overwhelming election victory and has been the ruling party ever since. Nelson Mandela was elected South Africa’s first black president and, along with the last president of the National Party, Frederik Willem de Klerk, received the Nobel Peace Prize for her contributions to ending apartheid.

Mandela’s successor was Thabo Mbeki in 1999. Despite the original left-wing political concept, the ANC governments have always pursued aspects of liberal economic policies, which has contributed significantly to strong economic growth, but also to new disparities in the social fabric of the country. As a result, a small black, wealthy middle class emerged. Nevertheless, the situation of millions of non-white South Africans has not improved or improved only slightly compared to the past period of apartheid.

21st century

In the third free parliamentary election in South Africa in 2004, the ANC won from 66.4% to 69.7% of the vote. President Mbeki was re-elected by Parliament.

On 15 May 2004, South Africa was elected by FIFA delegates in Zurich as the first African country ever to host a World Cup. The tournament was held from June 11 to July 11, 2010.

In mid-May 2008, there were significant xenophobic attacks by black South Africans, especially against refugees from Zimbabwe and Somalia, especially in the townships. The lack of action by South African politicians against xenophobic violence in the past also contributed to the events of 2008.

On September 25, 2008, President Mbeki resigned after speculation that he had influenced the trial of his party rival Jacob Zuma. Kgalema Motlanthe was appointed interim president. The elections in the spring of 2009 were again won by the ANC. Jacob Zuma was subsequently elected president. On 7 May 2014, it was re-elected. The ANC again achieved an absolute majority with around 62% of the vote, but lost a few percentage points. Zuma was thus confirmed in his office. The Democratic Alliance became the second strongest party with around 22%, ahead of the newly formed Economic Freedom Fighters party.

In 2015, xenophobic attacks on African migrant workers, centered on the industrial region of Durban, occurred again. In the course of these riots, several thousand people were killed, looted and expelled. Moreover, in February 2018, under pressure from his own party, President Zuma resigned and was replaced by Cyril Ramaphosa (also ANC), who won the 2019 elections.

Politics

Name of the index	Index	Worldwide rank	Interpretation aid	Year
Fragile States Index	70.1 out of 120	85 of 178	Stability of the country: increased warning 0 = very sustainable / 120 = very alarming	2020
Democracy Index	▼7.05 out of 10	▼45 of 167	Incomplete democracy 0 = authoritarian regime / 10 = complete democracy	2020
Freedom in the World	79 of 100	—	Freedom status: free 0 = non-free / 100 = free	2020
Ranking of press freedom	▼21.59 out of 100	▲32 of 180	Satisfactory situation for freedom of the press 0 = good situation / 100 = very serious situation	2021
Corruption Perception Index (CPI)	▬44 of 100	▼69 of 180	0 = very corrupt / 100 = very clean	2020

Constitution and civil rights

After the 1994 elections, South Africa had a transitional constitution. A constituent assembly had to be convened, which drafted and adopted a new, permanent constitution by 9 May 1996. It was recognized by the South African Constitutional Court on 4 December 1996, signed by President Nelson Mandela on 10 December and has been in force since 3 February 1997. Since then, the constitution has been the supreme legal basis of the state.

The Constitution consists of a preamble, 14 chapters and seven annexes that lay down a specific sub-area, such as human rights or the separation of powers. The Bill of Rights of the new constitution guarantees citizens extensive rights, such as equality in court and protection against discrimination. Other human rights include the right to life, protection against slavery and forced labor, the protection of privacy and personal property, and the right to freedom and integrity. Other important points are freedom of speech, religion, assembly and association. The rights of prisoners and pre-trial detainees are also listed. The Constitution also provides for an independent and impartial judiciary.

Gender equality for the entire population has gradually taken place with the end of apartheid in the course of the transitional constitution up to the constitutional law of 1996. In February 1994, Cathi Albertyn of the Gender Research Project at the Centre for Applied Legal Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand described the situation according to which women had not yet been equal with the then existing constitution, but that women had to defend their rights themselves and demand equality within the framework of the constitution.

However, customary law, which gave the husband extensive decision-making power over his spouse’s affairs, had already been abolished by the General Law Fourth Amendment Act of December 1993. The guardianship right over joint children is now equally available to spouses under the Guardianship Act 1993 since January 1994 (entry into force).

Right

The Constitutional Court, based in Johannesburg, is the highest instance in constitutional matters, while the Supreme Court of Appeal of South Africa in Bloemfontein is the highest ordinary court. Most hearings are held at the local level in the local courts. The Constitution guarantees every citizen the right to a fair, public trial, a reasonable period of time to reach a verdict and the right to appeal.

Government and Parliament

Overview

South Africa has been an official republic since 1961. However, the first democratic elections did not take place until after the end of apartheid in April 1994. Until the early 1990s, life in South Africa was transformed by the internationally outlawed apartheid policy (Afrikaans Separation; Politics of separate development of white, black and colored populations). Between 1996 and 1998, the so-called Truth and Reconciliation Commission, chaired by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Bishop Desmond Tutu, tried to investigate and come to terms with politically motivated crimes committed during the apartheid era. The government’s official announcements are published in the Government Gazette.

Since the end of apartheid, South African politics has been significantly influenced by the former anti-apartheid movement African National Congress (ANC), which won around 57% of all votes and 230 of the 400 seats in the 2019 elections. The ANC, together with the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the trade union confederation COSATU, acts as the Tripartite Alliance.

The second strongest party and thus the most important opposition party is the Democratic Alliance (DA). The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) first made it to the National Assembly in 2014, receiving around 11% of the vote in 2019. Other deputies are provided by smaller parties. The current head of state and government Cyril Ramaphosa, like his predecessors Jacob Zuma, Kgalema Motlanthe, Thabo Mbeki and Nelson Mandela, is a member of the ANC. All ministers in the Ramaphosa II cabinet are provided by the Tripartite Alliance.

Legislature

The country’s legislature consists of a bicameral parliament based in Cape Town. Both chambers are housed in historic parliament buildings. The first chamber, the National Assembly, is elected by proportional representation, with half of the 400 members entering parliament via national lists and provincial lists. The second chamber is the National Council of Provinces.

A legislative period lasts five years in the two houses. The government is elected and formed by the National Assembly.

Since 1995, parliamentary work has been accompanied by the independent Parliamentary Monitoring Group (german such as the Parliamentary Monitoring Group). With its work, it promotes the public provision of correct and verifiable information.

To this representation, each of the nine provinces of South Africa, regardless of its size or population, sends ten members, six of whom are permanent (elected representatives from the provincial assemblies / Provincial Legislature) and four special delegates, always including the Prime Minister of the respective province and the members of the Provincial Legislature. delegates appointed on a rotating basis according to thematic criteria. The respective Prime Minister is the chairman of his provincial delegation.

According to the 1996 Constitution, the National Council of Provinces of the provinces replaces the former Senate (Senate in accordance with the Transitional Constitution of 1993), although the principle of sending delegates appointed by the provincial assemblies has not changed, but the composition of the members and the responsibilities of the new institution. Today, the provincial council has the task of representing the regional interests and concerns of the provinces primarily through elected representatives, which also includes the protection of cultural and linguistic traditions of minorities, and it is the field of action of the constitutional government concept co-operative government (meaning: a partnership between national, provincial and local leaders).

The Parliament of South Africa has its own library. In its collection, it holds around 120,000 printed products for members of parliament and staff on relevant topics and enables access to various electronic databases via SABINET, a nationwide networked application server. About 150 magazines and newspapers provide up-to-date information. There are also special collections with rare monographs, works of art, historical maps, manuscripts, photos and other collection objects. Known are the Mendelssohn Collection/Africana collection (photos), Jardine Collection (graphics) and Anglo-Boer War collection (photos, documents).

On May 21, 1930, white women were awarded the Women’s Enfranchisement Act, No. 41 of 1930. There were still barriers to ownership for white men, but not for women. Men and women of the Coloured and Indian population were added to the electorate in 1984, but they were only allowed to vote for their respective chambers in parliament and had a deliberately low influence on government policy according to the constitutional provisions.

The elections to the two chambers were very controversial and were rejected by most voters from these population groups (voter turnout: Coloureds 17.6%; Indians 8%). The right to vote was extended to black women and men in January 1994. It was not until 1994 that universal suffrage was practiced for both sexes and all ethnicities. The 1996 Constitution’s Bill of Rights enshrined the right to vote and stand as a candidate in section 21 – Political rights for all citizens, but as early as 1994 women and men exercised these rights.

Executive

Constitutionally, the President of the Republic of South Africa is both head of state and head of government. Since February 14, 2018, this is Cyril Ramaphosa. The President is usually elected every five years by the National Assembly and represented by a Vice-President who is also the Leader of Government Business.

Ministers are appointed and dismissed by the President as members of the Cabinet. The offices of the President and the Vice-President each have an independent office with a staff. In addition, three other principals are involved in the presidential administration: the ministers of the department’s Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation as well as Administration (target fulfillment, monitoring, evaluation and administration) and Women (women) as well as the Deputy Minister for Planning, Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation.

In the area of the presidential administration, there is the Cabinet Office, divided into the main department’s Cabinet Secretariate and Cabinet Operations, which coordinates the political work between the Presidency and the Cabinet. Another area called Policy Coordination and Advisory Services (PCAS), whose main task is to develop and implement state policy according to an integrative concept. This involves monitoring political debates on strategically important topics, such as poverty reduction, rural development and the restructuring of state assets. There are four chief directorates for this task, with the departments of Governance and Administration, International Relations, Peace and Security, Economic Cluster, Justice, Crime Prevention and Security. ) and Social Sector.

Foreign policy

Overview

South Africa was a founding member of the League of Nations and in 1927 began the establishment of diplomatic missions in the main Western European countries and the USA. The former German colony German South West Africa (now Namibia) became a League of Nations mandate area after the First World War and was placed under South African administration as South West Africa. The then South African forces fought on the side of the Allies during the two world wars.

After the end of the Second World War, South Africa was again one of the founding members of the United Nations and the then Prime Minister Jan Christiaan Smuts was very much involved in the drafting of the Charter of the United Nations. From 1950 to 1953, the South African Army took part in the Korean War as part of the UN troops. As a result of the intensified apartheid policy since 1948, however, the country fell into decades of foreign policy isolation.

The withdrawal from the Commonwealth of Nations in 1961 after a referendum in 1960 was followed by the UN arms embargo in 1977 as well as several UN resolutions and sanctions. The economy collapsed noticeably, investors withdrew from the country, refused to invest or stopped trading in South African companies. Athletes and sports teams were excluded from international events and tourism was boycotted. An extremely exacerbated domestic political crisis flanked the country’s international isolation. The then Prime Minister Pieter Willem Botha spoke of a totally onslaught in view of this situation and countered it in 1978 with his government program called Bothanomics.

The then South African armed forces were called up for various missions in Africa during the apartheid era. Among other things, troops were sent to the civil war in Angola, partly a proxy war between the USA and the Soviet Union. This happened despite diplomatic isolation from the American side. South Africa was a nuclear power until 1991 and had six domestically produced nuclear weapons and RSA-3 intercontinental ballistic missiles. The nuclear explosive devices built in the nuclear weapons facilities of Pelindaba were voluntarily destroyed before accession to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

As part of a new policy that began with the inauguration of President F. W. de Klerk in 1989 and that marked the end of apartheid, Namibia was able to declare independence in 1990, with the exception of the small exclave of Whale Bay, which was not handed over to Namibia until March 1994. After the first elections in April 1994, which were also accessible to non-whites, and the election of the first black president, Nelson Mandela, most of the sanctions imposed on the country by the international community were lifted. On 1 June 1994, the Republic of South Africa rejoined the Commonwealth and was readmitted to the UN General Assembly on 23 June of the same year. South Africa also joined the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which has been called the African Union since 2002.

After overcoming international isolation with the end of apartheid, the country has once again become a recognized partner. The most important foreign policy objectives today are the maintenance and development of good diplomatic relations, especially with neighboring countries and the members of the African Union.

South Africa is Africa’s only representative in the G-20 group and the BRICS countries. As early as 2007, the country was invited to the G-8 negotiations in Heiligendamm alongside China, India, Brazil and Mexico. There is also “enhanced cooperation with the OECD with a view to possible membership”. The country is regarded as an advocate of the African continent and the developing and emerging countries as well as a new world economic order. However, it also faces the accusation of wanting to establish a hegemonic position of power in Africa.

Foreign representation of South Africa

The country maintains diplomatic and consular relations with many countries in the world in 2014. For this purpose, 104 embassies or high commissions, 15 consulates general and 84 honorary consulates, honorary consulates general, consular agencies or vice consulates are operated. South Africa has official representations to nine international organizations.

Public administration

General

The Republic of South Africa is divided into three administrative levels on the basis of its 1996 Constitution. At the top is the state administration with the president, the national government led by him and its subordinate administrative bodies.

The level below the government is formed by the nine provinces (Section 103 of the South African Constitution), each with a Prime Minister (Section 127 of the South African Constitution) who heads the Executive Council (Cabinet, Section 132 of the South African Constitution). Public scrutiny is exercised by a freely elected parliamentary body, the provincial legislature (Section 104 of the South African Constitution). The representation of the provinces at the national level is carried out by the National Council of Provinces, which, in conjunction with the National Assembly, represents the bicameral system of South Africa.

The South African provinces consist of a total of eight metropolitan municipalities and 44 district municipalities, which, together with their subdivisions, the local municipalities, constitute the level of local government under Section 151 of the Constitution. For the public control of these administrations, municipal councils (Municipal Councils, Section 157 of the South African Constitution) consist of freely elected members.

The districts are made up of a total of 205 local municipalities (as of 2016). Until 2011, in addition to these administrative units, there were 20 district management areas run by their respective district administrations.

Civil service

The development and maintenance of the civil service is the responsibility of a separate ministry, which operates on the basis of the Public Service Act of 1994 (Proclamation 103 of 3 June 1994 in Government Gazette No. 15791) and its amending act (Act No. 30 / 2007) as well as other legislation. For senior civil servants in South Africa, this ministry operates a specific educational institution.

This is the Public Administration Leadership and Management Academy (PALAMA), whose tasks include the training of heads of authorities and senior staff at middle levels. The Ministry also deals with development tasks in some African countries in its field of expertise. These include the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, and South Sudan. In order to promote the principle of good governance, South Africa is involved in the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) program sector.

According to government information, the civil service, including members of the armed forces, consisted of about 1.28 million employees at the end of October 2011. Among them were 391,922 people in the service of the national level and 891,430 people in the provincial administrations.

Provinces

With the end of apartheid in 1994, the former independent and quasi-self-governing homelands had to be reintegrated into the political structure of South Africa. This led to the dissolution of the previous four provinces (Cape Province, Natal, Orange Free State and Transvaal), which were replaced by nine differently structured provinces and which now cover the entire territory of South Africa. The provinces are divided into a total of 44 districts. The provinces of South Africa are:

No.	Province	Former provinces and homelands	Capital	Area (km²)	Population (Oct. 1994)	Population (2011)	Population (2017)	Population (June 2020)
1	Western Cape	Cape Province	Cape Town	129.462	3.676.335	5.822.734	6.510.312	7.005.741
2	Northern Cape	Cape Province	Kimberley	372.889	739.450	1.145.861	1.213.996	1.292.786
3	Eastern Cape	KapprovinzTranskei, Ciskei	Bhisho	168.966	6.416.965	6.562.053	6.498.683	6.734.001
4	KwaZulu-Natal	NatalKwaZulu, Transkei	Pietermaritzburg	94.361	8.577.799	10.267.300	11.074.784	11.531.628
5	Free State	Orange Free StateBophuthatswana, QwaQwa	Bloemfontein	129.825	2.749.583	2.745.590	2.866.678	2.928.903
6	Northwest(North West)	Transvaal, Cape ProvinceBophuthatswana	Mahikeng	104.882	3.315674	3.509.953	3.856.174	4.108.816
7	Gauteng	Transvaal	Johannesburg	18.178	6.946.953	12.272.263	14.278.669	15.488.137
8	Mpumalanga	TransvaalKwaNdebele, KaNgwane,Bophuthatswana, Lebowa	Mbombela	76.495	2.953.232	4.039.939	4.444.212	4.679.786
9	Limpopo River	TransvaalVenda, Lebowa, Gazankulu	Polokwane	125.754	5.272.583	5.404.868	5.778.442	5.852.553

Cities and municipalities

In the great municipal reform of 2000, many South African cities were united with their surrounding communities and townships. Some of these newly created metropolitan municipalities were renamed in this context, with the new names mostly having meanings derived from Bantu languages and thus representing the new South Africa.

Here is an overview of the metropolitan municipalities:

Rank	Municipality	Largest city	Area (km²)	Population (2011)	Province
1	City of Johannesburg	Johannesburg	1644	4.434.827	Gauteng
2	City of Cape Town	Cape Town	2499	3.740.026	Western Cape
3	eThekwini	Durban	2292	3.442.361	KwaZulu-Natal
4	City of Ekurhuleni	Germiston	1924	3.178.470	Gauteng
5	City of Tshwane	Pretoria	2198	2.921.488	Gauteng
6	Nelson Mandela Bay	Port Elizabeth	1952	1.152.115	Eastern Cape
7	Buffalo City	East London	2528	755.200	Eastern Cape
8	Mangaung	Bloemfontein	6284	747.431	Free state

Military

South Africa has its own army, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF). This volunteer army consists of about 74,500 professional soldiers (as of 2019) and is divided into the sub-forces Army (South African Army), Air Force (South African Air Force), Navy (South African Navy) and Medical Service (South African Military Health Service ).

Universal conscription was abolished in 1994. The Commander of the Armed Forces (since 2011 General Solly Shoke) is appointed by the President and reports to the Minister of Defense (currently Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula). The SANDF was reorganized in 1994 from various military groups and organizations in the country. South Africa spent just under 1 percent of its economic output, or $3.6 billion, on its armed forces in 2017.

Since the end of apartheid, the South African army has mainly carried out peacekeeping missions in Africa (such as in Lesotho). South Africa also provides a significant number of peacekeepers for UN peacekeeping missions. In 2008, 1158 soldiers were deployed for the UN peacekeeping mission MONUC in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and 604 soldiers for UNAMID in Darfur, Sudan.

The Armaments Corporation of South Africa (ARMSCOR) is responsible for the state procurement of arms for the armed forces and police of South Africa, which also maintains a liaison office with the European Union in the South African representation.

South Africa Economy

Economic history

In today’s South Africa, subsistence farming dominated for a long time. From 1652, the first white settlers set up a supply station in Cape Town for ship crews for whom food had to be grown. Agriculture dominated until the first diamonds were discovered on the banks of the Orange River in 1867. Especially in Kimberley diamonds were subsequently mined. The first gold discoveries in the eastern Transvaal attracted many gold diggers.

In 1886, gold was first found in the Witwatersrand, which was followed by a gold rush at the end of the century, which led to the emergence of large cities such as Johannesburg. As a result, the Second Boer War took place, in which the British gained sovereignty over the area. Further mineral resources were found in rapid succession. During apartheid, the high profits mainly benefited the white population. Black miners usually had to do risky, poorly paid work. Often they were migrant workers – in 1977, more than 128,000 miners from Lesotho worked in the South African mines. In the years after 1980, many jobs were lost, especially in the mining industry.

Economic policy

Budget

The state budget in 2016 included expenditures of the equivalent of 86.5 billion US dollars, compared to revenues of the equivalent of 76.6 billion US dollars. This results in a budget deficit of 3.5% of GDP.The national debt in 2016 was $129.7 billion, or 43.4% of GDP.

Share of government expenditure in 2006 (as % of GDP) in various sectors:

• Health: 8.0 %
• Education: 5.4%
• Military: 1.7%

International agreements

A double taxation agreement with Germany has been in force since 1975, and since 2008 there has been a text for a new agreement, which has not yet entered into force.

Since 21 September 2010, South Africa has been an official member of the BRIC community, which has thus been expanded into the BRICS community.

Economic structure

Key economic figures

The main economic indicators of gross domestic product, inflation, the budget balance and foreign trade developed as follows:

Year	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
Change in % on previous year	3,7	3,0	4,6	4,9	5,6	5,4	3,2	−1.5	3,0	3,2	2,4	2,5	1,5	1,3	0,7	1,2	1,5	0,1	−6.4	4,9

Year	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021
GDP in absolute terms (in billion US$)	434	401	381	347	323	381	405	388	335	420
GDP per inhabitant (in thousand US$)	8,2	7,5	7,0	6,3	5,8	6,7	7,0	6,6	5,7	7,0

Year	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2021
Inflation rate	6,1	4,6	6,3	5,2	4,5	4,1	3,2	4,6	−6.4

Year	2021	2022	2023
Balance	-6,4	-5,8*	-6,1*

*=Prognosis

	billion US$ (2018)	% vs. prev. yr. (2018)	billion US$ (2019)	% vs. prev. yr. (2019)	billion US$ (2020)	% vs. prev. yr. (2020)
Import	92,6	+11,5	88,0	-5,0	68,9	-21,7
Export	93,7	+6,2	89,4	-4,6	85,2	-4,7
Balance	+1,0		+1,4		+16,3

People’s Republic of China	11,5
United States	8,4
Germany	7,5
United Kingdom	5,0
Japan	4,5
Netherlands	3,9
Botswana	3,8
other countries	55,4

People’s Republic of China	20,8
Germany	9,1
United States	6,4
India	5,2
Saudi Arabia	3,9
Nigeria	3,1
Thailand	3,1
other countries	48,4

Gross domestic product

With a gross domestic product of over 351 billion US dollars in 2019, South Africa is the second largest economy in Africa after Nigeria and belongs to the G8+5. GDP per capita is $5067 per capita, placing it at rank 6th in Africa (as of 2019).In the Global Competitiveness Index, which measures a country’s competitiveness, South Africa ranked 61st out of 137 countries (as of 2017–18).In the Economic Freedom Index, South Africa ranked 81st out of 180 countries in 2017.

South Africa dominates the economy of southern Africa and has formed the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) together with Eswatini, Namibia, Lesotho and Botswana since 1910. South Africa is also a member of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union’s New Partnership for Africa Development (NEPAD) development program.

The contribution of the various economic sectors to gross domestic product is 66% in the service sector and 31% in industry. South Africa has a well-developed financial and legal system and a generally well-developed infrastructure (communications, energy and transport). In the period 2005-2007, South Africa grew by 5% annually, and in 2012 growth slowed to an estimated 2.6%. The growth rate of the economy had slowed in the 2010s. Public debt stood at 43.3% of GDP in 2012. With the state-owned industrial development corporation, the country has an experienced influence in the field of industrial and infrastructure development that has grown over decades.

Inflation

In 2012, the inflation rate was five to six percent, the unemployment rate in 2017 was officially 27% and youth unemployment was almost 50%. In addition, only 13.6 million South Africans are employed, and around 13 million are welfare recipients. The Gini coefficients as a measure of the imbalance in income and consumption are among the highest in the world.

Labor market

The economic disadvantage of the non-white population could not be fundamentally eliminated after the end of apartheid. Between 1994 and 2004, black unemployment rose from 36% to 47%. Their average income even fell by 19% in real terms, while that of whites rose by 15%. The poverty rate also increased. However, the proportion of black managers in listed companies rose from 0% to 20%.

In order to end the economic disadvantage of the black population, the ANC-led government is trying to fill more positions in the administration and the large industrial groups with black applicants as part of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Program. Representatives of the white population criticize this South African variant of affirmative action that the performance is no longer in the foreground. Many professionals, especially doctors and engineers, are responding by emigrating, especially to Australia, Canada and the United States.

South African Stock Exchange and Financial Services

The most important stock exchange in South Africa is the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. It is also the largest stock exchange in Africa and is one of the twenty largest in the world. The largest companies in the country’s financial services sector include Absa Bank, FirstRand, Nedbank, Sanlam and Standard Bank Group, among others. The service sector as a whole is the strongest factor in the South African economy.

Agriculture

Although only 2.4 percent of South Africa’s gross domestic product comes from agriculture, this sector is responsible for around 5% (2020) of South Africa’s jobs, but this share has been steadily declining since 2016. Mainly cereals (mainly corn and wheat), sugar cane, fruit and vegetables, meat and wine are produced. Regions with intensive agriculture can be found in the climatically favored areas of the country, namely in the region around Cape Town with a humid and temperate climate, where mainly vegetables and fruits such as apples or grapes for wine are grown, and on the coast to the Indian Ocean, here many exotic fruits but also sugar cane are grown due to the tropical climate.

Furthermore, in the Highveld, a high plateau in the interior, you will find mainly grain cultivation, which finds much better climatic conditions here than elsewhere inland due to the altitude. As one of the areas with the most demanding climate in South Africa, the Kalahari Desert and other desert regions on the northern border of South Africa can only be used to raise livestock, e.g. to produce mohair.

In the other regions, agriculture for self-sufficiency dominates, as no economically profitable agriculture is possible outside the above-mentioned areas. However, on the basis of extensive irrigation systems, other areas were developed for agriculture in the 20th century, such as Vaalharts Water. These early investments have resulted in agriculture accounting for 60% of South Africa’s water needs, as the systems are often outdated and inefficient. A problem for a country marked by water scarcity like South Africa.

Viticulture in South Africa is internationally at the forefront and became popular by French Huguenots who fled to South Africa via Holland due to persecution during the French Revolution. However, the first vines were planted by the Dutch founder of Cape Town Jan van Riebeeck in 1656. Its successor also built the first winery in South Africa in 1679. Today, a total of 425 estates produce almost 4000 different wines.

The well-known wine-growing regions around Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, Paarl and Somerset West form the focus of this agricultural sector in the province of Western Cape. More than 300 wineries are located in this area alone. Since 1994, South Africa’s wine exports have increased from 51 million to 420 million liters in 2018. The greater part of the total production volume of 960.2 million liters (as of 2018) is consumed or further processed in the country itself.

About 163.9 million liters were exported in the same year as bottled wines. The wine has also been exported to Germany since the 1980s, after the lifting of trade restrictions due to the apartheid policy (see Viticulture in South Africa). The prices start in this country at about 5 € per liter. Of course, an upper limit cannot be named here, as the wine-growing region is now very renowned and is also becoming increasingly popular with wine connoisseurs due to high-quality wines, so a kind of wine tourism has now established itself, to which the estates react with high-quality guest houses and hotels.

They not only benefit from an additional source of income, but also from the direct marketing of their products. Overall, viticulture in South Africa thus directly but also indirectly creates 300,000 jobs nationwide. South Africa also exports high-proof alcoholic beverages on a larger scale, including spirits such as liqueurs. A special feature here is the marula fruit, a fruit of the elephant tree native to South Africa, whose distillate in form of a cream liqueur is also widely distributed in Germany, as one of the few South African branded products, namely as an Amarula liqueur.

South Africa’s agriculture produces a wide range of plant-based products, which are fruits, vegetables and teas. The fruits in particular not only serve to supply the domestic market, but are also among the high-yielding export goods. Among them are citrus fruits, such as oranges, clementines, tangerines, grapefruit, satsumas and lemons. Other fruits are also part of the agricultural export volume, which includes deliveries from Eswatini’s plantations. The main products are apples, pineapples, apricots, avocados, bananas, pears, strawberries, persimmons, cherries, kiwis, litchis, mangoes, melons, nectarines, peaches, plums and grapes. Important export customers in this field are China, the European Union, Iran, Japan, South Korea and the United States.

A big advantage in marketing is the reverse annual cycle of the southern hemisphere, where South Africa is located, so that the fruits have no consistency at their harvest time on the domestic markets of the importing countries in the northern hemisphere. Overall, South Africa exports twice as many agricultural products as it imports (by value), so it is theoretically independent of food imports, a rarity for a country in Africa with a large population, but many imports are due to products that cannot be grown in Africa, such as rice.

Several higher education institutions in this sector contribute to the recruitment and development of the South African agricultural economy.

South Africa Industry

Industrial products, both in the primary sector and in the secondary sector, account for a large part of South Africa’s export earnings.

Mining

The country is very rich in mineral resources, the extraction of which is responsible for 40 to 50 percent of South Africa’s export earnings. The country has the world’s largest production volumes of chromium (44% of world production), platinum (47%), manganese and vanadium (57%). It also has large deposits of gold (21%), diamonds (9%), coal (6%), iron ore, nickel, titanium, antimony and palladium.

Mining is dominated by a few corporations that are among the largest in the world, such as Anglo-American, Glencore, ARMgold, AngloGold Ashanti and Implats. The Lonmin Group, which controls platinum mining, and the diamond producer De Beers are wholly or partly owned by Anglo American.

However, the competitiveness of South African mining is weakened by frequent strikes due to low wages and poor working conditions. One of the more recent major events of this kind is the strike of 2012. Working in the mines is risky. Between 1984 and 2005, over 11,100 miners died in South Africa. The number of persons employed in gold and hard coal mining fell by around 200,000 between 1987 and 1996, and in 1997 560,000 people were employed in mining.

For the export of mineral raw materials and metallurgical products as bulk goods, the ports of Saldanha, Richards Bay and Ngqura are of great economic importance. They are managed and operated by the state transport group Transnet.

Energy supply and chemical industry

The Eskom group is largely responsible for the energy supply, which is the seventh largest electricity producer in the world in terms of production. Around 91% of the energy in 2009 was generated from fossil fuels, mostly in coal-fired power plants. In addition, South Africa relies to a small extent on nuclear energy, but increasingly on renewable energies such as hydropower plants, solar energy plants and wind turbines. A government program to promote renewable energies has been in place since 2011. Natural gas is extracted off the coast of Mossel Bay.

Since South Africa has hardly any oil, large coal liquefaction plants were built in Sasolburg and Secunda during the apartheid era, with which fuels and raw materials for the chemical industry are produced.

Renewable energies, especially wind energy and solar energy, are to be greatly expanded and are intensively subsidized by state tenders. By 2030, the output of renewable energies is expected to increase to around 18 GW or 42% of total output; support measures have been set up for this purpose. The producers of renewable energy have joined forces to form an industry association, the South African Renewable Energy Council.

Other industries

Of importance are the production of motor vehicles, their supplier industry as well as the textile industry and the telecommunications industry. The arms industry was greatly expanded at the time of apartheid because the import of armaments from other countries was made very difficult by embargoes, and is still operated by the companies Denel and ARMSCOR, for example.

Services

Media Structure

Since the end of apartheid, South Africa has had an extensive, free and very active media landscape. The country’s many different television, radio and print media, which broadcast and publish in the various official languages, illustrate the cultural diversity of the inhabitants. However, English has established itself as the most widely used language in the media in recent years, followed by Afrikaans.

Freedom of the press and diversity of the press

Freedom of the press has not always been guaranteed in South Africa. At the beginning of the 1980s, the Steyn Commission drew up proposals for political influence on the media and the necessary legislative steps. Because several South African media openly criticized the apartheid system, they were increasingly restricted by state censorship until the early 1990s. After the end of the white minority policy, censorship was abolished and a new, liberal, non-discriminatory constitution with a bill of rights was enacted. This also included the civil right to freedom of expression, the freedom of the press and media, as well as the right to artistic freedom and scientific research. In 2016, the country ranked 39th out of 180 countries on the Global Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders.

Despite all this progress, there is still criticism of some aspects of press freedom. Almost all major daily newspapers are published by only four major media companies, which could lead to one-sided reporting in the future. In addition, it is criticized that the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), the state radio and television station, reports too pro-government or ANC,” as the majority of the station’s senior employees are members of or influenced by the ANC. Also problematic are newly enacted laws according to which the reporting of the South African media, especially that of the newspapers, can be regulated.

Radio

Broadcasting in South Africa has long been the mass medium with the greatest distribution. The liberalization of this sector in 1996 led to a sharp increase in the number of broadcasting stations. In 2005, for example, Johannesburg had more than 40 different radio stations. The operation of radio stations is far less regulated by the state than the television sector.

In South Africa, there are both radio stations with a regional broadcasting area and national radio programs. In terms of financing, different models are available: from the SABC’s state radio stations to private broadcasters that are fully financed by advertising and target a specific city, district or section of the population. The majority of the stations broadcast in English, with the other official languages of the country also being taken into account in the program broadcast.

Newspapers

The history of the newspaper in South Africa begins in 1800, when the then governor of the Cape Colony initiated the Cape Town Gazette and the African Advertiser. The first private newspaper, the SA Commercial Advertiser, was published from 1824 onwards. The first Dutch-language newspaper De Zuid Afrikaan was published in 1830, the first newspaper in an African language, Umshumayeli Wendaba in 1837 and the first newspaper in Afrikaans, The Afrikaanse Patriot, in 1876.

According to a report by the South African Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC), there are 36 daily and weekly newspapers in the cities, 29 in English, four in Afrikaans, two in Zulu and one in Xhosa. The dichotomy between the population structure and the languages of the published newspapers can be explained by the different literacy rates, the widespread use of English or even the previous state censorship, which slowed down the development of a mixed newspaper culture.

Furthermore, there is a very large number of free (ad-financed) local newspapers in different languages. Every day, about 1.3 million newspapers are sold throughout the country. In contrast to many other countries, there are very few national daily newspapers, this function is largely reserved for Sunday newspapers.

Some newspapers are not yet owned by major media companies, but the majority is owned by the country’s four major corporations, Johnnic Publishing, Nasionale Pers, Independent News and Media and CTP/Caxton.

Television

Although South Africa is the most developed country on the African continent, the country was one of the last to introduce television. The reasons for this were the ideological ideas of the white minority government, which saw television as a threat to state control of the media. It was also seen as a threat to Afrikaans and the Dutch-born population, who feared unfair competition against the Afrikaans press.

In 1971, the state-run South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), which until then had a de facto monopoly over radio, was allowed to broadcast a television program. The test broadcasts began in 1975 in the big cities, the nationwide broadcast began in 1976. Initially, South African television was fully fee-financed, which changed with the introduction of television advertising in 1978.

Television is still the most regulated media sector in South Africa today and is regulated (like radio) by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA). Broadcasting rights, especially for television, are only granted by this institution. To date, only two private television stations have been granted permission to broadcast programs. The broadcasting licenses contain specifications for the design of the program, such as the educational share, which must be strictly adhered to by the broadcasters.

In 2005, there were only four free-to-air television channels in South Africa, channels 1, 2 and 3 of the SABC and the channel e.tv. The only providers of paid programs and satellite television are Multichoice with the terrestrial pay-TV channel M-Net and DStv, the digital satellite television with about 50 national and international channels, as well as Star Sat, which acquired Top TV in 2013. Commercial television in South Africa now has several hundred thousand subscribers.

Libraries

Librarianship in South Africa began in the second half of the 18th century, when the first mission libraries were established. From 1928 onwards, modern librarianship slowly emerged, although there are still large differences between rich and poor or within different regions. Each province has its own library authority. Most individual libraries are concentrated in the greater Johannesburg and Cape Town areas.

Tourism

Tourism has developed into an important economic factor since the end of the 20th century. Important sights of South Africa include:

• Amathole Mountains
• Cradle of humanity with the excavation sites of Sterkfontein and Kromdraai, UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1999
• Drakensberg
• Durban with surrounding sandy beaches
• Garden Route
• Cape Town with Table Mountain and Cape Peninsula
• Wine region around Stellenbosch, Franschhoek and Paarl
• Kruger National Park and other national parks
• Namaqualand
• Sun City (mainly domestic tourism)
• Wild Coast
• Witwatersrand with Johannesburg

In 2002, more than six million tourists visited the country, in 2005 the share of tourism in the gross domestic product was estimated at more than seven percent. About three percent of working South Africans work in the tourism industry, for which further growth rates are forecast.

Transport infrastructure

Quality

In the Logistics Performance Index, which is compiled by the World Bank and measures the quality of infrastructure, South Africa ranked 33rd out of 160 countries in 2018. The country thus has the best infrastructure on the African continent.

Road traffic

Road traffic structure

In South Africa, there is left-hand traffic. The country has a well-developed road network.

Bicycle traffic

For many South Africans, the bicycle is a common means of transport. Especially in rural areas, bicycles are often the only affordable private means of transport for the poorer population.

In the cities there are rather few hobby and sports cyclists, there are hardly any cycle paths.

In view of the sometimes long distances, the topography and the climatic conditions, cyclists are nevertheless quite rare in the streetscape. Furthermore, it is dangerous to cycle on urban roads in South Africa, and the number of fatal accidents involving cyclists is increasing significantly.

The Argus Tour, which takes place in March on a 105 km long route on the Cape Peninsula, is considered one of the world’s largest one-day bike tours with 35,000 participants.

Motor vehicle traffic

There are motorways in and partly between the big cities. The longest motorway is National Route 3 (N3) between Johannesburg and Durban, with a length of 578 km. The entire road network in 2014 covered about 747,014 km, of which 158,952 km are paved.

There are speed limits on all public roads in South Africa. These are 120 km/h on motorways, 100 km/h on country roads and 60 km/h within the villages. Large sections of the motorways are now subject to tolls and are subject to tolls depending on the size of the vehicle. One of the largest recent infrastructure projects is the Maputo Development Corridor, which provides efficient transport links in the form of the N4 and N12 from the industrial conurbations around Pretoria and Johannesburg, as well as the Pretoria–Maputo railway line across the South African-Mozambican border to the Maputo conurbation with its modernized port facilities for freight and passenger transport.

Public transport

Since the public transport system is less well developed in many regions, commuters there are dependent on shared taxis, buses or private transport. This significantly increases the volume of traffic on the roads and leads to overcrowded motorways and traffic jams in the conurbations during rush hours.

Supra-regional bus transport

International bus connections are provided by the Intercape Mainliner lines from Windhoek to Cape Town and Translux from Harare via Bulawayo to Johannesburg. Translux, like the Greyhound Coach Lines, the Baz buses and Intercape, also operates within South Africa. The stops are often flexible.

Rail transport

The South African rail network is mainly operated by Transnet Freight Rail. It has a length of around 24,000 kilometers, on which mainly freight trains run. The Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) is mainly responsible for handling the passenger traffic that also runs on it.

The Blue Train and Pride of Africa luxury trains are among the best-known of their kind. In the upper class, there are still Premier Classe trains from the PRASA Luxrail area. In addition, there are other long-distance trains of different standards than Shosholoza Meyl. There are also regular passenger train connections between the larger cities, but also on some branch lines. They run up to once a day. The cruising speeds are relatively low due to the use of the Cape Gauge on most routes, among other things.

In the metropolitan areas of the cities of Johannesburg/Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth/East London, S-Bahn-like Metrorail trains run, which belong to the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa.

The Gautrain is a public transport system in the Johannesburg/Pretoria conurbation. It has been operating since 2010.

In Johannesburg, the City Deep Container Terminal takes in a significant proportion of container freight from the industrial conurbation of Gauteng, which mainly reaches the seaports by rail. This is where 30 percent of South Africa’s export volume is handled.

Air traffic

The two largest and most important airports in the country are in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Another is located in Durban. South African State Airline South African Airways (SAA) provides international connections to and from these airports. Other major international airlines such as British Airways, KLM, Lufthansa/Swiss, Iberia and Air France also fly daily to Johannesburg or Cape Town. For domestic flights in South Africa or flights to neighboring African countries, there are many offers from SAA, Comair, Nationwide, Kulula.com, 1time and Air Namibia. Furthermore, the much smaller airports in Port Elizabeth, East London, George, Lanseria, Bloemfontein, Kimberley and Upington are also served.

Problems of South Africa

Despite the upward trend in South Africa since the 1994 elections, there are still very large social disparities. Thus, even after the end of apartheid, blacks are usually still paid far less than whites. Large parts of the population live in townships on the outskirts of many cities. These are residential areas in which, despite positive development, the standard of living is still very low today.

While the country’s wealthy inhabitants, still predominantly white, but now increasingly black, live in gated communities, sometimes surrounded by fences and security personnel, the majority of the poor, mainly blacks and coloreds, live in the townships and simple rural settlements. At the same time, this population group finds it difficult to connect with the training and further education opportunities of the South African state. A direct impact of these conditions is the enormously high crime rate in some underdeveloped regions. Immunodeficiency disease AIDS continues to play a central political role in the state planning and implementation of medical and socio-economic projects in South Africa.

Former homelands and townships

Townships served before and during apartheid in South Africa as residential areas near large cities or industrial settlements for the black, colored or Indian populations. They can take on the dimensions of a medium-sized city. Well-known examples are Soweto (South Western Townships), today a district of Johannesburg in the province of Gauteng in the northeastern part of the country, or Cato Manor on the outskirts of the city of Durban.

During apartheid, homelands were referred to as the residential areas assigned to the black population in South Africa and the then South West Africa, which were predominantly based on the former reserves and had already received a legislative basis in 1913 with the Natives Land Act (Act No. 27). In the political understanding of the Bantu administration at the time, they were pejoratively called Bantustans. With homeland politics, the racial segregation of apartheid found its demographic and territorial basis according to the declared principle of “separate development”.

A large part of the black majority population was thus disintegrated in South Africa, not least to prevent a unitary state dominated by blacks. Within the framework of a multi-year process with partial legislative steps, the homelands were intended as formally independent states whose inhabitants were to be granted (sham) independence, but they were not even involved in this development. For four of these territories, the South African government took this step. However, they were almost entirely dependent on South Africa economically, financially and militarily. In fact, they were de facto merely self-governing territories separated from the rest of the national territory. The Transkei was first declared independent in 1976, followed a year later by Bophuthatswana, Venda in 1979 and Ciskei in 1981.

In the context of South Africa’s industrial policy, the homelands played a prominent role, as they represented a significant reservoir of low-paid and predominantly unskilled workers. Initially with domestic, later also with foreign investments and with the help of the state development bank Industrial Development Corporation, the apartheid government created a so-called border industry, a deliberately planned industrial concentration on the borders of the homeland areas. Political control was the responsibility of the government’s Permanent Committee for the Location of Industry and the Development of Border Areas.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, vocational qualification measures were also started here in order to maintain the efficiency of the companies. With the increasing international isolation of the country as a result of its policy of repression against the non-European population, the economic effects of this industrial policy did not materialize to the extent hoped for by the government.

After the end of the apartheid regime, the homelands were integrated into the nine new and structurally changed provinces of the Republic of South Africa.

South Africa is still struggling with the socio-economic and infrastructural effects of this separate development. The areas of the former homelands are the least developed, have partially very large population densities and have the lowest per capita income. For example, the Eastern Cape province, into which the largest and most populous homelands Transkei and Ciskei have been integrated, is the poorest and economically weakest province. Due to the low standard of living in the former homelands and most townships, the risk of disease is also higher and life expectancy is lower.

Rural population and landless

About 40 percent of South Africa’s population lives outside the cities and industrial conurbations. The conditions of existence of the black portion of this rural population are predominantly poor to precarious. About 12 million people live in the regions that do not belong to the technically highly developed agricultural zones.

Their long-term perspectives seem to be largely ignored under the current policy priorities, because these rural areas are regarded within the South African government’s land policy as marginal relics of regional planning from an apartheid point of view and receive little attention. For a large part of the population affected by this, welfare state transfer payments are the only form of their regular income. Because most of the government’s strategic objectives are concerned with improving living and infrastructure conditions in urban areas, the problems arising from rural living conditions are clearly underrepresented in the political process.

The unsatisfactory results of a hoped-for and politically intended land reform in South Africa after 1994, including, for example, restitution and financial compensation in response to the redistributive measures under the Native Land Act of 1913, as well as an increasingly widespread practice of employing black farm workers only seasonally and the subsequent expulsion of unemployed persons from farmland (farm dweller), created a worsening situation among the affected population group. The investor-friendly ANC government contributed significantly to this situation with its 1996 Growth, Employment and Redistribution Plan (GEAR) program.

This program was developed together with experts from the World Bank, the South African Reserve Bank and the Development Bank of Southern Africa. Its objectives include measures to make the labor market more flexible, to dismantle import and export duties, to free up the flow of capital, to reduce tax incentives for investment and to reduce government borrowing. Possible land reform programs were only marginally mentioned in this political concept. Thus, government policy favored a primacy of the market, even before its own state perspectives for action. Under the leadership of the then Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel, the GEAR program was prepared without public participation.

A determined political reaction from those affected to the negative effects of this policy did not take place until after the year 2000. Only 2.3 percent of South Africa’s agriculturally significant land area was transferred between 1994 and 2000 in favor of harmonizing land ownership structures, with only a small part of it going to new black owners. The number of people with income and homeless people in rural areas has risen steadily.

In Durban in 2001, representatives of South African landless initiatives met to discuss the problems that had grown as a result. The participants agreed on the establishment of an umbrella organization, which they called the Landless People’s Movement (LPM). Initially, this organization succeeded in a political mobilization among the landless. For example, this happened in 2002, when, parallel to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, about 5,000 representatives of the landless movement met at Soweto and expressed their criticism of the neoliberal tendencies of the WSSD in a final demonstration with 25,000 participants.

The LPM’s positions critical of the ANC and thus the government were also taken up by the trade union federation COSATU and the SACP, but the South African government was not prepared to change course. As a result, the regional structures of the LPM disintegrated again in large parts of the country. One reason for this development was that, despite the occasional new acquisition of land ownership, no sustainable level of existence could be achieved from it. With the help of two non-governmental organizations, some landless initiatives in the provinces of the Western Cape and Eastern Cape have been preserved.

In February 2018, the National Assembly decided to set up a commission to prepare the constitutional amendment necessary for the expropriation of land without compensation. Both as ANC president and president, Ramaphosa, after prior consultations with traditional leaders of various groups, spoke out in favor of the need for land reform which, according to the underlying view, would compensate for expropriations (for example, under the Native Land Act and the Group Areas Act) during the colonial and apartheid periods and increase food production for domestic needs.

He sees this as an opportunity for young people to find a professional future in the agricultural sector and defends land reform as a necessary “agricultural revolution”.Opposition to this project came, among other voices, from the largest opposition faction in the National Assembly, DA Chairman Mmusi Maimane, who called on Ramaphosa to protect current property rights. However, critical voices from South Africa saw Ramaphosa’s move as the programmatic prelude to the 2019 general election, where the ANC wanted to defend its government position.

Bless you

One of South Africa’s biggest health problems is AIDS. According to ESTIMATES by UNAIDS from 2014, 6.5 to 7.5 million inhabitants are infected with the HIV virus, in the population group of 15 to 49-year-olds about 19% are affected. This development and the further spread of the disease had at times dramatic demographic consequences for the country: Life expectancy fell from just under 65 years to 52 years from 1990 to 2005, but rose again to 61 years by 2014.

According to UNAIDS, the causes of the spread of HIV/AIDS are due to the early sexual activity of adolescents (the average age at first sexual intercourse is 16.4 years for men and 17 years for women) in connection with poor or lack of prevention education. Among 15- to 19-year-olds, 4.8% are infected, among 20- to 24-year-olds already 16.5% (as of 2014). Sexual violence also plays a major role in South Africa: about 28% of women say they have been pressured into sexual intercourse at least once against their will.

In 2005, around 364,000 people died in South Africa in connection with AIDS, and in 2014 the number fell to around 172,000. According to many scientists, former President Thabo Mbeki, an AIDS denier, is partly to blame for the spread of AIDS in the 2000s. Mbeki repeatedly denied the link between HIV and AIDS, as well as the fact that AIDS is a disease at all. In 2016, the Ministry of Health announced that all South African HIV-infected people should be treated free of charge.

Also, in 2018, the infant mortality rate in South Africa was estimated at 33.8 per 1000 births, almost halving the figure of 64.8 in 2008. In 2013, health expenditure amounted to 8.9% of GDP.

Tuberculosis diseases (TB) are another disease that is partly associated with the HIV problem and is growing. In 2013, there were around 450,000 cases of TB, of which 270,000 people were HIV-positive.In 2012, the South African government launched a three-year medical program with the initial goal of reducing TB deaths by 50% by 2015. In 2013, the cure rate was 77%, below the WHO mark of 85%.

The country’s water supply, on the other hand, is almost at the level of the industrialized countries: According to the WHO and UNICEF, more than 90% of South Africans have access to clean drinking water, a human right demanded by the UN since 2010. In neighboring Mozambique, less than half of the population has access to drinking water.

Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University was established in 2014 to strengthen and streamline the country’s higher medical education. It emerged from a predecessor institution. Their training hospital is the second largest hospital in South Africa.

The global COVID-19 pandemic reached South Africa with the first case reported in the country on March 5, 2020. The country’s government responded by declaring a disaster and imposing curfews.

Period	Life expectancy in years	Period	Life expectancy in years
1950–1955	48,5	1985–1990	61,0
1955–1960	51,3	1990–1995	62,3
1960–1965	53,0	1995–2000	59,2
1965–1970	54,8	2000–2005	53,8
1970–1975	56,7	2005–2010	53,1
1975–1980	57,3	2010–2015	59,5
1980–1985	58,4

Delinquency

South Africa is one of the countries with the highest crime rates among the countries where reliable police statistics exist. The homicide rate, for example, was 36 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2017.

In criminology, homicide rates are used as an index for comparisons of crime levels over long periods of time. This is particularly reliable for violent crime and theft. The chart shows an increase in the rate of homicides in South Africa from below 10 per 100,000 inhabitants by the 1930s to 30 by 1965, where they remain until 1980. After that, the rates rose in just 13 years to about 80 in 1993. By 2011, it had fallen again to 30th (In Western European countries, this figure is around 1).

The time lag, with an increase from the 1960s to the early 1990s, followed by an extensive decline in crime, is similar to the pattern in Western countries, but at a much higher level. The values shown in the diagram in the 20th century are probably set significantly too low due to a lack of data and legal inconsistencies. However, the rate in South Africa has been above the world average since at least the 1920s. At least parts of the increase are attributed to apartheid policies, which violently tore people out of communal and social relations and triggered political conflicts. These changed factors that have an influence on the level of crime.

In 1994, there were approximately 26,000 homicides, or 63 per 100,000 inhabitants. By the 2017/18 reporting year (which ended at the end of March 2018), the annual number had fallen to just over 20,000 and 36 per 100,000, respectively, almost halving the rate. The most important reason for the changes is the reduced availability of firearms, as the second most important improvement in the policy. From 2011 to 2017, the rate increased from 30 to 36 per 100,000 inhabitants. The cause is a renewed availability of firearms by corrupt police officers and unrest of the frustrated population. In contrast to the timing of the homicide rate, there was only a minimal increase in serious crime overall after 2011. After 2013, however, this rate fell sharply and reached lows.

In a study in the eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces, 27.6% of all men surveyed said they had raped a woman at least once, half of whom admitted to multiple rapes. Converted to the population, many millions of rapes can be expected in recent decades. Statistically, 40% of South African women expect to be raped once in their lives.

A special feature are the so-called corrective rapes, in which lesbian women are raped by men with the alleged aim of changing the sexual orientation of the victim. In addition, 40% of South African students say they have been raped at least once. In the 2017/2018 reporting year, around 50,000 cases of sexual offenses were registered, including around 40,000 rapes, which are very high figures. 10 years earlier (2008/2009), however, there were still almost 70,000 sexual offenses.

On the one hand, the country is making progress, such as the decline in violent crime and sexual offenses, and on the other hand, the number of drug-related crimes has almost tripled over the same period.

Between 1994 and 2001, more than 1100 whites were murdered in more than 5500 raids on mostly remote farms. From 2010 to 2014, around 60 white farmers were murdered every year; for the reporting year 2017/2018, 62 murders on farms and farmsteads were reported.

Above all, the high murder and rape rates continue to pose a major threat to the population. As a result, many wealthy South Africans of all population groups are moving into residential quarters, which are referred to by the term compound, which has now changed its meaning. Such residential districts can have their own infrastructure with shops and schools, are cordoned off all around with high fences and are guarded around the clock by private security services. Electric fences are also very common. These measures provide some protection against raids and allow a life in relative safety.

The causes of the enormously high crime rate are manifold. For centuries, South Africa has been dominated by a society in which violence is often not only accepted, but advocated. Added to this was the system of racial segregation, with its long-term consequences beyond 1994, which has created traditional black societies of destroyed and shattered families, as well as domestic violence passed on to children or others.

Equally important are economic reasons. The mass of the population is still very poor and unemployment is high, especially among the young, black population. Boredom and lack of prospects often discharge into violence. Added to this is the great social inequality with its extreme contrasts between poor (mostly black) and rich inhabitants in the cities of South Africa, which leads to high crime. While rich South Africans can protect themselves against this, this does not apply to the numerous immigrants from poorer African states, so that especially these, seen by poor South Africans as unpleasant competitors on the labor market, are particularly often victims of attacks and pogroms.

Inefficiency and corruption in the police and judiciary are also major problems in some regions. Many offenders are not held accountable despite being reported, and court proceedings – especially in rape cases – are often discontinued for lack of evidence.

According to Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, South Africa ranked 71st out of 180 countries in 2016, along with Vanuatu and Bulgaria, with 43 out of a maximum of 100 points.

Top and bottom

After the end of apartheid, only fragmentary and largely unsatisfactory progress could be achieved with regard to the ideal goal of equal individual development opportunities for all citizens and a better standard of living for the large group of very poor citizens. Despite commendable successes in improving domestic conditions, such as water and electricity supplies in rural areas and townships, as well as in expanding the education and training sector, health care and transport infrastructure, the improvement in employment for large parts of the non-European population has been subdued.

With the disappearance of the principle of job reservation, which had been consolidated over the decades of apartheid, and with the government’s new Black Economic Empowerment program, labor market structures shifted to the effect that less well-educated whites became more likely to become unemployed or threatened with job loss. However, macroeconomic patterns as a whole have changed little since the end of apartheid policies.

Accordingly, in the post-apartheid phase that began after 1994, only a relatively small number of people are said to have benefited more. These include public sector employees and entrepreneurs. The Gini coefficient even increased in South Africa after 1995. According to the South African sociologist Lawrence Schlemmer, the socio-economic decline at the lower end of the income chain has lasted for a long time since 1994 and could only be stopped with significant transfers from the state at a low level.

On the other hand, the rise of a “black” middle class, often propagated in the media, is in reality much less than depicted and it will take longer than officially. According to a 2001 study by the International Council for Human Rights Policies (ICHRP), economic marginalization and racial discrimination are mutually reinforcing. In South Africa, a stereotypical attitude is being established that the poor population can continue to work at low wages. The ruling group (no longer just white, but representatives from all groups) is increasingly moving away from the dominated population.

The country continues to be characterized by high levels of poverty and inequality. The Gini coefficient continued to rise during the investment boom before the 2008 financial crisis. While it was 57.8 in 2000, it was 65 in 2011. This makes South Africa one of the countries with an extremely unequal distribution of income worldwide, which is increasingly being discussed publicly.

Trevor Manuel’s criticism of the current conditions in the public sector in April 2013 by Trevor Manuel, a long-standing minister of national planning, was aimed at this disparity between rulers and the ruled. With his National Development Plan, the Minister put forward proposals for measures to combat poverty and inequality “radically” and for the development of a competent, professional public service in the country on the other. He pointed out that many employees “don’t need any changes in the law or policy, just common sense to get things right.” At the heart of his argument is the criticism that in 2013 apartheid is still being cited as the cause of any undesirable development in current political action, and he, therefore, calls for a general and transparent accountability of all levels of the public sector.

“No matter how you were appointed, no matter who appointed you, you are not accountable to the ruling party. You are civil servants who are meant to serve all citizens irrespective of political persuasion.”

– Trevor Manuel, April 2013

In May 2013, Desmond Tutu referred with international media resonance to the growing problems of the country due to corruption and the party system, consequently to a need for changes in constitutional law regarding the electoral system.

Culture

Ethnic Cultures

South Africa does not have a uniform culture due to its historical development and ethnic diversity, the customs and customs differ greatly depending on the region and population structure. This is why the country is often referred to as the rainbow nation today, as few countries in the world are home to such different cultures from all parts of the world.

Of the black majority, a considerable proportion still live in poor conditions in economically weak, rural areas. Especially of these, the traditional rites with dance and music are still cultivated and kept alive today, as with the increasing urbanization and Europeanization of South Africa and the original population, traditional customs and habits have also lost importance.

The black South Africans who live in the cities almost all speak English or Afrikaans in addition to their native languages. At the beginning of the 21st century, there are still small populations that speak Khoisan languages. Although these are not official national languages, they are recognized as one of the other eight main languages. Furthermore, there are several small groups that speak endangered languages, mostly from the Khoi-San language family, and are fighting for the official recognition of their language and its preservation.

The lifestyle habits of the white population minority are in many respects similar to those in Western Europe, North America or Oceania. Historical hostilities between Africans and Whites of British origin have now been dispelled and paved the way for peaceful coexistence between the two ethnic groups.

Despite the discrimination during the apartheid era, Coloureds today feel more connected to white culture than to black South African culture. This is especially evident among those who speak Afrikaans as their mother tongue and have the same or similar religions as whites. Only a small minority of the Coloureds, known as Cape Malays, are Muslims.

Asians, mainly of Indian origin, cultivate their own cultural heritage, languages and religions. The Indians were settled to the southern tip of the African continent in the 18th century to initially work on the sugar cane fields of Natal. Most are Hindus or Sunni Muslims and now speak English as their mother tongue, while languages such as Tamil or Gujarati are becoming increasingly rare in South Africa.

Education in South Africa

The vast majority of schools are public; there are also private schools. Students attend Primary School for seven years from the age of 7. Schooling is compulsory; School fees are not charged at the Primary Schools. As in all schools, a school uniform is worn. This is followed by a high school (secondary school). It is subject to a charge; compulsory education has existed since 1996 until the 9th grade. Students choose courses at three different levels.

At the end of the 12th grade, the final examinations (matric) are taken in seven subjects. In 2010, 76% of the students passed the matric, 28% of all candidates acquired the right to attend a university. The results are standardized if necessary, i.e. in the case of nationwide poor examination performance, the requirements can be subsequently lowered and vice versa. Students pass the matric with 30% of the achievable score. In South Africa, the average length of school attendance over 25 years increased from 6.5 years in 1990 to 10.5 years in 2015, making it the longest in Africa.

The country’s universities are of varying quality, with several among the best universities in Africa. According to the Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings 2010, the University of Cape Town is the best university in Africa with 107th place. The Technical University of Tshwane in Pretoria is the largest university in southern Africa with 60,000 students (apart from the fast-growing (distance) University of South Africa with over 300,000 students). Overall, the country’s higher education system is far from meeting the demand for study places. Tuition fees must be paid for a course of study.

The rapid growth in student numbers has led to significant quality deficiencies, as illustrated by two largely consistent reports from 2011 – one under the auspices of the University of Cape Town, the other under the direction of the University of Johannesburg. In particular, the social, human and cultural sciences suffered greatly in the post-apartheid period, and the number of students in these areas is constantly declining. Bachelor’s education is characterized by the management of scarcity, the lack of educational concepts and “intellectual stagnation”, while resources are largely diverted to master’s training and elite chairs.

In the apartheid era, especially the educational institutions of the black majority were disadvantaged. The main cause was the Bantu Education Act enacted in 1953, which produced a lower-quality education and undermined the basis of many traditionally rooted mission schools in the country. At the University of Fort Hare in Alice, people from indigenous populations were able to receive a limited higher education throughout the apartheid period. At the instigation of the opposition ANC, secondary education and higher education for black pupils and students were temporarily outsourced to the SOMAFCO camp in Tanzania.

While in South Africa around 96% of teachers in schools for whites had appropriate training, in schools for blacks it was only 15%. For every teacher, there were 18 white students and 39 black students. Unequal educational opportunities persist after the end of apartheid and represent a major socio-political challenge. Despite high financial expenditures, the government has so far hardly succeeded in addressing this problem. Expenditure on education accounts for about 20% of total government expenditure, making it the highest section of the budget. Nevertheless, public schools have an average of over 30 students per teacher.

The six German schools in South Africa are the German School Pretoria, the German School Hermannsburg, the German International School Cape Town, the German International School Johannesburg, the German School Durban and the German School Kroondal.

Kitchen

In South African cuisine, the focus is on meat dishes of all kinds, which developed into a popular pastime of South Africans: grilling (Afrikaans Braai). Typical dishes and dishes for the braai among the wealthy population are Boerewors (a spicy, coarse type of sausage), steaks, lamb, pork chops and fish grilled over charcoal. Another specialty is biltong, a type of dried beef or game meat that is often eaten as a snack in South Africa. Indian-inspired curry dishes are often eaten. The cuisine of the poorer, mostly black population is dominated by simple dishes. The best known is Mealie-Pap, a type of corn porridge.

Furthermore, South Africa developed into a major wine producer. Some of the best wineries in the world are located near Stellenbosch, Franschhoek and Paarl in the Western Cape.

Music

South African music is characterized by great diversity. Pop, rock and jazz music are popular in numerous subgenres, especially typical music styles, some of which are linked to certain population groups.

In the early 20th century, a mixture of European church music, North American gospel music and indigenous traditions formed a special form of church music, which on the one hand is characterized by numerous choirs, on the other hand is popular as music performed by soloists such as the gospel singer Rebecca Malope. The Soweto Gospel Choir is also dedicated to gospel music. The church musician Enoch Mankayi Sontonga wrote the song Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika around 1900, which has been part of the national anthem of South Africa since 1996. During the apartheid era, it was often sung as a symbol of resistance.

Regional musical styles emerged early in the different ethnicities. To this day, Zulu, Xhosa and Basotho, for example, cultivate these styles, which also incorporate modern musical styles. For the Zulu, the Isicathamiya sung by male choirs is characteristic. A modern style of Zulu music is Maskandi, also called Maskanda. Famo is popular with the Basotho, which at times was accompanied by sexually provocative dances.

Among the world’s most famous jazz musicians in South Africa are the saxophonist Kippie Moeketsi, the trumpeter and singer Hugh Masekela and the pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, whose style is called Cape Jazz. The forerunner of Cape jazz is Marabi music, which was played as dance music mainly in the Shebeensder townships and has also influenced other South African musical styles.

The oldest existing choir is the Stellenbosch University Choir. Founded in 1936, Stellenbosch University Choir is known for music sung a cappella. The first hit, of which more than 100,000 records were sold in South Africa, was the Mbube composed by Solomon Linda in 1939.

Building on rock ‘n’ roll and swing, Kwela music was created in the 1950s, which was characterized by the use of brass flutes. The Johannesburg district of Sophiatown was then considered the Mecca of South African jazz. Probably the best-known representative of South African music is Miriam Makeba (1932–2008), who also celebrated her first successes in Sophiatown and landed a world hit in the 1960s with the song Pata Pata sung on isiXhosa. Due to her great popularity, she was nicknamed Mama Africa.

Mbaqanga is another popular music genre that emerged in the 1960s and is characterized by danceable rhythms and traditional influences. A special form, the Mgqashiyo music, was made famous by the Mahotella Queens. Among the successful Mbaqanga musicians is the singer Yvonne Chaka Chaka. Her 1985 song I’m in Love with a DJ is considered the first hit of bubblegum music, a Mbaqanga variant characterized by the use of synthesizers and electric keyboards. In the 1990s, the South African music style Kwaito developed, a mixture of African pop music, rap and house. Well-known representatives were the singer Brenda Fassie, who had previously become popular with Mbaqanga music, and the singer Mandoza.

The group Ladysmith Black Mambazo sings a cappella music and became known worldwide alongside other groups such as Stimela through the collaboration with the American musician Paul Simon in 1986. Numerous other bands and soloists became successful in southern Africa, such as reggae musician Lucky Dube and Scottish Johnny Clegg, who was popular with blacks and whites in the 1980s with his bands, half of which were Zulu.

In the 19th century, based on European influences, the Boeremusiek was created, an instrumental dance music that is still popular among Boers today. Her main instrument is the concertina. One of the most famous musicians was the accordionist Nico Carstens (1926–2016). In addition, there is music sung on Afrikaans, which often contains elements of country music. Often it is marketed after a dance pleasure under the term Sokkie Dans. The Gereformeerde Blues Band of Johannes Kerkorrel played blues and was the founder of the alternative Voëlvry movement. Karen Zoid belonged to the alternative scene of African-speaking musicians in the 2010s.

In the 1970s there was a lively rock scene in Cape Town. Various varieties of rock such as disco, punk, gothic rock (No Friends of Harry) and alternative metal were also represented at times. The singer Nianell sings pop music with folk influences in English or Afrikaans. Singer-songwriters such as Zahara and Jennifer Ferguson also perform in South Africa.

Mimi Coertse became a well-known opera singer who was engaged in Vienna for a long time. The Soweto String Quartet performs classical music of European character, mixed with African elements.

Every year, the South African Music Awards are presented in over 20 categories.

Today internationally renowned South African bands include Die Antwoord, Seether, The Parlotones, Kongos and Watershed.

Cape Town is home to Africa’s only opera house with year-round operation – the Cape Town Opera.

Literature

Many of the first black authors learned to read and write from European missionaries, which is why the majority of the first South African books were written in English or Afrikaans. One of the first known novels written by a black author in an African language was Mhudi by Sol Plaatje in 1930.

Among the well-known South African writers are Nadine Gordimer, born in 1923, who was the first South African woman and seventh woman in total to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1991, and Athol Fugard, whose plays regularly premiered in the theatres of South Africa, London and New York.

Alan Paton published his highly acclaimed novel Cry, the Beloved Country in 1948, which was later made into a film. The story, which tells of a black priest who comes to Johannesburg to find his son, became a worldwide bestseller. In the 1950s, the later Nobel Prize winner Nadine Gordimer began publishing her works. Her best-known novel July’s People was published in 1981 and deals with the fall of white minority rule.

Writers who wrote in Afrikaans also published controversial works. Breyten Breytenbach was imprisoned for his participation in the guerrilla movement against the apartheid regime. André Brink was the first Afrikaan whose books were indexed by the government after he published the novel A Dry White Season, which is about a white man who finds out the truth about the death of a black friend in police custody.

Some important black writers rose to fame in the 1970s, such as Mongane Wally Serote, whose work No Baby Must Weep gives an insight into the everyday life of a black South African during apartheid. Zakes Mda, another well-known black novelist, won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in 2001 with his novel The Heart of Redness. His work has been firmly incorporated into the curriculum of South African schools.J. M. Coetzee, who began his work as a writer in the 1970s, only became internationally known two decades later. His 1999 novel Disgrace won him the prestigious Man Booker Prize and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003.

Painting

In the 19th century, most of the images were imported from England and the Netherlands. These historical pieces still form part of the museum’s holdings today. One of the few painters who already had an academic education at the end of the 19th century was the Rotterdam-born landscape and portrait painter Frans Oerder (1867–1944), who created one of the most frequently reproduced paintings from the South African National Gallery with his painting Magnolias, which now hangs as a print in many living rooms. Hugo Naudé (1868–1938), who had studied in Munich before the First World War, belonged to the generation of Romantic painters. The partly romantic-impressionistic, partly expressionist or factual-realistic landscape paintings by Jacobus Hendrik Pierneef (1886–1957) are characterized by a great variety of styles.

Many painters of the 1920s and 1930s were of German or Polish-Jewish descent, according to Irma Stern, who, together with the portrait painter Maggie Laubser (1886–1973), who was descended from The Dutch, and Wolf Kibel, who was born in Russian Poland, is considered the founder of Expressionism in South Africa. Pranas Domšaitis (actually Franz Carl Wilhelm Domscheit) studied with Lovis Corinth in Berlin, he emigrated to South Africa only in 1949 at the age of 69 and is also considered one of the most important expressionists in South Africa. Austrian-born Jean Welz created still lifes, Dorothy Kay sensitive portraits. Alexis Preller studied in Paris and was inspired by Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh. Freida Lock, who came from England and studied there, co-founded the New Group in 1938, a group of artists that had numerous exhibitions.

Many non-white South African artists in exile also oriented themselves toward Expressionism or represented social realism, such as Gerard Sekoto or Gavin Jantjes, who studied in the Federal Republic of Germany. David Koloane created the first black art gallery in Johannesburg. The white opponent of apartheid, poet and author Breyten Breytenbach created surrealist images in exile.

After the end of apartheid, South African artists quickly became known in the USA and Great Britain. Her art is often political and socially critical, according to the work of Tracey Rose, which also includes performance and video art. Marlene Dumas experiments with the human form and deals with the conflict between white and black.

UNESCO World Heritage Site

• ISimangaliso Wetland Park. The largest crocodile and hippo populations in South Africa live here.
• Robben Island. Former prison island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned.
• Fossil hominid sites in South Africa
• Maloti Drakensberg Park. It has importance as a refuge for many endangered and endemic species and is rich in rock paintings by the San people.
• Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape. Excavation area of the first kingdom in southern Africa between 900 and 1300 AD
• Protected areas of the Cape Floral region. With almost a fifth of Africa’s plant species, almost a third of which are endemic, it is considered a region with the most diverse flora in the world.
• Vredefort Crater. It is the largest safely identified impact crater on Earth.
• Cultural landscape Richtersveld, in which the indigenous people of the Nama tribe live as itinerant shepherds.
• Cultural landscape of the Khomani, a group of the San people on the border with Botswana and Namibia.
• Barberton Makhonjwa Mountains, where the world’s oldest traces of life have been discovered.

Holidays

In South Africa, there are the following public holidays. If one of these days falls on a Sunday, the following Monday is a public holiday.

Date	South African name	Notes
1 January	New Year’s Day
21 March	Human Rights Day	Anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960
March or April	Good Friday and Family Day	Friday before and Monday after Easter Sunday
April 27	Freedom Day	Anniversary of the first democratic elections in 1994
1 May	Workers’ Day
16 June	Youth Day	Anniversary of the beginning of the student protests in Soweto in 1976 (former name: Soweto Day)
August 9	National Women’s Day	Anniversary of the women’s demonstration against the so-called passport laws in 1956
September 24	Heritage Day
16 December	Day of Reconciliation	Anniversary of the Battle of blood River in 1838 between Boers and Zulu. This day was already a holiday during apartheid as “Pledge Day” or “Oath Day” and took on its new meaning in 1995.
25/26 December	Christmas Day and Boxing Day

Sport

In South Africa’s sport, as in almost all other public areas, a separation into ethnic groups can be observed. By far the most popular sport among the black population is football. Since whites also practice the sport at a high level, football during the apartheid era was less affected by ethnic boundaries than, for example, rugby. The South African national football team, dubbed Bafana Bafana (by isiZulu: “our boys”) by fans, has qualified twice for the World Cup finals since the end of apartheid and readmission to FIFA (1998 and 2002).

After an unsuccessful bid attempt, the country was the first African nation to be awarded the contract to host the 2010 World Cup, in which, however, the team was the first host to be eliminated in the preliminary round. Another success of the national football team is winning the African Cup of Nations in 1996. After that, South Africa hosted the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, where they reached the quarter-finals. Somewhat more successful is the South African women’s national football team, nicknamed Banyana Banyana (from isiZulu: “our girls”).

The most important sport of the whites is rugby union, followed by cricket. During apartheid, these two sports were almost exclusively reserved for the white minority. Rugby is particularly popular with The Afrikaners, while cricket is still traditionally played by the English-speaking whites.

The biggest sporting successes of the Springboks, as the national rugby team is called, were the victories of the Rugby Union World Cups in 1995 in their own country, 2007 in France and 2019 in Japan, as well as the victories of the Tri-Nations tournaments and the Rugby Championship in 1998, 2004, 2009 and 2019. The Springboks were a symbol of racial segregation during apartheid due to their exclusion of non-white players, but became part of New South Africa during the 1995 World Cup when then-President Nelson Mandela watched the final in a Springbok jersey. The national rugby championship is the Currie Cup, four teams play in the international league Super Rugby.

After football and rugby, cricket is the third most popular sport in South Africa. The Proteas, the South African national cricket team, are the most internationally successful team in South Africa after the Springboks. In 1889, South Africa became the third country ever to be awarded test status by the ICC, which entitles it to participate in the most prestigious stage of cricket. As in rugby, South Africa was boycotted internationally in cricket during apartheid and returned to the international stage in 1992. That year, South Africa took part in the World Cup for the first time and reached the semi-finals, which has since been achieved three more times (1999, 2007 and 2015).

In 2003, they hosted this tournament together with Kenya and Zimbabwe, but were eliminated in the preliminary round. South Africa also hosted the ICC World Twenty20 2007, the ICC Champions Trophy 2009 and will host the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2022. In November 2021, South Africa, along with Namibia and Zimbabwe, was named host of the 2027 Cricket World Cup. The national first-class championship is the Sunfoil Series, followed by the List-A competition One-Day Cup and the Twenty20 competition of the Mzansi Super League, the successor to the Ram Slam T20 Challenge.

The South African freestyle relay team surprisingly won the first South African Olympic gold medal in 2004 over the 4×100 m freestyle course, which is otherwise dominated by Americans and Australians, in world record time. It triggered a swimming boom in South Africa. Roland Schoeman, Ryk Neethling and Chad le Clos have been among the country’s most successful swimmers ever since.

On the Grand Prix circuit of Kyalami, the Grand Prix of South Africa of Formula 1 was held until 1993. Driver Jody Scheckter won the World Championship in 1979.

References (sources)

The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index. The Economist Intelligence Unit, 2021; Parliament of the Republic of South Africa: Parliamentary Library. parliament.gov, 2011; Südafrika, Wikipedia; James Walker: South Africa’s economy: Much to be done. 1999. BBC; Universityworldnews; Afrika – Top 10 Länder mit dem höchsten BIP pro Kopf 2020, 2021.