Portal:South Africa

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Introduction

South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by 2,798 kilometres (1,739 mi) of coastline of Southern Africa stretching along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; and to the east and northeast by Mozambique and Eswatini (Swaziland); and it surrounds the enclaved country of Lesotho. South Africa is the largest country in Southern Africa and the 25th-largest country in the world by land area and, with over 57 million people, is the world's 24th-most populous nation. It is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World or the Eastern Hemisphere. About 80 percent of South Africans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different African languages, nine of which have official status. The remaining population consists of Africa's largest communities of European (White), Asian (Indian), and multiracial (Coloured) ancestry.

South Africa is a multiethnic society encompassing a wide variety of cultures, languages, and religions. Its pluralistic makeup is reflected in the constitution's recognition of 11 official languages, which is the fourth highest number in the world. Two of these languages are of European origin: Afrikaans developed from Dutch and serves as the first language of most coloured and white South Africans; English reflects the legacy of British colonialism, and is commonly used in public and commercial life, though it is fourth-ranked as a spoken first language. The country is one of the few in Africa never to have had a coup d'état, and regular elections have been held for almost a century. However, the vast majority of black South Africans were not enfranchised until 1994. During the 20th century, the black majority sought to recover its rights from the dominant white minority, with this struggle playing a large role in the country's recent history and politics. The National Party imposed apartheid in 1948, institutionalising previous racial segregation. After a long and sometimes violent struggle by the African National Congress (ANC) and other anti-apartheid activists both inside and outside the country, the repeal of discriminatory laws began in 1990.

Selected general articles

The Department of Justice and Correctional Services is the justice ministry of the South African government. The department provides administrative and financial support to the court system and the judiciary (which are constitutionally independent of the executive), oversees the National Prosecuting Authority, provides legal advice and representation to organs of state, facilitates law reform and is responsible for the country's Correctional Services. Read more...
Elections in South Africa are held for the National Assembly, provincial legislatures and municipal councils. Elections follow a five-year cycle, with national and provincial elections held simultaneously and municipal elections held two years later. The electoral system is based on party-list proportional representation, which means that parties are represented in proportion to their electoral support. For municipal councils there is a mixed-member system in which wards elect individual councillors alongside those named from party lists.

In elections of the National Assembly, every South African citizen who is 18 or older may vote, including (since the 2014 election) those resident outside South Africa. In elections of a provincial legislature or municipal council, only those resident within the province or municipality may vote. All elections are conducted by the Electoral Commission of South Africa, which is an independent body established by the Constitution. Read more...
Pedi (also known as BaPedi, Bamaroteng, Marota, Basotho, Northern Sotho) – in its broadest sense – is a cultural/linguistic term. Northern Sotho is used to describe the entire set of people speaking various dialects of the Sotho language who live in the Limpopo Province of South Africa.

The Northern Sotho have been subdivided into the high-veld Sotho, which are comparatively recent immigrants mostly from the west and southwest, and the low-veld Sotho, who combine immigrants from the north with inhabitants of longer standing. The high-veld Sotho include the BaPedi Marota (in the narrower sense), Marota Mamone, Marota Mohlaletsi, Phokwane, Batau BoPedi (Matlebjane, Masemola, Marishane, Batau ba Manganeng - Nkadimeng, Kgaphola, Nchabeleng, Mogashoa, Phaahla, Seloane, Mphanama), Bakone, Baphuthi, Baroka, Bakgaga (Mphahlele, Maake, Mothapo), Chuene, Mathabatha, Kone (Ga-Matlala), Maserumule, Tlou (Ga-Molepo), Thobejane (Ga-Mafefe), Dikgale, Batlokwa, Makgoba, Batlou, Bahananwa (Ga-Mmalebogo), Babirwa, Mmamabolo, Ba-Ntwane, BaMongatane, Bakwena ba Moletjie (Moloto), Batlhaloga, BaMohlala, Banareng and many others. The low-veld Sotho include the Lobedu, Narene, Phalaborwa, Mogoboya, Kone, Kgakga, Pulana, Pai, and Kutswe. Groups are named by using the names of totemic animals and, sometimes, by alternating or combining these with the names of famous chiefs. Read more...
A list of current public holidays in South Africa:

The Public Holidays Act (Act No 36 of 1994) states that whenever a public holiday falls on a Sunday, the Monday following it will be a public holiday. Read more...
Afrikaners (Afrikaans: Afrikaners, pronounced [afrəˈkɑːnərs, afri-]) are a Southern African ethnic group descended from predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving in the 17th and 18th centuries. They traditionally dominated South Africa's agriculture and politics prior to 1994.
Afrikaans, South Africa's fifth-most widely spoken home language, is the mother tongue of Afrikaners and most Cape Coloureds. It evolved from the Dutch vernacular of South Holland, incorporating words brought from the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) and Madagascar by slaves. Afrikaners make up approximately 5.2% of the total South African population based on the number of white South Africans who speak Afrikaans as a first language in the South African National Census of 2011.

The arrival of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama at Calicut in 1498 opened a gateway of free access to Asia from Western Europe around the Cape of Good Hope; however, it also necessitated the founding and safeguarding of trade stations in the East. Very rapidly one European power followed another, all eager to trade along this route. The Portuguese landed in Mossel Bay in 1500, explored Table Bay two years later, and by 1510 had started raiding inland. Shortly afterwards the Dutch Republic sent merchant vessels to India, and in 1602 founded the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (Dutch East India Company; VOC). As the volume of traffic rounding the Cape increased, the Company recognised its natural harbour as an ideal watering point for the long voyage around Africa to the Orient and established a victualling station there in 1652. VOC officials did not favour the permanent settlement of Europeans in their trading empire, although during the 140 years of Dutch rule many VOC servants retired or were discharged and remained as private citizens. Furthermore, the exigencies of supplying local garrisons and passing fleets compelled the administration to confer free status upon employees and oblige them to become independent farmers. Read more...
List of forests of South Africa, among other terms used it usually means "an area with a high density of trees" are wood, woodland, wold, weald and holt. Unlike forest, these are all derived from Old English and were not borrowed from another language. Read more...
Panorama of the Baviaanskloof mountain range

This is a list of mountain ranges of South Africa. Read more...
South Africa celebrates National Women's Day on August 9th.

Feminism in South Africa has been shaped by struggles for political and racial equality, as well as by national and transnational struggles for gender equality. Woman in South Africa have historically faced a myriad of state-facilitated and socially-practiced discrimination including pay discrimination, the inability for all women to vote until 1983 and cultural sexism manifesting through severe violence against women. South Africa has high rates of rape and domestic violence which frequently goes unreported. Nearly one third of adolescent girls report being sexually coerced by men by the time they turn 16 with this statistic matriculating into high rates of sexual harassment and assault experienced by women.

As a response to these issues, and out of desperation for change in a politically unstable time in the 1980s, feminism in South Africa began to gain traction as women became more politically active. Specifically, feminism in South Africa gained new life in 1994 when the constitution was being rewritten to cater to a post-apartheid, democratic society. During this phase of reconstruction, women unified and lobbied for a more equitable positioning of women within the constitutional framework. Women benefited from the democratization of South Africa as women were the ones most significantly impacted and oppressed by the male dominated, state repression. It was the initial unification and women's rights movement during the negotiations of the constitution that spurred other activism related to women's rights and social circumstances. These progressive women led movements were later labeled one of the first examples of modern South African feminism. The 1990s South African feminist movement was also propelled forward by the momentum of other noteworthy women's rights movements in neighboring African countries. Countries such as Zimbabwe and Mozambique served as inspiration as women in both countries successfully organized themselves and lobbied to make the needs of women a concern of the state. Read more...
Khoisan (/ˈkɔɪsɑːn/), or according to the contemporary Khoekhoegowab orthography Khoe-Sān (pronounced: [kxʰoesaːn]), is a catch-all term for the "non-Bantu" indigenous peoples of Southern Africa, combining the Khoekhoen (formerly "Khoikhoi") and the Sān or Sākhoen (also, in Afrikaans: Boesmans, or in English: Bushmen, after Dutch Boschjesmens; and Saake in the Nǁng language).

Khoekhoen, specifically, were formerly known as “Hottentots”, which was a derogatory onomatopoeic term (from Dutch hot-en-tot) referring to the click consonants prevalent in the Khoekhoe languages, as they are in all the languages grouped under "Khoesān". Read more...
Population of South Africa By Nationality and Place of Birth

According to official South African statistics, as of 2011, 2.2 million foreigners live in South Africa.

Africans compose about 79.6% (2007 est.) of the population and represent different ethnic groups, including Zulu, Xhosa, Ndebele, Tsonga, Venda, Pedi, Sotho, Tswana and Swazi, as well as recent immigrants from other parts of Africa (particularly Zimbabwe and Nigeria). Whites compose 9.1% (2007 est), being the descendants of Dutch, French, British, Irish, and German settlers who began arriving at the Cape from the mid- to late 17th century, immigrants from Europe who arrived in South Africa in the twentieth century, and Portuguese who left the former Portuguese colonies of southern Africa (Angola and Mozambique) after their independence in the mid-1970s. Coloureds (8.8%, 2007 est) are mixed-race people primarily descended from the earliest settlers, their slaves, and the indigenous peoples. The remaining 2.4% are categorised as 'Indian/Asian', including the descendants of Indian indentured sugar estate workers and traders who came to South Africa in the mid-19th (particularly around Natal), as well as a few Chinese South Africans (approximately 250,000 - 350,000). Read more...
A windpump on a farm in South Africa.

Agriculture in South Africa contributes around 10% of formal employment, relatively low compared to other parts of Africa, as well as providing work for casual laborers and contributing around 2.6 percent of GDP for the nation. Due to the aridity of the land, only 13.5 percent can be used for crop production, and only 3 percent is considered high potential land.

According to FAOSTAT, South Africa is one of the world's largest producers of: chicory roots (4th); grapefruit (4th); cereals (5th); green maize and maize (7th); castor oil seed (9th); pears (9th); sisal (10th); fibre crops (10th). The dairy industry consists of around 4,300 milk producers providing employment for 60,000 farm workers and contributing to the livelihoods of around 40,000 others. Read more...
White South Africans are South Africans descended from any of the white racial groups of Europe who regard themselves, or are not regarded as, as being part of another racial group (for example, as Coloureds). In linguistic, cultural and historical terms, they are generally divided into the Afrikaans-speaking descendants of the Dutch East India Company's original settlers, known as Afrikaners, and the Anglophone descendants of predominantly British colonists. In 2016, 57.9% were native Afrikaans speakers, 40.2% were native English speakers, and 1.9% spoke another language as their mother tongue, such as Portuguese or German. White South Africans are by far the largest European-descended population group in Africa.

White South Africans differ significantly from other White African groups, because they have a sense of separate cultural identity, as in the case of the Afrikaners, who established a distinct language, culture and faith. Contemporary attempts to declare whites as ethnically African or describe themselves as 'African' as opposed citizens of South Africa have been challenged as mere claims to entitlement. Read more...
The foreign relations of South Africa have spanned from the country's time as Dominion of the British Empire to its isolationist policies under Apartheid to its position as a responsible international actor taking a key role in Africa, particularly Southern Africa.

South Africa was inactive in the United Nations, the African Union and the Commonwealth of Nations. Considered a possible permanent addition to the United Nations Security Council, South Africa was elected in 2006 and again in 2010 by the UN General Assembly to serve on the Security Council, which it did until 31 December 2012. Read more...
The South African Special Forces Brigade, colloquially known as the Recces, is South Africa's principal special operations unit and counter-insurgency elite, specialising in long-range combat reconnaissance as well as unconventional airborne operations. Only about 8% of recruits who undergo South African special forces training pass the course.

The South African Special Forces Brigade has its roots in the Hunter Group, which was formed in 1968 as an elite counter-insurgency unit of the South African Army. The success of this unit culminated in the subsequent formation of five reconnaissance units, known widely as "Recces", during the 1970s. South African special forces carried out a number of combat operations during the Rhodesian Bush War, the South African Border War, and the Mozambican Civil War. Read more...
The Special Task Force (STF) is the elite police tactical unit of the South African Police Service (SAPS). The Special Task Force handles high risk operations that fall beyond the scope of classic policing which require specialised skills. Read more...
South African art is the visual art produced by the people inhabiting the territory occupied by the modern country of South Africa. The oldest art objects in the world were discovered in a South African cave. Archaeologists have discovered two sets of art kits thought to be 100,000 years old at a cave in South Africa. The findings provide a glimpse into how early humans produced and stored ochre – a form of paint – which pushes back our understanding of when evolved complex cognition occurred by around 20,000 – 30,000 years. Also, dating from 75,000 years ago, they found small drilled snail shells could have no other function than to have been strung on a string as a necklace. South Africa was one of the cradles of the human species.

The scattered tribes of Khoisan and San peoples moving into South Africa from around 10000 BC had their own art styles seen today in a multitude of cave paintings. They were superseded by Bantu and Nguni peoples with their own vocabularies of art forms. Read more...
Tourists taking in the view of Cape Town and Table Mountain from Robben Island

South Africa is a tourist destination and the industry accounts for a substantial amount of the country's revenue. According to the World Travel & Tourism Council, the tourism industry directly contributed ZAR 102 billion to South African GDP in 2012, and supports 10.3% of jobs in the country. The official national marketing agency of the South African government, with the goal of promoting tourism in South Africa both locally and globally is known as South African Tourism.

South Africa offers both domestic and international tourists a wide variety of options, among others the picturesque natural landscape and game reserves, diverse cultural heritage and highly regarded wines. Some of the most popular destinations include several national parks, such as the expansive Kruger National Park in the north of the country, the coastlines and beaches of the KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape provinces, and the major cities like Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban. Read more...
This is an attempt to list all islands of South Africa, regardless of whether they are located in oceans, rivers, lakes, or reservoirs.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it. Read more...
The Zulu (/zuːluː/; Zulu: amaZulu) are a Bantu ethnic group of Southern Africa and the largest ethnic group in South Africa, with an estimated 10–12 million people living mainly in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. Small numbers also live in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique. Read more...
School children in Cape Town

Education in South Africa is governed by two national departments, namely the department of Basic Education (DBE), which is responsible for primary and secondary schools, and the department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), which is responsible for tertiary education and vocational training. Prior to 2009, these two departments were represented in a single Department of Education.

The DBE department deals with public schools, private schools (also referred to by the department as independent schools), early childhood development (ECD) centres, and special needs schools. The public schools and private schools are collectively known as ordinary schools, and comprise roughly 97% of schools in South Africa. Read more...
False Bay, Lake St Lucia

This is a list of estuaries in South Africa. The list is in order from East (border with Mozambique) to the West (border with Namibia).

The South African coastline stretches for some 3000 km from Kosi Bay near the Mozambique border in the east to the Gariep (Orange) River at the Namibian border in the west. Some 300 river outlets intersect this coastline and these range from small water bodies that are only occasionally connected to the ocean, to large, permanently open systems, and coastal lakes connected to the sea via a narrow channel (Heydorn, 1991). Being places where rivers meet the sea, estuaries are one of the most important features of the South African coastline; they are tranquil areas of high productivity and play a vital role in the life cycles of many plants and animals.
Apart from their ecological importance, estuaries are also popular sites for human activity and development. Recreational uses of estuaries include bait collection, bird watching, boating, fishing and swimming. Because of their great aesthetic value, areas around estuaries are often favoured for housing and tourist developments. Read more...
The nine provinces of South Africa are divided into 52 districts (sing. district, Tswana: kgaolo; Sotho: setereke; Northern Sotho: selete; Afrikaans: distrikte; Zulu: isifunda; Southern Ndebele: isiyingi; Xhosa: isithili; Swazi: isigodzi; Venda: tshiṱiriki; Tsonga: xifundza), which are either metropolitan or district municipalities. They are the second level of administrative division, below the provinces and (in the case of district municipalities) above the local municipalities.

As a consequence of the 12th amendment of the Constitution in December 2005, which altered provincial boundaries, the number of districts was reduced from 53. Another effect of the amendment is that each district is now completely contained within a single province, thus eliminating cross-border districts. The districts also cover the entire area of the continental republic. Read more...
The British diaspora in Africa is a population group broadly defined as English-speaking white Africans of mainly (but not only) British descent who live in or come from Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority live in South Africa and other Southern African countries including Zimbabwe (Southern Rhodesia), Namibia (South West Africa), Botswana (Bechuanaland Protectorate), Zambia (Northern Rhodesia), Lesotho (Basutoland) and Swaziland (Formerly under British rule). There are also sizable numbers in Kenya (Kenya Colony), Nigeria (British Nigeria) and Ghana (Gold Coast Colony). Their first language is usually English. The majority of white Africans who speak English as a first language are of British and Irish descent. Read more...
The rand (sign: R; code: ZAR) is the currency of South Africa. The Rand is subdivided into 100 cents (sign: "c"). The ISO 4217 code is ZAR, from Dutch Zuid-Afrikaanse Rand (South African Rand). The Rand is legal tender in the Common Monetary Area between South Africa, Swaziland (Eswatini), Lesotho, and Namibia, although the last three countries do have their own currencies pegged at par with rand.

Before 1976, the rand was legal tender in Botswana. Read more...
The National Intelligence Agency (NIA) was the previous name of an intelligence agency of the South African government. Currently it is known as the Domestic Branch of the State Security Agency. It is responsible for domestic and counter-intelligence within the Republic of South Africa. The branch is run by a Director, who reports to the Director-General of the State Security Agency. The Director is also a member of the National Intelligence Co-Ordinating Committee (NICOC). Read more...
Prior to 1994, immigrants from elsewhere faced discrimination and even violence in South Africa. After majority rule in 1994, contrary to expectations, the incidence of xenophobia increased. Between 2000 and March 2008, at least 67 people died in what were identified as xenophobic attacks. In May 2008, a series of attacks left 62 people dead; although 21 of those killed were South African citizens. The attacks were apparently motivated by xenophobia. In 2015, another nationwide spike in xenophobic attacks against immigrants in general prompted a number of foreign governments to begin repatriating their citizens. Read more...
Born-free generation registering to vote for the first time in the 2014 general election

South Africa since 1994 transitioned from the system of apartheid to one of majority rule. The election of 1994 resulted in a change in government with the African National Congress (ANC) coming to power. The ANC retained power after subsequent elections in 1999, 2004, 2009 and 2014. Children born during this period are known as the born-free generation, and those aged eighteen or older, were able to vote for the first time in 2014. Read more...
King Moshoeshoe I, founder of the Basotho nation, with his Ministers.

The Sotho /ˈsuːtuː/ people, or Basotho /bæˈsuːtuː/, are a Bantu ethnic group of Southern Africa, native to modern Lesotho and South Africa, who speak Sesotho. The Basotho have inhabited that region since around the fifth century and so are closely related to other Bantu peoples of the region.

The modern Basotho identity emerged from the accomplished diplomacy of Moshoeshoe I who gathered together disparate clans of Sotho–Tswana origin that had dispersed across southern Africa in the early 19th century. Most Basotho today live in South Africa, as the area of the Orange Free State was originally part of Moshoeshoe's nation (now Lesotho). Read more...
The Commando System was a mostly voluntary, part-time force of the South African Army, but in their role as local militia the units were often deployed in support of and under the authority of the South African Police. Read more...
In Southern Africa, Cape Coloureds (Afrikaans: Kaapse Kleurling) is the name given to an ethnic group composed primarily of persons of mixed race. Although Cape Coloureds form a minority group within South Africa, they are the predominant population group in the Western Cape.

They are generally bilingual, though some speak only Afrikaans, and others primarily speak English. Some Cape Coloureds may "code switch", speaking a patois of Afrikaans and English called Kaapse Afrikaans also known as Cape Slang (Capy) or "Kombuis Afrikaans", meaning Kitchen Afrikaans. Cape Coloureds were defined under the apartheid regime as a subset of the larger Coloured race group. Read more...
South Africans have a passionate following, although they remain divided along ethnic lines. Football, cricket and rugby are the most popular sports.

Rugby union has traditionally been the most popular sport in South Africa amongst white South Africans. The national rugby team is nicknamed The Springboks. South Africa hosted the 1995 Rugby World Cup, the first one hosted in Africa. Read more...
The South African National Academy of Intelligence (SANAI) is responsible for training the members of the South African intelligence services and agencies. The South African National Academy of Intelligence is a part of the State Security Agency. Read more...
This is a list of political parties in South Africa. South Africa is a democratic but one-party dominant state with the African National Congress in power. Read more...
The military history of South Africa chronicles a vast time period and complex events from the dawn of history until the present time. It covers civil wars and wars of aggression and of self-defence both within South Africa and against it. It includes the history of battles fought in the territories of modern South Africa in neighbouring territories, in both world wars and in modern international conflicts. Read more...
The South African Police Service (SAPS) is the national police force of the Republic of South Africa. Its 1,138 police stations in South Africa are divided according to the provincial borders, and a Provincial Commissioner is appointed in each province. The nine Provincial Commissioners report directly to the National Commissioner. The head office is in the Wachthuis Building in Pretoria.

The Constitution of South Africa lays down that the South African Police Service has a responsibility to prevent, combat and investigate crime, maintain public order, protect and secure the inhabitants of the Republic and their property, uphold and enforce the law, create a safe and secure environment for all people in South Africa, prevent anything that may threaten the safety or security of any community, investigate any crimes that threaten the safety or security of any community, ensure criminals are brought to justice and participate in efforts to address the causes of crime. Read more...
The Griqua (/ˈɡriːkwə/; Afrikaans: Griekwa, sometimes incorrectly referred to as Korana or Koranna) are a subgroup of Southern Africa's heterogeneous and multiracial Coloured people, who have a unique origin in the early history of the Cape Colony.

Similar to the Trekboers, another Afrikaans-speaking group at the time, they originally populated the frontiers of the nascent Cape Colony (founded in 1652). The men of their semi-nomadic society were mobilised into commando units of mounted gunmen, but chose to leave Dutch society. Also like the Boers, they migrated inland from the Cape, and in the 19th century established several states in what are now South Africa and Namibia. Read more...
During World War II, many South Africans saw military service. The Union of South Africa participated with other British Commonwealth forces in battles in North Africa against Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps, and many South African pilots joined the Royal Air Force and fought against the Axis powers in the European theatre. Read more...
The Prehistory of South Africa (and, inseparably, the wider region of Southern Africa) lasts from the Middle Stone Age until the 17th century. Southern Africa was first reached by Homo sapiens before 130,000 years ago, possibly before 260,000 years ago.
The region remained in the Late Stone Age until the first traces of pastoralism were introduced about 2,000 years ago.
The Bantu migration reached the area about 1,500 years ago, largely displacing the indigenous Khoisanid population. Early Bantu kingdoms were established by the 11th century.
First European contact dates to 1488, European colonization of the interior begins in the 17th century (see History of South Africa (1652–1815)). Read more...
Schematic of the South African court system

The courts of South Africa are the civil and criminal courts responsible for the administration of justice in South Africa. They apply the law of South Africa and are established under the Constitution of South Africa or under Acts of the Parliament of South Africa.

Despite South Africa's division into nine provinces, the country has a single national court system. The courts are funded and supported by the national Department of Justice and Constitutional Development. The ordinary courts are the district and regional magistrates' courts, the provincial divisions of the High Court, and the Supreme Court of Appeal. The Constitutional Court is the highest court for constitutional matters. Read more...
The South African music scene includes both popular (jive) and folk forms. Pop styles are based on four major sources,^[which?] Zulu isicathamiya singing and harmonic mbaqanga. South Africa also supports a music industry. Read more...
Graph of South Africa's murder rate (murders per 100,000 people) over a 100-year period from 1915 to 2015. The murder rate increased rapidly in the 1980s reaching its peak in 1993 then decreasing until bottoming out in 2011.

South Africa has a notably high rate of murders, assaults, rapes and other violent crimes, compared to most countries. Read more...
Trade unions in South Africa have a history dating back to the 1880s. From the beginning unions could be viewed as a reflection of the racial disunity of the country, with the earliest unions being predominantly for white workers. Through the turbulent years of 1948–1991 trade unions played an important part in developing political and economic resistance, and eventually were one of the driving forces in realising the transition to an inclusive democratic government.

Today trade unions are still an important force in South Africa, with 3.11 million members representing 25.3% of the formal work force. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) is the largest of the three major trade union centres, with a membership of 1.8 million, and is part of the Tripartite alliance with the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP). Read more...
Bantu-speaking areas of Africa, divided into zones following the Guthrie classification.

The Bantu peoples are the speakers of Bantu languages, comprising several hundred indigenous ethnic groups in sub-Saharan Africa, spread over a vast area from Central Africa across the African Great Lakes to Southern Africa.
Linguistically, the Bantu languages belong to the Southern Bantoid branch of Benue–Congo, one of the language families grouped within the Niger–Congo phylum.

The total number of Bantu languages ranges in the hundreds, depending on the definition of "language" vs. "dialect" estimated at between 440 and 680 distinct languages.
The total number of Bantu speakers is in the hundreds of millions, ranging at roughly 350 million in the mid-2010s (roughly 30% of the total population of Africa, or roughly 5% of world population).
About 60 million Bantu speakers (2015), divided into some 200 ethnic or tribal groups, are found in the Democratic Republic of Congo alone. Read more...
The Republic of South Africa is a parliamentary republic with three-tier system of government and an independent judiciary, operating in a parliamentary system. Legislative authority is held by the Parliament of South Africa. Executive authority is vested in the President of South Africa who is head of state and head of government, and his Cabinet. The President is elected by the Parliament to serve a fixed term. South Africa's government differs greatly from those of other Commonwealth nations. The national, provincial and local levels of government all have legislative and executive authority in their own spheres, and are defined in the South African Constitution as "distinctive, interdependent and interrelated".

Operating at both national and provincial levels ("spheres") are advisory bodies drawn from South Africa's traditional leaders. It is a stated intention in the Constitution that the country be run on a system of co-operative governance. Read more...
Human rights in South Africa are protected under the constitution. The 1998 Human Rights report by Myles Nadioo noted that the government generally respected the rights of the citizens; however, there were concerns over the use of force by law enforcement, legal proceedings and discrimination. The Human Rights Commission is mandated by the South African Constitution and the Human Rights Commission Act of 1994, to monitor, both pro-actively and by way of complaints brought before it, violations of human rights and seeking redress for such violations. It also has an educational role. Read more...

Did you know...

... that the South African National Defence Force initially used the South African Defence Force Ensign, which contained the former flag of South Africa, despite the adoption of a new national flag?
... that Latvian-born Lazar Bach became chair of the Communist Party of South Africa, but died in a Gulag?
... that the first ice rink in South Africa was created for the 1936 Empire Exhibition?
... that pianist Abdullah Ibrahim recorded the Cape jazz instrumental "Mannenberg" in response to the forced relocation of Coloured families by the South African government during apartheid?
... that the Czech fossil ant Odontomachus paleomyagra has mandibles notably similar to those of a related South African species?
... that South African footballer Lorenzo Gordinho joined the Kaizer Chiefs academy at the age of 15?

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Selected images

Annual per capita personal income by race group in South Africa relative to white levels
Cape Floral Region Protected Areas
Drakensberg, the eastern and highest portion of the Great Escarpment which surrounds the east, south and western borders of the central plateau of Southern Africa
Nelson Mandela, first black African President of Republic of South Africa
Decorated houses, Drakensberg
Map showing the dominant South African languages by area
  Zulu (22.7%)
  Xhosa (16.0%)
  ⁠Afrikaans (13.5%)
  English (9.6%)
  Northern Sotho (9.1%)
  Tswana (8.0%)
  Southern Sotho (7.6%)
  Tsonga (4.5%)
  Swazi (2.5%)
  Venda (2.4%)
  Southern Ndebele (2.1%)
  None dominant
Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk in Wolmaransstad
Köppen climate types of South Africa
South African giraffe, Kruger National Park
Mapungubwe Hill, the site of the former capital of the Kingdom of Mapungubwe
Map of population density in South Africa
  <1 /km²
  1–3 /km²
  3–10 /km²
  10–30 /km²
  30–100 /km²
  100–300 /km²
  300–1000 /km²
  1000–3000 /km²
  >3000 /km²
Leaders of the BRICS nations at the G-20 summit in Hangzhou, 2016
SANDF soldiers
Houses of Parliament in Cape Town, seat of the legislature
Rock painting of an eland, Drakensberg
Charles Davidson Bell's 19th-century painting of Jan van Riebeeck, who founded the first European settlement in South Africa, arrives in Table Bay in 1652
Lowveld vegetation of the Kruger National Park
Important geographical regions in South Africa. The thick line traces the course of the Great Escarpment which edges the central plateau. The eastern portion of this line, coloured red, is known as the Drakensberg. The Escarpment rises to its highest point, at over 3,000 m (9,800 ft), where the Drakensberg forms the border between KwaZulu-Natal and Lesotho. None of the regions indicated on the map has a sharp well-defined border, except where the Escarpment or a range of mountains forms a clear dividing line between two regions. Some of the better known regions are coloured in; the others are simply indicated by their names, as they would be in an atlas
The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) is the largest stock exchange on the African continent
Schoolchildren in Mitchell's Plain
FW de Klerk and Nelson Mandela shake hands in January 1992
Workers packing pears for export in the Ceres Valley, Western Cape
"For use by white persons" – apartheid sign in English and Afrikaans
The Springboks in a bus parade after winning the 2007 Rugby World Cup
Mark Shuttleworth in space
Soweto Pride 2012 participants protest against violence against lesbians. The country has strong human rights laws but some groups are still discriminated against. It is the first country in Africa to recognise same sex marriage
HIV/AIDS has caused a fall in life expectancy.
Constitutional Court in Johannesburg
African buffalo (Syncerus caffer) male with red-billed oxpecker (Buphagus erythrorhynchus), Phinda Private Game Reserve, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa
Union Buildings in Pretoria, seat of the executive
A map of South Africa showing the main topographic features: the Central Plateau edged by the Great Escarpment, and the Cape Fold Belt in the south-west corner of the country
Flat topped hills (called Karoo Koppies) are highly characteristic of the southern and southwestern Karoo landscape. These hills are capped by hard, erosion resistant dolerite sills. This is solidified lava that was forced under high pressure between the horizontal strata of the sedimentary rocks that make up most of the Karoo's geology about 180 million years ago. Since then, Southern Africa has undergone a prolonged period of erosion removing the relatively soft Karoo rocks, except where they are protected by a cap of dolerite. This photograph was taken near Cradock in the Eastern Cape
Migrations that formed the modern Rainbow nation
Subtropical forest near Durban
Depiction of a Zulu attack on a Boer camp in February 1838
Boers in combat (1881)
Provinces of South Africa
Olive Schreiner
Spring flowers in Namaqualand

In the news

22 January 2019 –: Five foreign demining experts, identified as two South Africans, one Croatian, one Bosnian and one Kosovar, are killed in an accidental explosion in Yemen. (BBC)
8 January 2019 – Mountain View train collision: Two passenger trains collide in Pretoria, South Africa, killing at least four people and injuring at least 620 others. (ABC News)