KEY FACTS
Joined Commonwealth: 1931 (Statute of Westminster; left in 1961, rejoined in 1994)
Population: 52,386,000 (2012)
GDP p.c. growth: 1.0% p.a. 1990–2012
UN HDI 2012: world ranking 121
Official languages: 11 most widely spoken
Time: GMT plus 2hr
Currency: Rand (R)
Geography
Area: 1,221,038 sq km
Coastline: 2,800 km
Capital: Pretoria
The Republic of South Africa has land borders with: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Swaziland. Its sea borders are with the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Lesotho is enclosed within its land area. The country comprises nine provinces: Eastern Cape (provincial capital Bhisho), Free State (Bloemfontein), Gauteng (Johannesburg),KwaZulu–Natal (Pietermaritzburg), Limpopo (Polokwane), Mpumalanga (Nelspruit), Northern Cape (Kimberley), North-West (Mafikeng) and Western Cape (Cape Town).
Main towns:
Pretoria (administrative capital, Gauteng, pop. 1.72m in 2010), Cape Town (legislative capital, Western Cape, 3.65m), Durban (KwaZulu–Natal, 3.51m), Johannesburg (Gauteng, 2.06m), Soweto (Gauteng, 1.80m), Nelson Mandela Metropole (Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, 1.18m), Pietermaritzburg (KwaZulu–Natal, 937,600), Benoni (Gauteng, 679,100), Welkom (Free State, 614,500), Bloemfontein (judicial capital, Free State, 609,000), Tembisa (Gauteng, 599,700), Boksburg (Gauteng, 488,600), Sihlangu (KwaZulu–Natal, 483,600), Vereeniging (Gauteng, 482,100), East London (Eastern Cape, 456,400), Krugersdorp (Gauteng, 422,900), Botshabelo (Free State, 416,800), Brakpan (Gauteng, 364,100), Richards Bay (KwaZulu–Natal, 335,900), Emalahleni (Mpumalanga, 320,700), Kimberley (Northern Cape, 184,800), Bhisho (Eastern Cape, 148,600), Polokwane (Limpopo, 140,200), Nelspruit (Mpumalanga, 118,600) and Mafikeng (North-West).
Society
KEY FACTS 2012
Population per sq km: 43
Life expectancy: 56 years
Net primary enrolment: 85%
Population:
52,386,000 (2012); 62 per cent of people live in urban areas and 34 per cent in urban agglomerations of more than one million people; growth 1.6 per cent p.a. 1990–2012; birth rate 21 per 1,000 people (38 in 1970); life expectancy 56 years (53 in 1970 and 61 in 1990). People of African origin constitute 79.0 per cent of the population (2001 census), European origin 9.6 per cent, mixed descent 8.9 per cent (‘coloureds’) and Asian origin 2.5 per cent. The African linguistic groups comprise Zulu (23.8 per cent of the total population), Xhosa (17.6 per cent), Pedi (9.4 per cent), Tswana (8.2 per cent), Sotho (7.9 per cent), Tsonga (4.4 per cent), Swati (2.7 per cent), Venda (2.3 per cent) and several smaller groups. The ‘coloureds’ include descendants of slaves brought from Malaya, Indonesia and Madagascar, and the Khoi-Khoi people of the Cape. There is also a substantial flow of inward migration of people seeking employment, most from neighbouring countries such as Lesotho, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
Language:
Official languages are Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Sesotho sa Leboa (Northern Sotho), Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu.
Education:
Public spending on education was six per cent of GDP in 2010. There are nine years of compulsory education starting at the age of seven. Primary school comprises seven years and secondary five, with cycles of two and three years. The school year starts in January. In January 2012, the Council on Higher Education recognised 23 public universities, including two concentrating on distance education and six universities of technology. It had also registered 88 private higher education institutions and a further 27 were provisionally registered. There are some 892,940 students in public higher education institutions, some 138,610 of whom are postgraduate students (2010). Literacy among people aged 15–24 is 98 per cent (2007). South Africa hosted the 16th Commonwealth Conference of Education Ministers in Cape Town in December 2006. Commonwealth Education Ministers meet every three years to discuss issues of mutual concern and interest.
