Facts about South Africa

 

The Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, bordering the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Here are some facts about South Africa.

Facts about South Africa
Fact 1: South Africa is sometimes called the Rainbow Nation’. This term was coined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and later adopted by then President Nelson Mandela.

Fact 2: Racial strife between the black majority and white minority has been a major part in South African history and politics which culminated in apartheid which was introduced in 1948. Apartheid only ended in 1994.

Fact 3: South Africa has three capital cities.

Fact 4: South Africa is a very popular tourist destination and brings in a large portion of South Africa’s revenue.

Fact 5: The main sports played in South Africa are football (soccer), rugby union, cricket and boxing.

Fact 6: South African Trevor Immelman recently won The Masters in Augusta with a score of -8.

Fact 7: The 2010 FIFA World Cup will be held in South Africa.

Fact 8: The South African rugby union team won the Rugby World Cup in 2007.

Fact 9: South Africa has an amazing eleven different official languages (second only to India). The eleven languages are Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga, Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa and isiZulu.

Fact 10: There are also eleven official names for South Africa, one for each different language.

Fact 11: The main religion of South Africa is Christianity (at 79.7% of the population). 15.1% of people have no religious affiliation.

Fact 12: South Africa has an estimated population of 43.8 million.

Fact 13: Only 13.5% of the land in South Africa can be used for crop production due to extreme aridity of the land.

Fact 14: On the 31^st of May, 1961, South Africa became a republic and left the Commonwealth.

Fact 15: The official currency of South Africa is the South African rand (SAR).