South Africa

South Africa has three capital cities: Pretoria (executive,

500,000 inhabitants), Bloemfontein

(judicial, 650,000 inhabitants) and

Cape Town (legislative,

3,500,000 inhabitants). The

most important city is Johannesburg, with

4,000,000 inhabitants.

There are 50 million inhabitants in South Africa. 80% of them are black, 9% white, 9% coloured and 2%

Asian.

There are 11 official languages, such as Zulu, Xhosa, English, Afrikaans, etc… which are the most spoken languages in the country.

Most of the population (about 80%) is Christian.

The national currency is the rand.10 rands ≈ 1 euro

South Africa is well-known for the diversity of its culture (it is called the Rainbow Nation), the disparities in wealth, its beautiful landscape, national team of rugby, gold and diamonds…

A famous people: Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela is a political man who fought against apartheid, the segregation politic led by the whites. He was born in Mvezo, on July, 18th 1918. In 1964, he was imprisoned by the government and was released 26 years after. He became the first black president of South Africa and got the Noble Price of Peace in 1993. So he is a major emblem of South Africa and loved by the population.

A famous place: Johannesburg

The most important city in the country is famous for its contrast between the big wealthy centre…

…and the huge townships all around the city, very unsafe.

An event: Freedom DayFreedom day is a public holiday which takes place on April 27th. It commemorates the first national non-racial election, which took place that day, in 1994. This national day was instituted by Nelson Mandela in 1995.

The national rugby team emblemThe team’s nickname is “The Springboks”, a sort of gazelle which lives in South Africa and Namibia. The flower is a Royal Protea, an other symbol of the country.

A springbok

And a protea

The Flag

The South African flag is composed of six colours: black, green and yellow remind of the African National Congress, the most important political party, red, blue and white the colours of Nederland ant United Kingdom’s flags. The shape means that despite the very mixed society, everybody go in the same way and is united.

The former flag, used from 1928 till 1994, so during Apartheid was composed of three stripes: orange, white and blue, and the flags of United Kingdom, Orange Free State, an independent republic in South Africa, and Transvaal, a province of the country. This flag represent only the white population but blacks were totally excluded.