South Africa
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South Africa is a nation at the southern tip of the continent of Africa where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. The country has a vast interior plateau rimmed by rugged hills and a narrow coastal plain. South Africa completely surrounds Lesotho and almost completely surrounds Swaziland.
South Africa's major environmental issues include: lack of important arterial rivers or lakes requires extensive water conservation and control measures; growth in water usage outpacing supply; pollution of rivers from agricultural runoff and urban discharge; air pollution resulting in acid rain; soil erosion; and, desertification.
Dutch traders landed at the southern tip of modern day South Africa in 1652 and established a stopover point on the spice route between the Netherlands and the East, founding the city of Cape Town. After the British seized the Cape of Good Hope area in 1806, many of the Dutch settlers (the Boers) trekked north to found their own republics. The discovery of diamonds (1867) and gold (1886) spurred wealth and immigration and intensified the subjugation of the native inhabitants. The Boers resisted British encroachments but were defeated in the Boer War (1899-1902); however, the British and the Afrikaners, as the Boers became known, ruled together under the Union of South Africa. In 1948, the National Party was voted into power and instituted a policy of apartheid - the separate development of the races. The first multi-racial elections in 1994 brought an end to apartheid and ushered in black majority rule under the African National Congress (ANC) and its leader Nelson Mandela. ANC infighting, which has grown in recent years, came to a head in September 2008 after President Thabo Mbeki resigned. Jacob Zuma became President in 2009.
Geography
Location: Southern Africa, at the southern tip of the continent of Africa
Geographic Coordinates: 29 00 S, 24 00 E
Area: 1,219,912 km2 (1,219,912 km2 land and 0 km2 water) note: includes Prince Edward Islands (Marion Island and Prince Edward Island)
arable land: 12.1%
permanent crops: 0.79%
other: 87.11% (2005)
Land Boundaries: 4,862 km. Border countries: Botswana 1,840 km, Lesotho 909 km, Mozambique 491 km, Namibia 967 km, Swaziland 430 km, Zimbabwe 225 km
Coastline: 2,798 km
Maritime Claims:
territorial sea: 12 nm
contiguous zone: 24 nm
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
continental shelf: 200 nm or to edge of the continental margin
Natural Hazards: prolonged droughts
Terrain: Vast interior plateau rimmed by rugged hills and narrow coastal plain. Its lowest point is the Atlantic Ocean (0 metres) and its highest point is Njesuthi (3,408 metres).
Climate: Mostly semiarid; subtropical along east coast; sunny days, cool nights
Government
Government Type: republic
Capital: Pretoria
Independence Date: 31 May 1910 (Union of South Africa formed from four British colonies: Cape Colony, Natal, Transvaal, and Orange Free State); 31 May 1961 (republic declared) 27 April 1994 (majority rule)
Legal System: based on Roman-Dutch law and English common law; has not accepted compulsory International Court of Justice jurisdiction
Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal
International Environmental Agreements
South Africa is party to international agreements on: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Seals, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands, and Whaling.
People and Society
Population: 43,786,115
Age Structure:
0-14 years: 28.6% (male 6,295,422/female 6,219,283)
15-64 years: 65.9% (male 14,114,838/female 14,737,791)
65 years and over: 5.5% (male 927,932/female 1,490,849) (2008 est.)
Population Growth Rate: -0.501% (2008 est.)
Birth Rate: 17.71 births/1,000 population (2008 est.)
Death Rate: 22.7 deaths/1,000 population (2008 est.)
Net Migration Rate: -0.02 migrant(s)/1,000 population. Note: there is an increasing flow of Zimbabweans into South Africa and Botswana in search of better economic opportunities (2008 est.)
Life Expectancy at Birth: 48.98 years (2009 est.)
Total Fertility Rate: 2.11 children born/woman (2008 est.)
Languages: IsiZulu 23.8%, IsiXhosa 17.6%, Afrikaans 13.3%, Sepedi 9.4%, English 8.2%, Setswana 8.2%, Sesotho 7.9%, Xitsonga 4.4%, other 7.2% (2001 census)
Literacy (2003 est.): 86.4% (male: 87% - female: 85.7%)
Water
Total Renewable Water Resources: 50 cu km (1990)
Freshwater Withdrawal (2000): Total: 12.5 cu km/yr (31% domestic, 6% industrial, 63% agricultural). Per capita: 264 cu m/yr
Agriculture
Agricultural Products: corn, wheat, sugarcane, fruits, vegetables; beef, poultry, mutton, wool, dairy products
Irrigated Land: 14,980 sq km (2003)
Resources
Natural Resources: gold, chromium, antimony, coal, iron ore, manganese, nickel, phosphates, tin, uranium, gem diamonds, platinum, copper, vanadium, salt, natural gas.
Energy
| Energy in South Africa | |||||
| Production | Consumption | Exports | Imports | Reserves | |
| Electricity | 264 billion kWh (2007) | 241.4 billion kWh (2007) | 13.42 billion kWh (2005) | 11.32 billion kWh (2007) | |
| Oil | 200,000 bbl/day (2006 est.) | 519,000 bbl/day (2006 est.) | 217,700 bbl/day (2004) | 319,000 bbl/day (2006 est.) | 15 million bbl (1 January 2007 est.) |
| Natural Gas | 2.11 billion cu m (2005 est.) | 2.11 billion cu m (2005 est.) | 0 cu m (2005 est.) | 0 cu m (2005) | 27.16 million cu m (1 January 2006 est.) |
| Source: CIA Factbook | |||||
Health
Prevalence Rate of HIV/AIDS in Adults: 21.5% (2003 est.)
Major Infectious Diseases: Degree of risk: intermediate
food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever
vectorborne disease: Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever and malaria
water contact disease: schistosomiasis (2008)
Conflict
International Disputes: South Africa has placed military along the border to apprehend the thousands of Zimbabweans fleeing economic dysfunction and political persecution; as of January 2007, South Africa also supports large numbers of refugees and asylum seekers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (33,000), Somalia (20,000), Burundi (6,500), and other states in Africa (26,000); managed dispute with Namibia over the location of the boundary in the Orange River; in 2006, Swazi king advocates resort to ICJ to claim parts of Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal from South Africa
Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons: refugees (country of origin): 10,772 (Democratic Republic of Congo); 7,818 (Somalia); 5,759 (Angola) (2007)
Economy
South Africa is a middle-income, emerging market with an abundant supply of natural resources; well-developed financial, legal, communications, energy, and transport sectors; a stock exchange that is 17th largest in the world; and modern infrastructure supporting an efficient distribution of goods to major urban centers throughout the region. Growth has been robust since 2004, as South Africa has reaped the benefits of macroeconomic stability and a global commodities boom. However, unemployment remains high and outdated infrastructure has constrained growth. At the end of 2007, South Africa began to experience an electricity crisis because state power supplier Eskom suffered supply problems with aged plants, necessitating "load-shedding" cuts to residents and businesses in the major cities. Daunting economic problems remain from the apartheid era - especially poverty, lack of economic empowerment among the disadvantaged groups, and a shortage of public transportation. South African economic policy is fiscally conservative but pragmatic, focusing on controlling inflation, maintaining a budget surplus, and using state-owned enterprises to deliver basic services to low-income areas as a means to increase job growth and household income.
GDP (Purchasing Power Parity): $467.1 billion (2007 est.)
GDP (Official Exchange Rate): $282.6 billion (2007 est.)
GDP- real growth rate: 5.1% (2007 est.)
GDP- per capita (PPP): 9,800 (2007 est.)
GDP- composition by sector:
agriculture: 3.2%
industry: 31.3%
services: 65.5% (2007 est.)
Population Below Poverty Line: 50% (2000 est.)
Industries: mining (world's largest producer of platinum, gold, chromium), automobile assembly, metalworking, machinery, textiles, iron and steel, chemicals, fertilizer, foodstuffs, commercial ship repair
Exports: gold, diamonds, platinum, other metals and minerals, machinery and equipment
Export Partners: US 12.1%, Japan 10.1%, China 8.6%, UK 8.4%, Germany 6.5%, Italy 4.9% (2006)
Imports: machinery and equipment, chemicals, petroleum products, scientific instruments, foodstuffs
Import Partners: Germany 12.2%, China 9.5%, US 6.9%, Japan 5.8%, Saudi Arabia 5.4%, UK 5.3%, Iran 4.1% (2006)
Economic Aid Recipient: $700 million (2005)
Currency: rand (ZAR)
Ports and Terminals: Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Richards Bay, Saldanha Bay
Further Reading