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Shores of S. Africa

South Africa - Country Information

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Background: 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). The resulting Union of South Africa operated under a policy of apartheid - the separate development of the races. The 1990s brought an end to apartheid politically and ushered in black majority rule.

Geography

Location: Southern Africa, at the southern tip of the continent of Africa

Area: total: 1,219,912 sq km (all land no water)

Land boundaries: total: 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

Climate: mostly semiarid; subtropical along east coast; sunny days, cool nights

Terrain: vast interior plateau rimmed by rugged hills and narrow coastal plain

Natural resources: gold, chromium, antimony, coal, iron ore, manganese, nickel, phosphates, tin, uranium, gem diamonds, platinum, copper, vanadium, salt, natural gas

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People

Population: 43,997,828
note: estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2007 est.)

Age structure: 0-14 years: 29.1% (male 6,447,623/female 6,370,909), 15-64 years: 65.5% (male 14,040,210/female 14,761,179), 65 years and over: 5.4% (male 917,227/female 1,460,680) (2007 est.)

Median age: total: 24.3 years, male: 23.5 years, female: 25.1 years (2007 est.)

Population Growth Rate: -0.46% (2007 est.)

Birth rate: 17.94 births/1,000 population (2007 est.)

Death rate: 22.45 deaths/1,000 population (2007 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 59.44 deaths/1,000 live births (2007 est.)

Life expectancy at birth: total population: 42.45 years, male: 43.21 years, female: 41.66 years (2007 est.)

HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate: 21.5% (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS: 5.3 million (2003 est.)

HIV/AIDS - deaths: 370,000 (2003 est.)

Ethnic groups: black African 79%, white 9.6%, colored 8.9%, Indian/Asian 2.5% (2001 census)

Religions: Zion Christian 11.1%, Pentecostal/Charismatic 8.2%, Catholic 7.1%, Methodist 6.8%, Dutch Reformed 6.7%, Anglican 3.8%, Muslim 1.5%, other Christian 36%, other 2.3%, unspecified 1.4%, none 15.1% (2001 census)

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 (definition: age 15 and over can read and write): total population: 86.4%, male: 87%, female: 85.7% (2003 est.)

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Government

Official Name: Republic of South Africa

Government type: Republic

Capital: Pretoria (administrative capital); Cape Town (legislative capital); Bloemfontein (judicial capital)

Independence (from Portugal ): May 31, 1910 (Union of South Africa formed from four British colonies: Cape Colony, Natal, Transvaal, and Orange Free State); May 31, 1961 (republic declared)

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Economy

Overview: 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 ranks among the 10 largest in the world; and a modern infrastructure supporting an efficient distribution of goods to major urban centers throughout the region. However, growth has not been strong enough to lower South Africa's high unemployment rate, and daunting economic problems remain from the apartheid era - especially poverty and lack of economic empowerment among the disadvantaged groups. South African economic policy is fiscally conservative but pragmatic focusing on targeting inflation and liberalizing trade as means to increase job growth and household income.

Annual GDP: $587.5 billion (2006 est.)

GDP - per capita: $13,300 (2006 est.)

GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 2.6%, industry: 30.3%, services: 67.1% (2006 est.)

Population below poverty line: 50% (2000 est.)

Labor force: 16.09 million economically active (2006 est.)

Labor force - by occupation: services 45%, agriculture 30%, industry 25% (1997 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

Agriculture - products: corn, wheat, sugarcane, fruits, vegetables; beef, poultry, mutton, wool, dairy products

Exports - commodities: gold, diamonds, platinum, other metals and minerals, machinery and equipment

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Communications

Telephone Lines in use: 4.729 million (2005)

Cellular Phones: 33.96 million (2005)

Television Broadcast Stations: 556 (plus 144 network repeaters) (1997)

Internet Users:5.1 million (2005)

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Transportation

Railways: 20,872 km

Highways: total: 362,099 km, paved: 73,506 km, unpaved: 288,593 km

Airports - with paved runways: 146

Airports - with unpaved runways: 585

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Transnational Issues

Disputes - International: 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 & Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs): refugees (country of origin): 10,609 (Democratic Republic of Congo), 7,548 (Somalia), 5,764 (Angola) (2006)

Trafficking in Persons: current situation: South Africa is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for forced labor and sexual exploitation; women and girls are trafficked internally - and occasionally to European and Asian countries - for sexual exploitation; women from other African countries are trafficked to South Africa and, less frequently, onward to Europe for sexual exploitation; men and boys are trafficked from neighboring countries for forced agricultural labor; Asian and Eastern European women are trafficked to South Africa for debt-bonded sexual exploitation
tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - South Africa is placed on the Tier 2 Watch List for its failure to show increasing efforts to address trafficking in 2005.

Information from the CIA World Factbook 2007
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sf.html

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