Are you curious to learn some weird and wonderful facts about South Africa?
If so, excellent! You are in exactly the right place my friend…
It’s time to chat about South Africa facts.
Let’s dive right in…
Facts About South Africa
1 – South Africa is the largest economy in Africa with a population of 58.56 million.
2 – South Africa has THREE capital cities: Cape Town, Pretoria and Bloemfontein. The capital city, Pretoria, was founded in 1855 and named after the Dutch politician Andries Pretorius.
3 – The country’s currency is called Rand and it can be subdivided into 100 cents.
4 – South Africa has an area of 1,219,912 sq km (470,831 sq mi) and shares borders with 6 other countries including Zimbabwe to its north-east and Botswana to its north-west, plus Namibia, Mozambique and Swaziland. Lesotho is an independent country that is surrounded entirely by South Africa.
5 – There are 11 official languages of South Africa: Afrikaans, English, Zulu, Xhosa, Southern Sotho Venda, Tswana, Northern Sotho, Tsonga, Swati and Ndebele.
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6 – South Africa’s national motto is “Unity in diversity.”
7 – Cape Town is the second-most populous city in the country with a population of 4,618,000. Johannesburg is the most populated city with a population of 5.6 million.
8 – South Africa has a total area of 1.22 million km2.
9 – There are six colors in the South African flag. It is assumed that green is considered to symbolize the fertility of the land, the red is the blood flowing in conflicts, while black symbolizes the African community. The gold color represents the mineral wealth of the country, the white the European people while the blue represents the endless possibilities for South Africans.
10 – Nelson Mandela was president of South Africa from 1994-1999 and helped end apartheid. Mandela served 27 years in prison before becoming president.
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11 – South Africa has a diverse wildlife that includes these animals that are native to the country: lions, elephants, lion, zebras, rhinos, cape buffalo, cheetah, giraffes, greater kudu bull and gemsbok.
12 – Gold was discovered in 1887 in an area called Krugerrand, which led to the country’s wealth of natural resources.
13 – Apartheid was enforced in South Africa from 1948-1994 with strict racial segregation laws that made it illegal for black people and white people to marry each other, education was segregated, black South Africans could not own property, people were classified into racial groups and the Africa National Congress Party was banned.
14 – The new National Anthem of South Africa was adopted in 1997 and is a hybrid song with English extracts. It is called Nkosi Sikelei iAfrika or Lord Bless Africa.
15 -South Africa has one of the highest rates of crime. It comes third after Venezuela and Papua New Guinea. Between April 2021 to end June 2021 5760 people were killed in South Africa.
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16 – South Africa is divided into nine provinces – Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, Free State, North West, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
17 – Apartheid ended on April 27th 1994 after a vote by Parliament to end it with a 2/3 majority vote making it law that all races had equal rights under one constitution.
18 – There are 7.7 million people living with HIV and approximately 20% of the adult population (15-49) are HIV positive.
19 – It’s home to many different cultures including European (Dutch), African (Xhosa), Indian (Indian Gujarati) as well as British colonial influences (English).
20 – The unemployment rate in South Africa is 28.74%.
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21 – The current president of South Africa is Cyril Ramaphosa who has been serving since 15 February 2018.
22 – South Africa was colonized by Dutch settlers from 1652 until 1806 when it became a British colony; it later gained independence on May 10th 1994 after an anti-apartheid struggle led by Nelson Mandela and other prominent activists such as Desmond Tutu and Steve Biko.
23 – South Africa is the only country to have hosted all three world cups – the Soccer, Cricket and Rugby World Cup.
24 – Howzit is a traditional South African greeting that translates to “Hello” or “How is it? (how are you?)”
25 – Table Mountain in Cape Town is believed to be one of the oldest mountains in the world.
