Line #20 UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica


1	[[quoteright:329:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/South_Africa_map_4645.gif]]
2
3	The Republic of South Africa[[labelnote:(click here for the official names in its eleven other official languages)]]Zulu: ''iRiphabhuliki yaseNingizimu Afrika'', Xhosa: ''iRiphabhlikhi yoMzantsi Afrika'', Afrikaans: ''Republiek van Suid-Afrika'', Pedi: ''Repabliki ya Afrika-Borwa'', Southern Sotho: ''Rephaboliki ya Afrika Borwa'', Tswana: ''Rephaboliki ya Aforika Borwa'', Tsonga: ''Riphabliki ya Afrika Dzonga'', Swati: ''iRiphabhulikhi yaseNingizimu-Afrika'', Venda: ''Riphabuḽiki ya Afurika Tshipembe'', Southern Ndebele: ''iRiphabliki yeSewula Afrika'', SASL: [[https://africansignlanguagesresourcecenter.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Pasted-Graphic-2.jpg name sign for "South Africa"]] [[/labelnote]] is a Southern UsefulNotes/{{Africa}}n country situated at the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin southern tip of Africa]] and comprises nine provinces. Bordering on UsefulNotes/{{Mozambique}}, UsefulNotes/{{Zimbabwe}}, UsefulNotes/{{Botswana}}, UsefulNotes/{{Namibia}} and UsefulNotes/{{Eswatini}}[[note]]formerly and possibly better known as Swaziland - indeed, see map view to right...[[/note]], and completely surrounding UsefulNotes/{{Lesotho}}, it formed part of the British Commonwealth until it became a republic in 1961, but continued to implement the segregationist laws collectively known as the Apartheid system until 1994, when Nelson Mandela was elected president in the country's first democratic elections. Its capital cities are Pretoria, Bloemfontein and Cape Town, which are recognized respectively as the executive, judicial and legislative capitals (i.e., a separate city for each branch of government). [[note]] Contrary to popular belief, Johannesburg is not a national capital, but the capital of Gauteng Province and the seat of the Constitutional Court. It is, however, very close to Pretoria. Incidentally, Bloemfontein is considered the "judicial capital" because it is the seat of the former Appellate Division, which had been the country's highest court from 1910 to 1994. The Constitutional Court became the highest court on constitutional matters in 1994; the Appellate Division took its current name of the Supreme Court of Appeal three years later. In 2013, the SCA became an intermediate appellate court when the Constitutional Court's jurisdiction was expanded to all matters.[[/note]]
4
5	A sizable country slightly larger than UsefulNotes/{{Colombia}} (and a bit under twice the size of Texas), and with a population of about 50 million, South Africa is home to more SceneryPorn than you can imagine. With dry scrubland, desert, semi-tropical areas and mountains, it's a wonderful ''veld''.
6
7	South Africa has a somewhat complex history, due largely to its diverse ethnic make-up and its extremely unfortunate colonial legacy of segregation. Even though a good deal of progress has been made over the past two decades - it's home to one of the largest, if not ''the'' largest and fastest-growing middle class on the African continent, has the only functioning nuclear reactor in sub-Saharan Africa, and its three largest cities (Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban) were voted into a list of the top 100 places to live in the world - a good half of the population still lives below the poverty line, and housing shortages, not to mention a severely sub-standard education system, a very high crime rate (18,148 murders from April 2008 to March 2009[[note]]That's about twice as many in a month as the UK, with only ten million more people, has in an entire year[[/note]]), a reputation as the "Rape Capital of the World," and a one-in-ten HIV infection rate, all pose serious problems.
8
9	South Africa's earliest inhabitants were most likely the ancestors of the Khoesan, while [[SettlingTheFrontier Nguni settlers moved down]] from sub-Saharan Africa around 300 AD, the most populous of these eventually forming the Xhosa and Zulu tribes.[[note]] Although South Africa contains the Cradle of Humankind, which shows that some of the very first "humans" (if not the first) lived there.[[/note]] The first instance of European contact occurred in 1487, when Bartolomeu Dias, en route to India, rounded the Cape of Storms (later dubbed the Cape of Good Hope, which name is still in use today - the University of Cape Town's motto is ''spes bona''). However, South Africa was not colonised until 1652, when Jan van Riebeeck established a rest colony at the behest of the Dutch East India Company, mainly to supply passing vessels with fresh fruit in order to avoid scurvy. These Dutch settlers would later come to blows with British settlers who arrived during the early nineteenth century, when the British Empire annexed the territory (to keep this critical bit of land en route to [[UsefulNotes/TheRaj India]] away from [[UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte Napoleon]], who [[UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars controlled the Netherlands at the time]]).
10
11	It is worth noting that for some centuries, the most prominent (or at least best-publicised) cultural divide in South Africa was between Dutch-speaking (later Afrikaans-speaking) whites and English-speaking whites. The Dutch eventually seceded from the coastal areas, then known as the Cape Colony, and migrated north in an exodus called the Great Trek in order to found several so-called Boer Republics. (''Trek'' is an old Dutch-Afrikaans term that can refer to a journey, hence ''Franchise/StarTrek'', and ''Boer'' is Dutch for farmer). The most important republics were the Natal or Natalia Republic, the Orange Free State, and the South African Republic (known as Transvaal). Natal was both the first to be founded and the first to be annexed by the also inland-pushing British, causing its white inhabitants to flee further north, where they founded the Free State and Transvaal, that endured until the Boer Wars of the late 19th and early 20th century, when the British annexed them and incorporated them into the Union of South Africa. Many other much smaller, less significant republics were founded and usually soon abandoned across modern South Africa, Botswana, and Namibia. Also, several groups of mixed Dutch and African descent (the ancestors of one of Apartheid-era South Africa's three racial divisions, the "coloureds"), the Griqua, also trekked north and established their own republics, the most important of which were Griqualand East and Griqualand West.
12
13	Between approximately 1830 and 1860, a series of Frontier Wars were being waged by the white settlers, chiefly against the Xhosa, who were migrating south-west, and the Zulu, who had long held the northern areas. The Zulu in particular expanded greatly during the early nineteenth century under the leadership of UsefulNotes/ShakaZulu, whose military conquests over the various smaller tribes and factions in that area led to what was retrospectively termed the Mfecane (or Difaqane in Sotho), which can be translated as 'The Hammering' - viewed positively, it can reference the forging of many small tribes into one; negatively, it aptly describes a series of brutal [[note]] as in, near-genocidal[[/note]] wars. Shaka was renowned during his time for his military genius, which included a series of revolutionary new manoeuvres, the organisation and regimentation of a formal army, and the implementation of new, more efficient weapons; this earned him the nickname of "the African Napoleon". A secession within the Zulu nation spearheaded by Mzilikazi of the Khumalo tribe led to the formation of the Ndebele people in the north; while Moshoeshoe of the Sotho fortified sections of the Drakensberg mountains to found what is today known as Lesotho.
14
15	In colonial history, various colonies implemented some forms of institutionalized racism, such as native reservation systems. Whereas some colonies tried to implement parallel systems of national and local native government, others wanted blacks subjugated, and at least one area outright banned blacks from residing there. The discovery in the latter half of the nineteenth century of both gold and diamonds led to significant economic development, several large-scale British invasions of existing nations (both black and white), and the unification of various colonies and republics into the Union of South Africa. This led to the codification of black South Africans as a cheap, exploitable labor force. The African National Congress (ANC) was originally founded in 1910 (the same year as the formation of the Union of South Africa) to ensure than black South Africans would get equal representation in government and the legal system, which at the time was segregated. Unfortunately, the situation worsened after 1948, when Hendrik Verwoerd (a.k.a. 'The Architect of Apartheid') formalized existing local segregation laws into a national framework of segregation. Following this, the entire political mess created by the new legislation became caught up as part of the Cold War, with the West supporting the apartheid government and the USSR supporting the ANC and its allies... and it went downhill from there. See UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra for further details.
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17	Today, South Africa recognises a whopping ''twelve'' official languages, namely Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, isiXhosa, isiZulu, and most recently (on 3 May 2023) South African Sign Language, though certain other widely-spoken languages (such as Fanagalo (a Zulu-based pidgin used mostly in the mines, albeit with extremely negative connotations) and various Khoesan languages) are also given unofficial recognition. In addition, its many immigrant communities make use of, among others, Portuguese, Mandarin, German, and Hindi. Various languages are also recognized as being used "for primarily religious reasons", including Hebrew and Arabic. The so-called 'click languages' of South Africa, namely isiXhosa and isiZulu, form part of the Nguni family of languages, and make use of three click consonants, denoted by a 'c' for alveolar clicks, an 'x' for lateral clicks, and a 'q' for clicks that have variously been described as velar, palatal, and velar-palatal; placing an 'h' after a consonant, as in 'Xhosa', aspirates it. (The Khoesan languages may make use of as many as six clicks.) English is still the primary medium of business and instruction; Afrikaans dominates local pop music and television. The majority of the population learns it as a second or third language, and it, Afrikaans and sometimes Xhosa or Zulu are used as ''linguae francae''. Very few white South Africans speak a local language besides those two.
18
19	The term Khoesan, it should be noted, is best used to describe a specific family of languages, all of which, save Khoekhoegowab, are considered endangered or moribund due to the dwindling numbers of mother tongue speakers. (Korana, for example, has fewer than ten speakers, all over seventy years old.) In a move deliberately designed to parallel the use of Latin in Western countries, the country's official motto as of 2000 is written in !Xam, rendered ''!ke e: /xarra //ke'', and somewhat hesitantly translated as 'unity through diversity', which is intended to convey the importance of tolerance and acceptance. (The Apartheid Era motto was ''ex unitate vires'', or 'strength through unity'. [[{{Irony}} Just think about that for a second]].) What to call the people themselves is the subject of much debate, especially as "San" was never used by members of the San tribes, and actually appears to have been a fairly derogatory Khoe word. (''Khoe'' itself is best translated as 'people' or 'men'.)
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21	Over twenty separate political parties ran in the 2009 national election, with alignments ranging from the extreme right to the extreme left. The ruling party, at just under two-thirds majority, is the big-tent but broadly economically leftist ANC; its leader, the Zulu-descended Jacob Zuma, was therefore President of the Republic (Parliament elects the President, who is both head of state and of government), until he was ousted from office and replaced by Cyril Rhamaposa. The main opposition party is the Democratic Alliance-considerably more than half of its support now derives from non-whites[[note]]The DA is not a coalition of which the old National Party forms a part; it actually descends directly from the liberal-progressive ''white'' opposition of Apartheid times (whose supporters were mostly non-Afrikaners, e.g. British-descended or recent European immigrants--such as current DA leader Helen Zille, whose parents were Jews escaping UsefulNotes/NaziGermany). After apartheid, the NP became the NNP; they tried an alliance with the predecessor of the DA, hated it, and broke up soon afterward, with many of their members '''joining the ANC.''' Strange but true![[/note]]. A third party, the Congress of the People (also known as COPE, and yes, every joke that can possibly be made already has been) was formed due to an ANC split that occurred in late 2008 after the axing of Former President Thabo Mbeki, and, rather unexpectedly, won 10% of the vote. Besides these three larger parties, there are several dozen smaller parties representing minorities and special-interest groups. Therefore, as in most Parliamentary systems of government, coalitions between parties are very important; stand-offs and close calls between two large parties, as in the American system, just do not happen in South Africa. (Instead, they are liable to occur ''within'' the ANC, behind closed doors: the ANC is a rather large tent, including both near-communist leftists and people, like economic wizard Trevor Manuel, who are definitely neoliberal and might well be viewed as centre-right.)
22
23	The concept of race in post-Apartheid South Africa is complex and fluid. In addition to black South Africans, which group comprises eighty percent of the total population and contains members of multiple ethnic origins and language groups, there is a considerable minority of white South Africans, who may be of Dutch, British, French Huguenot, Israeli, Greek, Portuguese or German descent, and who remain affected by the English/Afrikaans divide. There are also coloured [[note]]the term 'coloured' is not derogatory in South Africa. [[/note]] South Africans, who may be, inclusively, of white, black, Indonesian, Malaysian, Javanese, Arabic and/or Indian descent, and who have an extremely rich and diverse cultural heritage as a result, being mostly Afrikaans-speaking and having a high percentage of Muslims. There are also substantial immigrant groups of Indians, whose ancestors arrived in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century as migrant workers, and of people of Arabic descent, not to mention a Chinese population of around 100,000. There are also nearly 150,000 refugees, the majority from sub-Saharan Africa (and several million illegals); many come from UsefulNotes/{{Zimbabwe}}. Contrary to the image most media would portray, racism is still widespread. Recent controversies surrounding racism include prominent politician Julius Malema[[note]](former leader of the ANC's youth wing until the party expelled him, he now leads the hard-left Economic Freedom Fighters party)[[/note]], who sings a song called "Shoot the Boer" at rallies[[note]]"Shoot the Boers, they are rapists, shoot them, the cowards ..."[[/note]]. Afrikaaner folk singer Bok van Blerk also stirred up controversy with several songs celebrating the Boer War and the Boer people's heroic doomed struggle with the British. These were seen by black politicians as coded incitements to the white race to rise up and restore UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra. One anthem celebrating [[UsefulNotes/TheSecondBoerWar Boer War]] leader [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41Hra8tZgEU&index=4&list=PLIa36ETako3MaZaw7-I0qEuflOniBvTWd Koos de la Rey]], with the chorus "who will lead the Boer people now?", was taken up as a rallying song by far-right nationalist and racist groups and was banned from SA radio and TV. Defenders of van Blerk pointed out he is no racist, and the obvious DoubleStandard in the fact that there's no sign of "Kill the Boers!" being banned from public performance as a racist incitement. Controversy continues. Recent years have also seen an upswing in xenophobic prejudice, the chief target of this being the refugees (although its debatable whether you can blame racism for the anti-refugee riots, seeing as in many cases the refugees and rioters were even from the same tribe)[[note]]There are several examples, but the one that comes to mind is the Shona, the largest ethnic group in Zimbabwe.[[/note]].
24
25	South Africa hosted the [[UsefulNotes/TheWorldCup 2010 FIFA World Cup]], which was widely regarded as a resounding success and has proved to be a landmark event for the country - its only truly unfortunate outcome was to instill in the world at large a [[MemeticMutation perverse fascination]] with the South African custom of blowing into plastic horns called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl5iQFKygxw "vuvuzelas"]] during matches. [[note]]Which is also strange to many South Africans (predominantly those who didn't watch soccer previously).[[/note]] South Africa is also a big cricketing nation, and its men's national UsefulNotes/{{rugby union}} team, the Springboks, is rather good too (being somewhere in the international top 5 at any given time, and having won the two most recent [men's] Rugby World Cups in 2019 and 2023). Creator/JRRTolkien was born in this country.
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27
28
29	[[index]]
30	* UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra
31	* UsefulNotes/SouthAfricansWithSurfaceToAirMissiles
32	[[/index]]
33
34	!!South Africa and South Africans in fiction:
35
36	It's worth pointing out that South Africa did not even get television at all until 1976 (well after most of Africa) - the apartheid regime blocked it for moral and political reasons. Even after that, a boycott by British acting union Equity precluded sales of their programmes for a while and SA was limited to US imports.
37
38	* ''Series/DieLieweHeksie'' dates right back to the beginnings of South African television, and is an enchantingly guileless puppet show for kids about the adventures of a rather dim young witch in an idealised fantasy version of [=SA=].
39	* ''Film/BloodDiamond'' brings us real-life South African Creator/ArnoldVosloo, playing South African colonel Coetzee. He even speaks Afrikaans at some points in the film.
40	* ''Film/DiamondsAreForever'' begins in South Africa (and the novel ends there)
41	* Nikki Alexander from ''Series/SilentWitness'' was born in South Africa and sent to England around eleven to complete her education. One episode saw the trio go to the country, investigating the murder of ANC activists in 1985 and also a body fished up in Hout Bay.
42	* The British series ''Series/{{Wild at Heart}}'', involving a game park in South Africa.
43	* Clint Eastwood's ''Film/{{Invictus}}'', a modestly fictionalized account of the Springboks' first Rugby World Cup win in 1995.
44	* ''Film/{{District 9}}''
45	* ''Film/{{Chappie}}'', which is basically a vehicle for the South African duo Music/DieAntwoord
46	* ''ComicStrip/MadamAndEve'', a popular [[PrintLongRunners long-running newspaper comic strip]] that started in 1992.
47	* ''Film/TheColorOfFriendship'', a Disney Channel Original Movie based on the true story of Piper Dellums, the daughter of the anti-apartheid congressman Ron Dellums who befriends a well-off Caucasian girl from South Africa through a student exchange program.
48	* In the ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse, Flintheart Glomgold was a Boer and made his riches on the Rand, as seen during Creator/DonRosa's ''ComicBook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck''. (In ''WesternAnimation/{{DuckTales\|1987}}'' [1987–1990], however, he's Scottish, just like Scrooge.)
49	** ''WesternAnimation/{{DuckTales\|2017}}'' (2017–2021) decided to split the difference and made Flintheart a Boer ''pretending'' to be Scottish in order to one-up Scrooge.
50	* The book ''Literature/CryTheBelovedCountry'' and film based on the book are set in South Africa.
51	* ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'': Johannesburg is the setting where the [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk Hulk]] and ComicBook/IronMan battle it out. [[ArtisticLicenceGeography Not as close to the coast as the movie implies.]]
52	* ''Literature/TheFirstRuleOfSurvival'' deals with the complexities of policing in post-apartheid South Africa and the problems the nation is experiencing in deciding what sort of a police force it wants and needs; it is seen through the eyes of white Afrikaaner officers who began in the service prior to 1994 and who realise they are seen as unwanted hangovers from the old regime. The politics and infighting in the police service are given prominence, set in a wider South African context of racial groups jockeying for position in the new state.
53	* ''Film/LethalWeapon2'' sees Riggs and Murtaugh facing off against with a South African diplomat who uses his office as cover for his drug trading activities, and constantly gloats that they can't lay a finger on him thanks to his "[[DiplomaticImpunity diplomatic immunity]]".
54	* ''Film/BreakerMorant'': Australian film set during the Boer War and based on actual events.
55	* Creator/HjalmarThesen
56	* Creator/TomKratman:
57	** In ''Literature/{{Caliphate}}'', South Africa nearly collapsed by the start of the 21st century, due to high incidences of AIDS and incredible amounts of government corruption. However, refugee Europeans immigrated to South Africa to escape the spread of Islam in Europe, and when the inevitable civil war happened, the Boers and the refugee Europeans won. Africa south of the Sahara was under their control, with only the Zulu spared white rule. The Boers, however, have learned their mistakes from apartheid, so they rule only moderately as possible, and honor their agreements made with the Zulus in exchange for their assistance during the conflict. Slavery is still legal though: when a Muslim imam in Cape Town urged a jihad against the South African government, the angry Zulus with orders from the government had made a pogrom against Muslims, and the surviving prisoners are sold to the Caliphate. Bernie Matheson is covered as a black South African taxi driver.
58	** South African [=APCs=] are used extensively by the mechanized infantry forces of M-Day in ''Literature/{{Countdown}}'', with a brief scene in the first book showing how the country has declined, following the general decay of the world at large.
59	* Let's not forget South African actors, including Creator/CharlizeTheron and Creator/SharltoCopley.
60	* ''Series/TheDailyShowWithTrevorNoah'''s eponymous host is from Soweto and draws a lot of parallels between the South African (and African) and American political systems.
61	* The Bryce Courtenay novel ''Literature/ThePowerOfOne'' and its follow-up, ''Tandia'' (Courtenay himself was born and raised in South Africa, but emigrated and spent most of his adult life in Australia).
62	* ''Film/SearchingForSugarMan'': A 2012 Academy Award winning documentary about the American FolkRock SingerSongwriter, [[Music/{{Rodriguez}} Sixto Rodriguez]], whose career appeared to be a failure in the 1970s, unaware for decades that he was a superstar in South Africa, until some fans cared enough to seek him out in the 1990s and finally give him the success that was his due.
63	* ''Series/CharlieJade''
64	* In South Africa itself, it's almost a point of mythical pride that the likely source for Ungoliant, Shelob and the Mirkwood spiders in Creator/JRRTolkien's tales... was one of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpactirinae these suckers]]. Many a child in Africa has persistent nightmares lasting well into their teens (if not beyond) about an early, close encounter with an eight-legged wonder of the baboon spider variety, so it's not totally impossible. If unlikely.
65	* A number of South African firearms tend to appear a lot in movies and video games, particularly the Striker/Protecta (Which isn't actually used that much in real life outside of South Africa itself, Israel and Vietnam) and the MGL-140 (Which is actually used by the US military, as well as various police forces around the globe).
66	* Outer Heaven from the ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' series is based in South Africa, specifically 200 km north of Galzburg.
67	* In ''Film/CSATheConfederateStatesOfAmerica'' it's mentioned that South Africa at one point was the only country willing to trade with the Confederate States after an embargo was placed on the CS.
68	* ''VideoGame/SyphonFilter 3'' has two missions set here during the Apartheid Era where you play as Mujari, saving black slaves in a gold mine and nearby compound in Mpumalanga.
69	* The Wrestling/AmericanWrestlingAssociation turned Ed Wiskowski into Col. [=DeBeers=], a militant racist South African {{Politically Incorrect\|Villain}} ForeignWrestlingHeel.
70	* ''[[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHDEKjjDEOWU_v1mhpPugpXVqE1uRFXAo Scout's Safari]]'', a 2002 teen series aired on [[Creator/DiscoveryChannel Discovery Kids]], centers around a teenage girl named Jennifer "Scout" Lauer, who has lived in New York City for most of her life, until her dad is sent on a year-round multinational photography assignment, whereupon she moves to South Africa to live with her mom at a resort/wildlife sanctuary.
71	!! See also:
72	[[index]]
73	* SouthAfricanMedia
74	[[/index]]
75	----
76	[[AC:The South African flag]]
77	https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/south_africa_flag_4017.png
78	->The flag combines the black/green/yellow colors of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_National_Congress African National Congress]], the party of Nelson Mandela and South Africa's dominant party since the end of apartheid, and the red/white/blue of the Netherlands and Great Britain, the nation's former colonial masters. The "Y" design symbolizes the convergence of South Africa's many cultures into a march to the future.
79	----
80	[[AC:The South African national anthem]]
81
82	->Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika
83	->Maluphakanyisw' uphondo lwayo,
84
85	->Yizwa imithandazo yethu,
86	->Nkosi sikelela, thina lusapho Iwayo.
87
88	->Morena boloka setjhaba sa heso,
89	->O fedise dintwa le matshwenyeho,
90	->O se boloke, O se boloke setjhaba sa heso,
91	->Setjhaba sa, South Afrika, South Afrika.
92
93	->Uit die blou van onse hemel,
94	->Uit die diepte van ons see,
95	->Oor ons ewige gebergtes,
96	->Waar die kranse antwoord gee,
97
98	->Sounds the call to come together,
99	->And united we shall stand,
100	->Let us live and strive for freedom,
101	->In South Africa our land.
102
103	--
104
105	->Lord bless Africa
106	->May her glory be lifted high,
107
108	->Hear our prayers
109	->Lord bless us, your children.
110
111	->Lord we ask You to protect our nation,
112	->Intervene and end all conflicts,
113	->Protect us, protect our nation,
114	->Protect South Africa, South Africa.
115
116	->From the blue of our skies,
117	->From the depths of our seas,
118	->Over our everlasting mountains,
119	->Where the echoing crags resound,
120
121	->Sounds the call to come together,
122	->And united we shall stand,
123	->Let us live and strive for freedom,
124	->In South Africa our land.
125	----
126	[[AC:Government]]
127	* Unitary dominant-party parliamentary republic with an executive presidency
128	** President: Cyril Ramaphosa
129	** Deputy President: Paul Mashatile
130	** Chairperson of the National Council: Amos Masondo
131	** Speaker of the National Assembly: Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula
132	----
133	[[AC:Miscellaneous]]
134	* '''Capitals:''' Pretoria (executive), Cape Town (legislative), Bloemfontein (judicial)
135	* '''Largest city:''' Johannesburg
136	* '''Population:''' 59,622,350
137	* '''Area:''' 1,221,037 km
138	(471,445 sq mi) (24th)
139	* '''Currency''': South African rand (R) (ZAR)
140	* '''ISO-3166-1 Code:''' ZA
141	* '''Country calling code:''' 27
142	* '''Highest point:''' Mafadi (3450 m/11,319 ft) (51st)

Context UsefulNotes / SouthAfrica