GEOGRAPHY
With and area of 1 227 200 km², the Republic of South Africa is situated at the Southernmost part of Africa. Its neighbours are Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and the Kingdom of Swaziland. South African territory completely encloses the Kingdom of Lesotho.
South Africa is divided into nine provinces : Eastern Cape,
Gauteng,
Free State, Kwa Zulu-Natal, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, Northern Province, North West and
Western Cape, and is home to 43.6 million people.
Located in the southern hemisphere, seasons in South Africa are inverted compared with those in the northern hemisphere. The summer menths in South Africa are from October to April and winter is between May and August. In general, South Africa has a sunny climate. The country is dry, with an average annual rainfall of about 464 mm. Temperatures in summer average around 30° are fairly common in summer. April and May are usually the most pleasant months.
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Passez la souris sur South Africa, pour plus de détail |
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HISTORY
100,000BC : The area now known as South Africa has been populated by Khoi and San.
EARLY HISTORY
It is now an accepted fact that human kind had its earliest origins in Africa. South Africa is rich in fossil evidence of the evolutionary history of human kind going back several million years.
From the discovery of the Taung child in 1924 to the latest discoveries of hominid fossils at Sterkfontein caves recently declared a World Heritage Site, South Africa has been at the forefront of palaeontological research into the origins of humanity.
MODERN HISTORY
South Africa was originally populated by the Khoi and San people, who were mostly nomadic. In addition to the Khoisan, whose decendents are still alive (although small in number), South Africa is populated by indegenous Africans who form about 76,7% of its population and the remaining percentage is shared among Indians, Coloured, Asian and white people.
South Africa was colonised by the Dutch and the English, at different stages, and finally the Afrikaners introduced legislated apartheid. Organisations like the ANC and its tripatite alliance, which included the SACP and Cosatu, as well as the PAC, Azapo, religious formations and others, with the assistance of the anti-apartheid, movement abroad, fought the apartheid regime until its demise in 1993.
South Africa went to its first, free and democratic elections on 27 April 1994, and Mr Nelson Mandela became its first democratically elected President.
CHRONOLOGY
| 1652 | The first Dutch community settled at the Cape They were led by Jan Van Riebeck |
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| 1779 | The first frontier war took place between Xhosa and white settlers | ||
| 1795 | Britain annexes the Cape | ||
| 1809 | "Hottentot" Proclamation introduces pass laws | ||
| 1820 | 5000 British immigrants arrive in Algoa Bay | ||
| 1834 | Slavery was abolished in South Africa | ||
| 1860 | Indian migrant workers arrived in South Africa | ||
| 1867 | The first documented discovery of diamonds took place in Northern Cape | ||
| 1880 | War breaks out between the British and the Afrikaners (called the First Anglo-Boer War). The white population grew substantially in the 1800s with the arrival of large groups of British settlers and later fortune-seekers on the mines. | ||
| 1886 | Discovery of Witwatersrand goldfields-birth of Johannesburg | ||
| 1899 | South African War, also known as the second Anglo-Boer War begins | ||
| 1912 | ANC founded | ||
| 1914 | South Africa enters First World War on Allied side | ||
| 1918 | Anti-pass campaign launched | ||
| 1936 | Blacks removed from common voters' roll in the Cape | ||
| 1939 | South Africa enters Second World War on Allied side | ||
| 1949 | Racially mixed marriages banned by law | ||
| 1956 | Coloureds removed from the voters' roll | ||
| 1960 | 69 people are killed at Sharpeville in a demonstration against pass laws | ||
| 1961 | South Africa leaves Commonwealth, becomes a Republic | ||
| 1963 | Police arrest ANC activists |
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| 1964 | Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and others sentenced to life imprisonment | ||
| 1969 | South African Students' Organization
(SASO) formed by Steve Biko The beginning of the Black consciousness movement |
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| 1976 | riots break out in Soweto on June 16th and spread to the rest of the country | ||
| 1977 |
UN Security Council imposes mandatory arms embargo against SA |
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| 1983 | White referendum approves Prime Minister Botha's "reform" extending separate racial franchise to Coloured and Indian minorities. | ||
| 1989 |
PW Botha and Nelson Mandela meet face to face for the first time |
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| 1990 |
Nelson Mandela released on February 11th after 27
years in prison |
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| 1991 |
Government and ANC agree on all-party congress to discuss
negotiations and constitutional principles Land Acts, Group Areas Act, Population
Registration Act and other apartheid laws repealed |
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| 1993 |
UN lifts sanctions |
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| 1994 |
ANC wins the country's first non-racial election |
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| 1996 | final constitution is signed into law by President Mandela. | ||
| 1997 | Nelson Mandela steps down as ANC President and is succeeded by Thabo Mbeki, Jacob Zuma becomes Deputy President of the ANC. | ||
| 1999 | ANC wins overwhelming victory in second democratic election. Thabo Mbeki succeeds Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa. | ||
GOVERNMENT
It comprises the executive (cabinet), legislative (parliament) and the judiciary (courts of law).
President : Mr Jacob Zuma
Deputy President : Mr Kgalema Motlanthe
Parliament
- Speaker of the National Assembly : Mr Hon Max Vuyisile Sisulu
- Speaker of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) : Mr Mninwa Mahlangu
The Minister of International Relations and Co-operation is Mrs. Maite Nkoana-Mashabane
President of the Constitutional Court and Head of Judiciary : Chief Justice Pius Langa
It has three tiers of government, consisting of the National, Provincial and Local governments.
The constitution is the supreme law of the country. South Africa has a Constitutional Court which has final jurisdiction over constitutional matters.
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