General Information
Area: 1,219,080 sq km (470,689 sq miles).
Population: 43,291,441 (1999).
Population Density: 35.5 per sq km.
Capital: Pretoria (administrative). Population: 1,080,187 (1991). Cape Town (legislative). Population: 2,350,157 (1991). Bloemfontein (judicial). Population: 300,150 (1991).
GEOGRAPHY: The Republic of South Africa lies at the southern end of the African continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the east and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and is bordered to the north by Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Swaziland and totally encloses Lesotho. South Africa has three major geographical regions, namely plateau, mountains and the coastal belt. The high plateau has sharp escarpments which rise above the plains, or veld. Despite two major river systems, the Limpopo and the Orange, most of the plateau lacks surface water. Along the coastline are sandy beaches and rocky coves, and the vegetation is shrublike. The mountainous regions which run along the coastline from the Cape of Good Hope to the Limpopo Valley in the northeast of the country are split into the Drakensberg, Nuweveldberg and Stormberg ranges.
Following the 1994 elections, South Africa was organised into nine regions. These comprise the Western Cape with its provincial and national capital of Cape Town, the Eastern Cape with its provincial capital of Bisho, the Northern Cape with its provincial capital Kimberley, KwaZulu-Natal with its provincial capital Pietermaritzburg, the Free State with its provincial capital of Bloemfontein, the North West Province with its provincial capital Mmabatho, the Northern Province with its provincial capital Pietersburg, Mpumalanga with its provincial capital of Nelspruit, and Gauteng with its provincial capital of Johannesburg.
Government: Republic. Gained independence from the UK in 1910. Head of State and Government: President Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki since 1999.
Language: The official languages are Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, Siswati, Tshivenda and Xitsonga.
Religion: Most inhabitants profess Christianity of some form and belong to either Catholic, Anglican and other protestant denominations, Afrikaner Calvinist churches or African independent churches. There are also significant Hindu, Muslim and Jewish communities, and traditional beliefs are still practised widely, sometimes in conjunction with Christianity.
Time: GMT + 2.
Electricity: 220/240 volts AC; 250 volts AC (Pretoria), 50Hz. Three-pin round plugs are in use.
Communications:
Telephone
IDD is available. Country code: 27. Outgoing international code: 09.
Mobile telephone
GSM 900 network. Operators include Cell C Ltd (website: www.cellc.co.za), MTN (website: www.mtn.co.za) and Vodacom (website: www.vodacom.co.za). Coverage extends to most urban areas.
Fax
Most main hotels have this service.
Internet
ISPs include M-Web (website: www.mweb.co.za), I-Africa (website: www.iafrica.com) and Sangonet (website: http://sn.apc.org). Visitors can access their e-mail from Internet cafes around the country.
Telegram
Services are available in all towns.
Post
Airmail to Europe takes up to seven days. Post office hours: Generally Mon-Fri 0830-1630, Sat 0800-1130. Some transactions may not be carried out Mon-Fri after 1530 or Sat after 1100. The smaller post offices close for lunch 1300-1400. Poste Restante services are available throughout the country.
Press
The main newspapers are in English and Afrikaans, and include Business Day, Cape Times, Cape Argus, Mail and Guardian, The Star, Sowetan, Sunday Times and Mercury.
BBC World Service and Voice of America frequencies: From time to time these change.
BBC (website: www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice):
Voice of America (website: www.voa.gov):
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