South Africa is home to seven world heritage sites, with the most famous being Robben Island, Cradle of Humankind and
Table Mountain. Table Mountain also forms part of the New 7 Wonders of Nature.
South Africa has a combined land size of France, Germany and the United Kingdom, totalling 1 219 912 km²
The official currency is the Rand (ZAR) (R) and South Africa uses the metric system i.e. km’s and kg.
There are 11 official languages with the most popular ones being; English, Zulu, Xhosa and Afrikaans.
South Africa consists of 9 provinces, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, ZwaZulu-Natal, Northern Cape, Free State, North West, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Limpopo.
With Gauteng (meaning Place of Gold) being the smallest in land size, Cape Town in the Western Cape is the legislative capital, while Pretoria in Gauteng is the Administrative capital and Bloemfontein, in the Free State is the Judicial capital.
South Africa has an estimated population of 60.6 million people.
Gauteng comprises the largest share of the population, which is approximately 14.3 million people, followed by KwaZulu-Natel with 11.1 million people. Northern Cape remains the smallest population with 1.21 million people.
South Africa is the largest producer of platinum in the world and was once the top producer of gold.
The world-first successful heart transplant was performed in Cape Town by Dr Christiaan Barnard on 3 December 1967.
National elections are held every 5 years and the next election will be in 2024.
The highest law of the land is the Constitution, which came into force on 4 February 1997, and is considered to be one of the most progressive in the world.
The Constitution’s Bill of Rights protects equality, freedom of expression and association, property, housing, health care, education, access to information, and access to courts.
Protecting those rights is the country’s independent judiciary, subject only to the Constitution and the law.
