Surface: 1.224.691 km²
Population: 41.240.000 inhabitants
Density of population: 31 inhabitants/km²
Capital: Pretoria
Official language: 11 official languages, English is used in administration
Official currency: rand
Imported products: car pieces, cars, textiles, chemical products, food
Exported products: gold, diamonds, metals, fruits, wool
Brut Intern Product: 124.200 million $
State type: Republic
Geographical Characteristics:
The biggest part of South Africa is a plateau with a medium height of 2.000 m in the east. The east part of the plateau is continued with mountains with a height of 3.482 m in Dakensberg Mountain. The most important river is Orange, with the spring in Dakensberg Mountain.
Climate:
The climate is worm and wet in the summer, but ari
d and gentle in the winter. The plateau is semi-arid in most of the Western Cape. Along the west coast is the arid zone of the Namib Desert. In the area of Cape Town the summer is hot and arid, and the winter is worm and moist. To the east, the coast depressions are worm and wen all year long. In Cape Town medium amount of rainfall is 50 cm per year, and the temperatures are between 21 Celsius degrees and 12 Celsius degrees. The numbers for Johannesburg are: 73 cm, 20 Celsius Degrees, 10 Celsius Degrees.
Cities:
The old four provinces were replaced with nine new provinces: Northern Cape, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Free State, North West, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Northern Province. Cape Town was formed in 1652 when Jan van Riebeeck built a fortress in the Table Golf for the Dutch campaign East India. It is a port and an industrial center. Johannesburg, the second biggest city was formed near rich deposits in gold. It was formed in 1886 and became the biggest industrial center. The 3rd largest city is Durban, a port and an industrial city on the east coast.
Population:
The population is formed of 3 million black people, 5.2 million white people, 3.5 mixed people and 1 million Asian. The Bantu people live in cities, but also in Bantustans, special regions. The mixed population lives in the south-east. The Asian, especially with Indian origin, live in Natal. White people speak English and Afrikaans. The apartheid politic was over officially in 1991.
Agriculture:
Only 15% of the population works in the agriculture and most of them are black people and Afrikaans. 11% of the surface is cultivated and 69% is grassland. Almost 4% is covered with forests. South Africa exports wood foe paper and furniture. They cultivate corn, grain, sugar cane, tobacco, cotton and fruits. There are 25 million sheep, 8.3 million cows and 2.3 million coats. Wine and oranges are important products for export. Fishing is also important, with a total amount of 600.000 tones.
Mining:
South Africa is rich in minerals, which bring 65% of the exports, the gold brings 40%. The country is the main producer of: gold, chromium and vanadium and the second producer in the world of manganese. Other minerals extracted are: silver, coal, iron, phosphates, copper and diamonds in Kimberley, Jagersfontein and Namaqualand. Over 90% of the electric energy is produced in the thermo-electric power stations.
Industry:
Mining and industry are very important. The main products are food, drinks, wood, paper and chemical products. Iron and steel are produced in Pretoria and Newcastle. Finance and tourism are also very important.
Transport:
The railway has 21.309 km and the country has 360.522 km of roads. The size of the country makes the airway important, for international flights and also for intern flights. The main ports are Cape Town, Saldanha, Port Elizabeth, Durban and Mosselbaai.
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Surface: 1.224.691 km²