Facts about South Africa

South Africa is also the continent's largest energy producer and consumer.

South Africa is a net exporter of agricultural products and foodstuffs, the largest number of exported items being sugar, grapes, citrus, nectarines, wine and deciduous fruit.

South Africa is located at the southernmost region of Africa, with a long coastline that stretches more than 1,550 mi (2,500 km) and across two oceans, (the Atlantic and the Indian).

South Africa is a nation of over 47 million people of diverse origins, cultures, languages, and beliefs.

The Union of South Africa was created from the Cape and Natal colonies, as well as the republics of Orange Free State and Transvaal, on May 31, 1910.

Today, the diversity in foods from many cultures is enjoyed by all and especially marketed to tourists who wish to sample the large variety of South African cuisine.

Some, such as the Zulu, Xhosa, Bapedi, and Venda groups, are unique to South Africa.

South Africa's armed forces, known as the South African National Defense Force (SANDF), were created in 1994.

Pine trees are being removed from all of South Africa, to allow indigenous fynbos and Afromontane forests to be re-established.

South Africa contains some of the oldest archaeological sites in Africa.

South Africa is the world's 25th-largest country and is nearly twice the size of the U.S. state of Texas.

Despite the end of apartheid, millions of South Africans, mostly black, continue to live in poverty.

Njesuthi in the Drakensberg at 3,408 m is the highest peak in South Africa.

The economy of South Africa is the largest and best developed on the continent, with modern infrastructure common throughout the country.

Large income gaps and a dual economy designate South Africa as developing; South Africa has one of the highest rates of income inequality in the world.

White and colored South African singers are historically influenced by European musical styles, including such Western metal bands such as Seether.

The South African Scout Association was one of the first youth organizations to open its doors to youth and adults of all races in South Africa.

South Africa experienced a significantly different evolution from other nations on the continent as a result of two factors: higher European immigration rates and the strategic importance of the Cape sea route.

South Africa has more than 20,000 different plants, or about 10 percent of all the known species of plants on Earth, making it particularly rich in plant biodiversity.

In 2003, 21.5 percent of the adult South African population was estimated to be HIV positive.

Bantu-speaking peoples (here, Bantu is a linguistic term, not an ethnic one), iron-using agriculturists and herdsmen had moved south of the Limpopo River into modern-day South Africa by the fourth or fifth century.

Other groups are distributed across the borders with South Africa's neighbors: The Basotho group is also the major ethnic group in Lesotho.

South Africa has lost extensive acreage of natural habitat in the last four decades, primarily due to overpopulation, sprawling development patterns, and deforestation during the nineteenth century.

South Africa has a bicameral parliament: the 90 members of the National Council of Provinces (the upper house); and the four hundred members of the National Assembly (the lower house).

Livestock are also popular on South African farms, with the country producing 85 percent of all meat consumed.

Extensive fossil remains in Makapans Cave and other locations suggest that various australopithecines existed in South Africa from about three million years ago.

Apartheid became increasingly controversial, leading to widespread sanctions and divestment abroad and growing unrest and oppression within South Africa.

South Africa undertook a nuclear weapons program in the 1970s and may have conducted a nuclear test over the Atlantic Ocean in 1979.

South Africa has a large agricultural sector and is a net exporter of farm products; agricultural exports have constituted 8 percent of South Africa's total exports for the past five years.

When apartheid ended in 1994, the South African government had to integrate the formerly independent and semi-independent Bantustans into the political structure.

The Republic of South Africa, most commonly referred to as South Africa, occupies the southern tip of the African continent and borders the nations of Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland, and Lesotho.

Current South African politics are dominated by the African National Congress (ANC), which received 69.7 percent of the vote during the 2004 general election and 66.3 percent of the vote in the 2006 municipal election.

Only one percent of South Africa is forest, almost exclusively in the humid coastal plain along the Indian Ocean.

South Africa's per capita GDP positions the country as one of the 50 wealthiest in the world.

South Africa has one possession, the small sub-Antarctic archipelago of the Prince Edward Islands, consisting of Marion Island and Prince Edward Island (not to be confused with the Canadian province of the same name).

To this end, it abolished the four former provinces of South Africa (Cape Province, Natal, Orange Free State, and Transvaal) and replaced them with nine fully integrated provinces.

The newly created Union of South Africa was a dominion.