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South Africa also has a large, free, and active ] that regularly challenges the government. South Africa also has a large, free, and active ] that regularly challenges the government.


== See also ==
{{South African Topics}}
== References == == References ==
* ''A History of South Africa, Third Edition''. Leonard Thompson. ]. ] ]. 384 pages. ISBN 0300087764. * ''A History of South Africa, Third Edition''. Leonard Thompson. ]. ] ]. 384 pages. ISBN 0300087764.
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== External links == == External links ==
{{commons|South Africa}} {{commons|South Africa}}
* A look at South Africa's history and geography, and how they are reflected in the evolving State coats of arms. * A look at South Africa's history and geography, and how they are reflected in the evolving State coats of arms.
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* - South Africa's biggest newspaper
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* - South Africa's biggest stock exchange
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{{South African Topics}}
{{Africa}} {{Africa}}
{{Commonwealth of Nations}} {{Commonwealth of Nations}}
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Revision as of 22:27, 2 March 2005

This article is about the country of South Africa. For information about the region of southern Africa, see Southern Africa

File:TableMountainPanorama.jpg
Table Mountain located in the centre of Cape Town. Cape Town is the centre of the South African tourism industry, an important part of the local economy.

The Republic of South Africa (listen) is a large country in Southern Africa. The South African economy is the largest and most well developed of the entire African continent, with modern transportation, communication, and infrastructure common in nearly all of the country. South Africa is arguably the most stable democracy in Africa, especially after having emerged from years of apartheid in 1994 after the first multi-racial elections promoted Nelson Mandela to the Presidency. South Africa has become an important force for diplomacy recently in Africa, particularly under the stewardship of Thabo Mbeki. South Africa has the largest and most efficient military in Africa, and is extensively involved in peacekeeping operations in other parts of the continent.

South Africa faces many problems ensuring its future, the most pressing of which is the HIV/AIDS crisis in the country. As much as 30% of adult South Africans are HIV+, which will severely reduce the number of people in South Africa who can work and hold jobs in the coming years. The Government of Thabo Mbeki has come under increasing criticism for his continued opposition to a nation-wide HIV medication programme, as he is not convinced that the HIV virus causes AIDS. Furthermore, sustained economic growth must occur in order to lift millions of poor, black South Africans out of poverty.

South Africa is located in Africa at the extreme southern tip of the continent. It shares borders with Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Swaziland. The small nation of Lesotho is entirely contained within South African territory. South Africa is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in Africa and has the largest population of people of European descent on the continent as well as the largest Indian population outside of Asia. Racial and ethnic strife between the white minority and the black majority have played a large part in the country's history and politics. Template:South Africa infobox South Africa was first unified as an independent country as the Union of South Africa in 1910 as the direct result of the Anglo-Boer Wars. The Union of South Africa included two British provinces and two Afrikaner provinces. As the century progressed, the Afrikaners came to have more political influence in the country than the British, which was evident in South Africa's decision by a referendum in 1961 to remove the Queen as the head of state and to re-incorporate as the Republic of South Africa. Around this time, the Afrikaner government began to implement the policies that would soon become the policy of racial segregation known as apartheid. Apartheid ended in 1990 by Frederik W. de Klerk after much struggle by the black majority, as well as several influential white South Africans Since then, South Africa has become a vibrant multiracial as well as multicultural society.

Names

Main article: Official names of South Africa

South Africa has eleven official languages, which is second only to India. As a result, there are many official names for the country. It also recognises eight non-official languages (Fanagalo, Lobedu, Northern Ndebele, Phuthi, Sign Language, Khoe, Nama and San).

Many of these "unofficial languages" of the San and Khoe-Khoen people contain regional dialects stretching northward into Namibia and Botswana, and elsewhere. These people, who are a physically distinct population from other Africans, have their own cultural identity based on being hunter-gatherers. They have been marginalized and many tongues may go extinct.

Furthermore, a tiny number of South Africans use the name Azania in preference to 'South Africa', which they disapprove of for its white colonial origins. Those using the name Azania are most often affiliated with parties coming from an Afrocentric left-wing tradition, such as the Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania, and groups originating as schisms from it, such as the Azanian People's Organisation.

History

Main article: History of South Africa

South Africa is one of the oldest nation-states in Africa. Extensive fossil remains at the Sterkfontein, Kromdraai and Makapansgat caves suggest that various ape-men (australopithecines) existed in South Africa from about three million years ago. These ape-men were succeeded by various species of Homo, including Homo habilis, Homo erectus and modern man, Homo sapiens. Bantu Iron-using agriculturists and herdsmen moved south of the Limpopo River, into modern-day South Africa, by the 4th or 5th Century AD at the latest. They slowly moved south and the earliest ironworks in modern-day KwaZulu-Natal Province are believed to date from around 1050 AD. The furthest south they reached was the Fish River, in today's Eastern Cape Province. These Iron-Age populations displaced earlier hunter-gatherer peoples as they migrated.

The written history of South Africa began on 6 April 1652, when a victualing station was established at the Cape of Good Hope by Jan van Riebeeck on behalf of the Dutch East India Company. For most of the 17th and 18th centuries, the slowly expanding settlement was a Dutch possession. The Cape Colony was settled by European Calvinists, primarily from the Netherlands, but including people from Germany, France, Scotland, and elsewhere. The Dutch settlers initiated a series of wars called Cape Frontier Wars against the Xhosa people, and imported slaves from Indonesia, Madagascar, and India. Descendants of these slaves, who often married with Dutch settlers, later became known as Cape Coloureds and "Cape Malays", constituting roughly 50% of the population in the Western Cape Province.

File:JanVanRiebeckArrival.jpg
Painting of a fictionalised account of the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck.

Great Britain seized the Cape of Good Hope area in 1797 during the Anglo-Dutch War. The Dutch declared bankruptcy, and the British annexed the Cape Colony in 1805. A dispute arose over compensation after the British abolition of slavery in 1833, and many of the Afrikaner settlers, who were known as the Voortrekkers, travelled to the interior of the country to found their own republics, the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. A Voortrekker incursion into the coastal area of Natal was fought off by the Zulus under Dingane, brother, heir, and murderer of Shaka. The Zulu empire would later be conquered by the British in the Anglo-Zulu War.

The discovery of diamonds in 1867 and gold in 1886 encouraged economic growth and immigration and intensified the subjugation of the native inhabitants. The Boers successfully resisted British encroachments during the First Boer War in 1880-81, basing their tactics much better on local conditions. For example, the Boers wore khaki clothing, which was the same colour as the earth, whereas the British wore bright red uniforms, making them easy targets for Boer sharpshooters. The British returned in greater numbers without their red jackets in the Second Boer War (1899-1902). British-Boer relations, already strained, were further stressed after the unsuccessful Jameson Raid, launched into the Transvaal from neighboring Rhodesia by irregular forces aligned with rich diamond businessman and Prime Minister of the Cape Colony Cecil Rhodes. The Second Boer War was largely opposed by the Liberal Party in the British parliament, but the huge gold and diamond reserves in the Boer republics drove the Tories to intensify the war. The Boers' attempt to ally themselves with German South West Africa provided the British with yet another excuse to take control of the Boer Republics. The Boers resisted fiercely, but the British eventually overwhelmed the Boer forces using their far superior numbers and external supply chains.

Johannesburg in 1890, four years after the discovery of gold lead to the rapid development of the city.

The British rounded up civilian Afrikaners, along with their black workers, and placed them in separate concentration camps, where malnutrition and diseases were rampant. They burned the farmhouses and crops in an effort to deny food to the Boer guerrillas. As supplies became scarce, the guerrillas turned to raiding African towns for food, antagonizing the Africans and forcing the Boers to fight them as well as the British. Many Afrikaners began to feel that the time had come to make peace with the British. After continuing the resistance for another year, the remaining Afrikaner combattants finally accepted that the Boer nation would be completely destroyed if they persisted, and signed a peace treaty with the British at Pretoria on 31 May 1902. The Treaty of Vereeniging specified full British sovereignty over the South African republics, and the British government agreed to assume the £3,000,000 war debt owed by the Afrikaner governments. One of the main provisions of the treaty ending the war was that blacks would not be allowed to vote, except in the Cape Colony.

After four years of negotiations, the Union of South Africa was created from the colonies of Cape Colony, Natal Colony, and the republics of Orange Free State, and Transvaal on 31 May 1910, exactly eight years after the end of the Second Boer War. The Union was a British Dominion, but only the white minority had political power. Louis Botha and Jan Smuts formed the South African Party in the same year and between them led the Union until Barry Hertzog's National Party replaced them. In 1934 the two parties merged to form the United Party, seeking reconciliation between Afrikaners and English-speaking whites, but split in 1939 over the Union's entry to the Second World War as an ally of the United Kingdom. The right-wing rump National Party sympathised with Nazi Germany during the war, and sought greater racial segregation, or apartheid after it.

File:Apartheid sign.JPG
A formerly common sign through South Africa. While apartheid has officially ended, there is still a wealth imbalance between white and black South Africans, however there is an expanding black middle class.

The descendants of the white settlers remained a minority among the black Africans. After the Second World War the whites were able to maintain their rule by implementing the policies that would become known collectively as apartheid, a series of harsh laws segregating the country along racial lines. Apartheid became increasingly controversial in the late 20th century, leading to widespread sanctions and divestment abroad and growing unrest and oppression by the National Party within South Africa. In 1990, after a long period of resistance, strikes, and unrest by various anti-apartheid movements, most notably the African National Congress (ANC), the National Party government took the first step towards negotiating itself out of power when it lifted the ban on the African National Congress and other left-wing political organisations, and released Nelson Mandela from prison after 27 years. Soon, the National Party realised that it would not be able to maintain apartheid as the economy began to shrink and more and more white people began to join the movement against apartheid.

Apartheid legislation was gradually removed from the statute books, and the first multi-racial elections were held in 1994. The ANC won by an overwhelming majority, and has been in power ever since. Control of the country is now largely in the hands of the black majority, which makes up roughly 80% of the population. Despite the official end of apartheid, a form of economic apartheid continues as millions of South Africans, mostly black, continue to live in poverty. However, a series of voluntary and legislative moves under the controversial Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) programme have helped to redress decades of racial imbalance in the management and ownership of South African business and industry. However, the blessings of black empowerment have, to date, benefited a minority of politically connected business persons and the nascent black middle class to a much greater extent than they have helped the greater population, which currently suffers from endemic poverty and an equally deadly HIV/AIDS crisis.

Government

The National Assembly building, located in Cape Town.
Main article: Government of South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a constitutional democracy with a three-tier system of government and an independent judiciary, operating under a Westminster-styled parliamentary system. South Africa's government differs greatly from those of other Commonwealth nations. The national, provincial, and local levels of government all have legislative and executive authority in their own spheres, and is defined in the South African constitution as "distinctive, interdependent, and interrelated".

Operating at both national and provincial levels are advisory bodies drawn from South Africa's traditional leaders. It is a stated intention in the Constitution that the country be run on a system of co-operative governance.

There are three main branches which comprise the body of the government and performs all its tasks:

All bodies of the South African government are subject to the rule of the constitution, which is the supreme law in South Africa.

Politics

The central area of Pretoria, the administrative capital of South Africa.
Main article: Politics of South Africa

South Africa has a bicameral Parliament, comprising the National Council of Provinces (or upper house) with 90 Members, and a National Assembly (or lower house) with 400 Members. Members of the lower house are elected on a population basis from single-member constituencies, known technically as 'divisions' but more commonly, as 'electorates' or 'seats.' The more populous the province, the more members it will have in the National Assembly. Ten members are elected to represent each province in the National Council of Provinces, regardless of the population of the province.. Elections for both chambers are held every five years. The government is formed in the lower house, and the leader of the majority party in the National Assembly is the President.

Current South African politics is dominated by the ANC, who received 69.7% of the vote during the last general election. The main challenger to the ANC's rule is the Democratic Alliance party, which received only 12.4% of the vote. The role of the formerly dominant and right-wing National Party has been significantly diminished from 20.4% of the vote in the 1994 election to only 1.7% in 2004. The almost complete dominance of the ANC has raised certain ethical questions on the behalf of the party over whether or not it is acting in the best interests of democracy to hold such a large majority, but the ANC roundly denies any attempt to turn South Africa into a one party state.

Provinces

File:SouthAfricaMapwithProvinces.jpg
Map of South Africa with provinces and National Roads indicated.
Main article: Provinces of South Africa

When apartheid ended in 1994, the South African government had to integrate the formerly independent and semi-independent Bantustans into the political structure of South Africa. To this end, it abolished the four former provinces of South Africa, namely the Cape Province, Natal, Orange Free State, and Transvaal) and replaced them with nine fully integrated provinces. There was some controversy over what to call the new provinces and most of the names have avoided historical connotations opting for politically neutral names instead. In 2002, Northern Province was renamed Limpopo Province after the Limpopo river.

The new provinces are much smaller than the former provinces, which theoretically is in order to give local governments more resources to distribute over smaller areas. The new provinces are:

Geography

The Drakensberg Mountains
Main article: Geography of South Africa

South Africa occupies the southern tip of Africa, its long coastline stretching more than 2,500 kilometres from the desert border with Namibia on the Atlantic coast southwards around the tip of Africa and then north to the border with subtropical Mozambique on the Indian Ocean. The low-lying coastal zone is narrow for much of that distance, soon giving way to a mountainous escarpment that separates it from the high inland plateau. In some places, notably the province of KwaZulu-Natal in the east, a greater distance separates the coast from the escarpment. Although the country is classified as semi-arid, it has considerable variation in climate as well as topography.

The great inland Karoo plateau, where rocky hills and mountains rise from sparsely populated scrubland, is very dry, and gets more so as it shades in the north-west towards the Kalahari desert. While extremely hot in summer, it can be icy in the winter. In contrast, the eastern coastline is lush and well watered. The southern coast, part of which is known as the Garden Route, is rather less tropical but also green, as is the Cape of Good Hope - the latter especially in winter. This south-western corner of the country has a Mediterranean climate, with wet winters and hot, dry summers. Its most famous climatic characteristic is its wind, which blows intermittently virtually all year round, either from the southeast or from the northwest.

The eastern section of the Karoo does not extend as far north as the western part, giving way to the flat landscape of the Free State, which though still semi-arid receives somewhat more rain. North of the Vaal River, the Highveld is better watered and saved by its altitude (Johannesburg is at 1 740m; its annual rainfall is 760 millimetres) from subtropical extremes of heat. Winters are cold, though snow is rare.

Further north and to the east, especially where a drop in altitude beyond the escarpment gives the Lowveld its name, temperatures rise: the Tropic of Capricorn slices through the extreme north. This is also where one finds the typical South African Bushveld of wildlife fame. There is skiing in winter in the high Drakensberg mountains that form the eastern escarpment, but the coldest place in the country is Sutherland in the western Roggeveld Mountains, with midwinter temperatures as low as -15º celsius. The deep interior provides the hottest temperatures: A temperature of 51.7°C was recorded in 1948 in the Northern Cape Kalahari near Upington.

Flora and fauna

The fynbos, a unique plant to South Africa found outside of Cape Town
Cape Town with Table Mountain in the background

South Africa is particularly rich in species, with more than 20,000 different plants, or about 10 per cent of all the known species of plants on earth. A little more than 9,000 of those species are concentrated in the small region of the Western Cape known as the Fynbos Biome. It is adjacent to the equally verdant Karoo Biome. The fynbos vegetation zone at the Cape of Good Hope is one of the six floral kingdoms. It mainly consists of evergreen hard-leaf plants with usually fine, needle-like leaves, i.e sclerophyllous. The fynbos is particularly rich in splendid blossom-plants, in the first place the wonderful proteas, of which alone there are some 130 different species.

Because of their many different shapes, sizes, colours and qualities, the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus named them after the Greek god Proteus who, according to the mythology, was able to change his appearance whichever way he wanted.

The wealth in flowering plants is overwhelming, but the forest resources are a very different story. Only one per cent of the South African territory is covered with forests, almost exclusively in the humid coastal plains of the Indian Ocean and in the bordering moderate heights of the escarpment, but also in pockets out of reach of fire-the Afromontane forests which are exceptionally spacious in relation to their extent. Plantations of imported tree species are predominant, particularly eucalyptus and pine. The original temperate forest has almost completely fallen prey to ruinous exploitation. Because the native forest was economically of little value and very difficult to access and penetrate early in South African history, farmers extinguished it ruthlessly. Only small patches have remained. Today, South African hard-wood trees like Yellowwood, Stinkwood, and Ironwood are under constant supervision and protection by governmental environmental agencies.

By far, the largest biome in South Africa is grassland. Especially on the Highveld, the plant cover is dominated by different grasses, low shrubs and acacia trees, mainly camel-thorn and whitethorn. Due to low precipitation, vegetation becomes sparse towards the northwest. There are numerous species of the water-storing succulents like aloes and euphorbias in the hot and dry Namaqualand region. In the northeast, the grass and thorn savannah slowly changes into a bush savannah with a more dense growth. There are significant numbers of Baobab trees in this region, near the northern end of Kruger National Park.

Economy

File:Pic-sandton.jpg
The central area of Sandton, a suburb of Johannesburg that has become the location of many of South Africa's most important companies.
File:CentralDurban.jpg
Durban, a famous resort town on the Indian Ocean coast. It is famous as an important source of tourism revenue.
Main article: Economy of South Africa

South Africa is a middle-income, developed country with an abundant supply of resources, well-developed financial, legal, communications, energy, and transport sectors, a stock exchange, JSE Securities Exchange, that ranks among the 10 largest in the world, and a modern infrastructure supporting an efficient distribution of goods to major urban centres throughout the region. However, although growth has been positive for ten consecutive years, it has not cut into the 40% unemployment, and daunting economic problems remain from the Apartheid era, especially the problems of poverty and lack of economic empowerment among the disadvantaged groups. Other problems are crime, corruption, and HIV/AIDS. At the start of 2000, President Thabo Mbeki vowed to promote economic growth and foreign investment by relaxing restrictive labour laws, stepping up the pace of privatization, and cutting unneeded governmental spending. His policies face strong opposition from organized labour.

It is estimated that South Africa accounts for up to 25% of the GDP of the entire African continent. South Africa is also the continent's largest energy producer and consumer.

South Africa has an estimated 4.79 million HIV infections. The government has recently, after much delay, devoted substantial resources to fighting the epidemic. A recent study (from the African Journal of Aids Research, Thomas Rehle and Olive Shisana) showed the infection rate starting to level off, (from 4.2% to 1.7% infection rate for 15-49 year olds), and AIDS deaths peaking at 487 320 in 2008.

Since South Africa relaxed its border controls after the demise of apartheid, international crime syndicates have entered the country and a large proportion of the world's drug trade flows through the country. South Africa is also the fourth-largest producer of marijuana in the world.

The volatility of the Rand has affected economic activity, with the Rand falling sharply during 2001 (hitting an historic low of R13.85 to the Dollar, raising fears of inflation, and causing the Reserve Bank to increase interest rates). The Rand has since dramatically recovered, trading at under R6 to the Dollar as of December 2004 (its best level since 1999) while the South African Reserve Bank's policy of inflation targeting has brought inflation under control. The stronger Rand has however put exporters under considerable pressure, with many calling for government to intervene in the exchange rate to help soften the Rand and many others dismissing staff.

Interest rates have been cut to their lowest levels in more than two decades (550 basis points in 2003 alone) fuelling economic growth, with South Africa recording 5.6% of economic growth in the 3rd quarter of 2004, the highest quarterly growth reported since 1996. Many economists feel that the country is entering a period of strong growth and may achieve sustained annual growth of 5% or more.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of South Africa

South Africa is a nation of 44.8 million people of diverse origins, cultures, languages, and beliefs. The 2001 Census provided five racial categories by which people could classify themselves, the last of which, "unspecified/other" drew negligible responses, and these results were omitted. Results for the other categories were:

By far the major part of the population classified itself as African or black, but it is not culturally or linguistically homogenous. Nine of the 11 official languages are African, reflecting a variety of tribal groups, which nevertheless have a great deal in common in terms of background, culture and descent. The white population descends largely from the colonial immigrants of the late 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries: Dutch, German, French Huguenot, and British. Linguistically it is divided into Afrikaans- and English-speaking groups, although many small communities immigrating over the last century retain the use of other languages.

The label "coloured" is a contentious one, but still largely used for the people of mixed race descended from slaves brought in from the East and central Africa, the indigenous Khoesan who lived in the Cape at the time, indigenous African blacks and whites. The majority speak Afrikaans. Khoesan is a term used to describe two separate groups, physically similar in that they were light-skinned and small in stature. The Khoe, who were called Hottentots by the Europeans, were pastoralists and were effectively annihilated; the San, called Bushmen by the Europeans, were hunter-gatherers. A small, impoverished San population still lives in South Africa.

The major part of the Asian population of the country is Indian in origin, many of them descended from indentured workers brought in the 19th century to work on the sugar plantations of the eastern coastal area then known as Natal. They are largely English speaking, although many still retain the languages of their origins as well. There is also a significant group of Chinese South Africans.

In terms of religious affiliation, about three-fourths of South Africans are Christian, mainly Protestant. They belong to a variety of churches, including many that combine Christian and traditional African beliefs. Most of the non-Christian population espouses these traditional beliefs. Minority religions are Islam, Hinduism, and Judaism. The population as a whole is young, with the highest numbers being recorded in the 10-14-year bracket. Of the total population, about 11,3% are between 10 and 14 years old.

Culture

Prison Buildings on Robben Island, the holding place of several anti-apartheid fighters including Nelson Mandela, who was inprisoned there for 27 years. Robben Island is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
File:Voortrekker monument.jpg
The Voortrekker Monument, located in Pretoria. It was built in 1949.
Main article: Culture of South Africa

There is no single culture of South Africa. As South Africa is so ethnically diverse, it is not surprising that there are vast cultural differences as well. The country's black majority still has a substantial number of rural inhabitants who lead largely impoverished and necessarily simple lives. However, blacks are increasingly urbanised and westernised, and usually speak English or Afrikaans in addition to their native tongue, which may be one of nine Bantu languages with official status since 1994. These include the Nguni languages, isiZulu, isiXhosa, Sindebele, and Swazi, and the Sotho languages, which include Setswana, Sesotho, Sesotho sa Leboa and Venda. There are smaller but still significant groups of speakers of Khoi-San languages which are not official languages, but are one of the eight officially recognised languages. There are even smaller groups of speakers of endangered languages, most of which are from the Khoi-San family, that receive no official status; however, some groups within South Africa are attempting to promote their use and revival. Cultural differences between speakers from the two language groups are comparable to those between speakers of German and Italian. Many urban blacks speak several indigenous languages, with isiZulu being a lingua franca in the Johannesburg area.

The white minority lead lifestyles similar in many respects to whites found in Western Europe, North America and Australasia, with sport being immensely popular. Historical enmity between Afrikaans and English-speaking whites has given way to banter that is more amiable or rivalry. Afrikaners refer to an English speaker as a soutpiel or 'salt dick', on account of his divided loyalties: one foot in Africa; the other in England; and his genitals in the sea. A less rude and perhaps more common soubriquet was rooinek or 'red neck' referring to the sunburn of the recent immigrant. Similarly English speakers have long made 'Van Der Merwe' jokes about Afrikaners (who they sometimes refer to as "Dutchmen"), and who they regard as stupid and philistine. This historic rivalry between English and Afrikaans speaking whites may be ending due to political considerations in post-apartheid South Africa.

Despite considerable discrimination under apartheid, mixed-race Coloureds tend to relate more to white South African culture rather than black South African culture, especially Afrikaans-speaking Coloured people whose language and religious beliefs are similar or identical to white Afrikaners. A small minority of Coloureds, known as Cape Malays are Muslim.

Asians, (predominantly Indian origin) preserve their own cultural heritage, languages and religious beliefs, being either Hindu or Muslim, and speaking English, with Indian languages like Telugu or Gujarati being spoken less frequently. There is a much smaller Chinese community in South Africa, although its numbers have increased due to immigration from Taiwan. Since the Taiwanese were classified as "White", rather than Asian by the apartheid regime, they tend to be more culturally similar to whites in many ways than they are to other Asians.

Media

Main article: Media in South Africa

Even though South Africa carries the most sophisticated media networks on the African continent, it was paradoxially one of the last countries in the world to allow television. When it was finally permitted in 1971, a high induction rate countered the late introduction and saw most white South Africans owning a television with access to the South African Broadcasting Corporation. Before the end of apartheid, television networks covered all urban areas and some less populated areas, while radio networks covered almost all of the country.

An African language channel was introduced to the SABC in 1981, and finally the SABC's monopoly was challenged in 1986 when a new television network, M-Net, was launched. When apartheid ended, the number of channels available in South Africa expanded greatly as American television programmes were allowed to be rebroadcast. South Africa currently has several domestic television networks, as well as access to satellite television.

South Africa also has a large, free, and active press that regularly challenges the government.

See also

Template:South African Topics

References

  • A History of South Africa, Third Edition. Leonard Thompson. Yale University Press. 1 March 2001. 384 pages. ISBN 0300087764.
  • South Africa: A Narrative History. Frank Welsh. Kodansha America. 1 February 1999. 606 pages. ISBN 1568362587.
  • The Atlas of Changing South Africa. A. J. Christopher. 1 October 2000. 216 pages. ISBN 0415211786.
  • The Politics of the New South Africa. Heather Deegan. 28 December 2000. 256 pages. ISBN 0582382270.
  • Making of Modern South Africa: Conquest, Segregation and Apartheid. Nigel Worden. 1 July 2000. 194 pages. ISBN 0631216618.
  • Emerging Johannesburg: Perspectives on the Postapartheid City. Richard Tomlinson, et al. 1 January 2003. 336 pages. ISBN 0415935598.
  • South Africa Government Online. Accessed 20 February 2005.
  • SouthAfrica.info. Accessed 12 February 2005.

External links

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