REPUBLIC OF
SOUTH AFRICA

• Official name: Republic of South Africa (Since South Africa has 11 official languages, the country has 11 official names. The English form is most widely used.)
• Location: Southern Africa
• International organisations: African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States, African Union, Group of Twenty, Non-Aligned Movement, United Nations, World Trade Organisation
• Borders: Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zimbabwe
• Coastline: Indian Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean
• Land area: 1,219,912 Km2
• Population: 49,300,000
• Annual GDP (PPP) per capita: US$10,100 (2009 CIA estimate). World ranking: 84
• Ethnicity: About 74% of South Africans are of black African descent. The largest ethnic groups are the Zulu (19%), Xhosa (15%), Pedi (8%), Tswana (6%), Sotho (6%), Tsonga (4%), Swazi (2%) and Venda (1%) peoples. About 14% of the population are of European descent, these being mainly Afrikaaners (of Dutch descent) (8%) and English (6%). About 9% of the population describe themselves as Coloured, meaning of mixed African, European and/or East Asian descent. About 3% of the population is of Indian descent.
• Languages: South Africa has 11 official languages: Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu. In practice English is the language of government and business. Most of the African population speak an African language plus Afrikaans or English or both. The Coloured population mainly speak Afrikaans.
• Religion: Christian 68% (includes most whites and Coloureds, about 60% of Africans and about 40% of Indians), Muslim 2%, Hindu 1.5% (60% of Indians), indigenous beliefs and animist 28.5%.
• Form of government: Federal presidential democratic republic. South Africa is divided into nine provinces which have elected legislatures and considerable autonomy.
• Capital: Pretoria. The Parliament sits at Cape Town.
• Constitution: The Constitution of South Africa came into effect on 3 February 1997.
• Head of state: South Africa is unusual in having an executive President who is not directly elected. The President is elected by the National Assembly for a five-year term.
• Head of government: The President, who appoints the members of the Cabinet.
• Legislature: South Africa has a bicameral legislature. The Parliament consists of the National Assembly, which has 400 members, elected for five-year terms by proportional representation, and the National Council of Provinces, which has 90 members, elected for five-year terms by the provincial parliaments.
• Electoral authority: The Independent Electoral Commission administers national and provincial elections.
• Freedom House 2011 rating: Political Rights 2, Civil Liberties 2
• Transparency International Corruption Index: 45% (54 of 178 countries rated)
• Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom 2010 Index: 86% (38 of 178 countries rated)
• Heritage Foundation Economic Freedom 2010 Index: 62.7% (74 of 179 countries rated)

Political history

The Dutch founded a colony at the Cape in 1652. In 1795 it was seized by the British, and was permanently ceded to Britain in 1814. The Dutch settler population was undisturbed, although British settlement soon began in the Cape and at Natal. White settlers were always a small minority of the total population. Workers were imported from the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) and their descendents, intermarried with both whites and Africans, became the Cape Coloured population. In the 1830s some of the Dutch, now known as Afrikaaners, moved inland and founded the Orange Free State and the Transvaal as independent Afrikaaner republics, ruling over the African populations as feudal landlords.

During the 19th century the British introduced elected assemblies and responsible government in the Cape and Natal. Africans and Coloureds who met property or educational franchise requirements could vote (this was known as the Cape Franchise). The Afrikaaners, however, refused to acknowledge that the African population had any civic rights.

In 1867 diamonds were discovered in the interior, and in 1886 the world's largest gold deposits were found on the Witwatersrand in Transvaal. This produced a huge influx of immigrants, mostly English-speaking, to the Afrikaaner republics. When they were refused voting and other rights, hostilities developed which led to the South African or "Boer" War of 1899-1902.

The defeated Afrikaaners were reconciled to British rule by the granting of self-government in 1907 and the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, with a Union Parliament elected by white voters, and electoral arrangements which guaranteed an Afrikaaner majority in the Parliament. Those Africans and Coloureds who already had the Cape Franchise retained the right to vote, but it was not extended to any others.

In 1948 the Nationalist Party came to power on a platform of Afrikaaner nationalism and white supremacy in all things. South Africa became a republic and left the Commonwalth of Nations. All non-whites were deprived of the vote and political rights, and strict segregation was imposed. Many South Africans of all races opposed this policy of Apartheid (separateness), and the regime responded with increasingly authoritarian measures. In 1978 the parliamentary system was replaced with a system vesting executive authority in a President elected by the legislature.

The African National Congress was founded in 1912 to represent African political aspirations. Despite its commitment to non-violent opposition, it was banned in 1961, and thereafter waged an underground resistance campaign. Its leaders, including Nelson Mandela, were imprisoned. From the 1960s international opinion increasingly condemned Apartheid, and economic and cultural sanctions were applied. This eventually demoralised most of the white population.

In 1989 Frederick de Klerk became President and announced that Apartheid must end. Mandela was released and all political parties legalised. The segregationist laws were abolished. After prolonged negotiation, a political settlement was reached that saw free elections held in 1994, after which Mandela was elected President. Apart from a few diehards, the white population has adapted to African majority rule.

The African National Congress is the overwhelmingly dominant political force in democratic South Africa, polling around two-thirds of the vote at four successive national elections. The ANC is in theory a socialist party, and the South African Communist Party is affiliated with it, but in office it has followed free-market policies. The only other important party among the African population is the Zulu nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party, although even this is a declining force. A breakaway from the ANC, the Congress of the People, has failed to make much impact. The Nationalist Party fell apart after the first free elections. It has been replaced as the voice of the white and Coloured voters by the Democratic Alliance, led by Helen Zille.

Nelson Mandela, by now a univerally revered figure, retired in 1999 and was succeeded by Thabo Mbeki, a dour marxist who was never happy with the free-market policies the ANC government was forced by necessity to follow. Mbeki did great damage by refusing to accept the realities of the AIDS epidemic - as a result South Africa has one of the highest rates of HIV infection in the world. Mbeki was forced by the ANC leadership to resign in September 2008. He was succeeded as ANC leader by Jacob Zuma, a more congenial figure although one whose reputation has been tarnished by allegations of corruption. Nevertheless the ANC polled 66% of the vote at the April 2009 elections, and also controls all but one of the country's provincial governments.

Freedom House's 2011 report on South Africa says: "South Africa is an electoral democracy... The ANC, which has won supermajorities in every democratic election, dominates the political landscape. The DA is the leading opposition party, followed by COPE and the IFP. The electoral process is generally free and fair, although the state-owned South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has been accused of pro-ANC bias. Political violence, while never severe, increased in the run-up to the 2009 elections... Several agencies are tasked with combating corruption, but enforcement is inadequate... Freedoms of expression and the press are protected in the constitution and generally respected in practice... The government is sensitive to media criticism and has increasingly encroached on the editorial independence of the SABC... Freedoms of association and peaceful assembly are secured by the constitution. South Africa hosts a vibrant civil society and an embedded protest culture... South Africans are free to form, join, and participate in independent trade unions... Judicial independence is guaranteed by the constitution, and the courts - particularly the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court - operate with substantial autonomy. Nevertheless, judicial and prosecutorial independence has come under pressure in recent years amid the Zuma corruption cases."

Updated November 2011