General Information about South Africa
The Republic of South Africa lies at the southernmost tip of the African continent and covers an area of about 1,219,912 km². South Africa's neighboring countries are Namibia and Botswana in the northwest, Zimbabwe and Mozambique in the northeast, Swaziland in the east and the Kingdom of Lesotho - completely surrounded by South Africa - in the southeast. South Africa's coastline stretches along the Atlantic Ocean in the west and the Indian Ocean in south and southeast. The country is divided in nine provinces, namely the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Cape, Free State, North West, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Limpopo.
South Africa has three capitals, Pretoria is the administrative capital, Bloemfontein is the judicial capital and Cape Town is the legislative capital. The three largest cities are Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. According to official statistics from 2007, South Africa's population was estimated at about 47.9 million. The government still divides South Africa's population is in the four categories blacks, whites, coloureds and Indians/Asians. The black population forms the majority with about 79.6%. The white population is with 9.1 percent in a clear minority. This equally applies to Coloureds with a population of 8.9% and 2,5% Indian/Asians. The black population is divided into the ethnic groups of the Zulu, Xhosa, Basotho, Venda, Tswana, Tsonga, Swazi and Ndebele. The Khoikhoi and San also form a small population group in South Africa.
The country's diversity is, among other things, manifested in the fact that South Africa has eleven official languages. Even though the government promotes all 11 languages, English is the primary language of business and commerce.
