South Africa

Important Cities

Pretoria(Capital)
Johannesburg
Cape Town
Port Elizabeth
Durban
Messina
Kimberley
Ladysmith
Upington
Bloemfontein
De Aar
East London

Main Attractions

Augrabies Falls National Park
Wilderness National Park
West Coast National Park
Blyde River Canyon
Paarl Wine Route
Ukhahlamba Drakensberg Park
Bontebok National Park
Otter Hiking Trial
Table Mountain National Park
Sea World in Durban
St Lucia Crocodile Centre
Cango Caves
Kimberley Diamond Mine
Kruger National Park

Main Industries

Mining of Gold
Iron and Steel
Fertilizer
Chemicals
Foodstuffs
Mining of Platinum and Chromium

Until 1994 South Africa was ruled by a white minority government which was so determined to hang onto power that it took activists most of the last century before they succeeded in their fight to get rid of apartheid and extend democracy to the rest of the population.
South African presidents are chosen by the 400 members of the directly-elected National Assembly, one of the two houses of parliament.
South Africa is the continent's major media player, and its many broadcasters and publications reflect the diversity of the population.
South Africa is often referred to as The Rainbow Nation - a term coined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and later elaborated upon by then-President Nelson Mandela as a metaphor to describe the country's newly-developing multicultural diversity in the wake of segregationist apartheid ideology.
South Africa's most prevalent biome is grassland, particularly on the Highveld, where the plant cover is dominated by different grasses, low shrubs, and acacia trees, mainly camel-thorn and whitethorn.
South Africa has a large, free, and active press that regularly challenges the government, a habit formed during the apartheid era when the press was the medium least controlled by the government.
Politics of South Africa takes place in a framework of a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the President of South Africa, elected by parliament, is the head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system.
The present Constitution of South Africa was certified by the Constitutional Court on 4 December 1996, was signed by then President Mandela on 10 December 1996, and entered into effect on 3 February 1997; it is being implemented in phases.
The bicameral Parliament of South Africa consists of the National Assembly (400 seats; members are elected by popular vote under a system of proportional representation to serve five-year terms) and the National Council of Provinces (90 seats, 10 members elected by each of the nine provincial legislatures for five-year terms).
South Africa also has one possession, the small sub-antarctic archipelago of the Prince Edward Islands, consisting of Marion Island (290 km²) and Prince Edward Island (45 km²; not to be confused with the Canadian province of the same name).