Some of the earliest human remains in the fossil record were found in South Africa. By about A.D. 500, Bantu-speaking groups began settling into what is now northeastern South Africa, displacing Khoisan-speaking groups to the southwest. Dutch traders landed at the southern tip of present-day South Africa in 1652 and established a stopover point on the spice route between the Netherlands and the Far East, founding the city of Cape Town.
- Capital
- Pretoria (administrative capital); Cape Town (legislative capital); Bloemfontein (judicial capital)
- Government
- parliamentary republic
- Population
- 61,089,926
- Area
- 1,219,090 sq km
- Location
- Southern Africa, at the southern tip of the continent of Africa
- Climate
- mostly semiarid; subtropical along east coast; sunny days, cool nights
- Natural resources
- gold; chromium; antimony; coal; iron ore; manganese…
- Languages
- isiZulu or Zulu (official) 25.3%; isiXhosa or Xhosa (official) 14.8%; Afrikaans (official) 12.2%; Sepedi or Pedi (official) 10.1%…
- Religions
- Christian 86%; ancestral; tribal; animist…
- Independence
- 31 May 1910 (Union of South Africa formed from four British colonies: Cape Colony, Natal,…
- Administrative divisions
- 9 provinces; Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North West, Western C…
- Currency
- rand (ZAR)
- Export partners
- China 19%; USA 8%; Germany 7%; India 7%…
- Import partners
- China 21%; India 7%; USA 7%; Germany 6%…