note: South Africa took a census October 1996 which showed a population of 40,583,611 (after an official adjustment for a 6.8% underenumeration based on a postenumeration survey); estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2001 est.)
Currency:
rand (ZAR)
Languages:
11 official languages, including Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu
Elevation:
highest point: Njesuthi 3,408 m
lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
Natural hazards:
prolonged droughts
Climate:
mostly semiarid; subtropical along east coast; sunny days, cool nights
South Africa is a middle-income, developing country with an abundant supply of resources, well-developed financial, legal, communications, energy, and transport sectors, a stock exchange that ranks among the 10 largest in the world, and a modern infrastructure supporting an efficient distribution of goods to major urban centers throughout the region. However, growth has not been strong enough to cut into the 30% 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 MBEKI vowed to promote economic growth and foreign investment, and to reduce poverty by relaxing restrictive labor laws, stepping up the pace of privatization, and cutting unneeded governmental spending.
Industry:
mining (world's largest producer of platinum, gold, chromium), automobile assembly, metalworking, machinery, textile, iron and steel, chemicals, fertilizer, foodstuffs
Ethnicgroups:
black 75.2%, white 13.6%, Colored 8.6%, Indian 2.6%
Yellow fever:
A yellow fever vaccination certificate is required from travellers over 1 year of age coming from infected areas. The countries or areas included in the endemic zones in Africa and the Americas are regarded as infected (see map).
Malaria:
Malaria risk—predominantly due to P. falciparum—exists throughout the year in the low altitude areas of Mpumalanga Province (including the Kruger National Park), Northern Province and north-eastern KwaZulu-Natal as far south as the Tugela River. Risk is highest from October to May. Resistance to chloroquine and sulfadoxine–pyrimethamine reported.
