South Africa is divided into nine provinces : Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu- Natal, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, Limpopo, North West and the Western Cape.

About 48 million people live in South Africa. The diversity of its people is mirrored in its eleven official languages: English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, Venda, Tswana, Tsonga, Pedi, Shangaan and Ndebele. Furthermore, because South Africa has attracted many immigrants from the world over, you’ll also hear other languages like Italian, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, German, French, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and Portuguese.

Most of the country is situated on a high central plateau with narrow coastal plains extending from the escarpment to the sea. On the east coast the Indian Ocean, the southward-flowing warm Mozambique Current brings dependable rain to the coastal plains. So we have lush forests and bushveld on the east coast and along the escarpment. Once on the central plateau, the rainfall decreases steadily towards the west until, on the west coast, we have semi-desert conditions. The Atlantic Ocean on this coast is cooled by the Benguela Current, which flows northwards from the Antarctic and so does not bring much rain. But it is one of the richest sources of fishing in the world.

Right in the southwest corner of the country, the Western Cape is somewhat anomalous. Rainfall here is in winter and is brought by huge cyclonic weather systems. The summers are warm and dry and, generally the whole floral and faunal assemblage is unique.

To put it simply, the southwestern part of the Western Cape consists of the Cape Floral Kingdom – or as we colloquially call it - “fynbos” (literally fine bush for its small leaves and flowers). Further north and east is the Karoo semi-desert and, to the northwest, the arid but beautiful Namaqualand. Along the east coast are pockets of coastal forest. The escarpment consists mostly of Afro-montane grassland, with some pockets of Afro-montane forest. The broad central highveld consists of mostly open grassland and the lowveld consists of broad-leaved open canopy woodland with large areas of grass. The far northwest of the country is desert.

With our enormous diversity of vegetation zones and types, South Africa has the third highest biodiversity in the world after Brazil and Indonesia. We are proud of conservation management and want to share it with visitors to our country. South Africa is the best place in the world to watch big game. Unlike many other countries, where elephant herds are dwindling and rhinos are practically extinct, we have extremely healthy populations of these and most of the other animals you would expect to see on safari in Africa. And with over 900 species of birds, many of which occur in our national parks, your clients will find their binoculars practically glued to their eyes.

We have over 3,000km of coastline and an enormous range of sea life. If your clients are divers, they’ll be able to travel up the coast in about two weeks and dive in a wide range of marine environments, seeing a totally different faunal and floral assemblage in each spot. And if they’d prefer to stay on the surface, they can still see an incredible array of marine life. South Africa is undoubtedly one of the most fantastic marine mammal watching destinations in the world. Cape fur seals are easily spotted on a short boat trip from most of the major seaside towns in the Western Cape and Garden Route, and enormous pods of bottlenose dolphins regularly swim up and down the coast.

The beautiful and unusual dusky dolphin is quite common near Cape Town. Common dolphins are – well – quite common, and humpback dolphins are seen quite often from Plettenberg Bay north and east to Maputaland. Southern right whales are a familiar sight in many places off the Cape coast between June and November, and humpback whales are often spotted between August and December. Brydes whales are regularly spotted and orcas are also seen occasionally.

We have 11 official languages: Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, North Sotho, South Sotho, seSwati, seTsonga, seTswana, tshiVenda, isiXhosa and isiZulu. However, English is the lingua franca that dominates politics, business and the media, so Englishspeaking clients will have no trouble being understood. Other languages, which are widely spoken by South African citizens, but are not official, include Arabic, German, Greek, Gujerati, Hebrew, Hindi and Portuguese. The Nama and Khoi-San people speak languages that are not widely recognised outside their own communities. Our heritage Our diverse heritage has endowed us with a very interesting material culture. Our cuisine celebrates influences from three continents and our wine inherited the best traditions from the Old World while imbuing it with the freshness of New World influences. Our languages are colourful and borrow freely from each other in both vocabulary and sentence structure. Our art and music displays a wild blend of the classical with the innovative, of the tried and tested with the new and experimental. And our built environment is treasured as jealously as we guard our precious natural resources.

Our diverse heritage has endowed us with a very interesting material culture. Our cuisine celebrates influences from three continents and our wine inherited the best traditions from the Old World while imbuing it with the freshness of New World influences. Our languages are colourful and borrow freely from each other in both vocabulary and sentence structure. Our art and music displays a wild blend of the classical with the innovative, of the tried and tested with the new and experimental. And our built environment is treasured as jealously as we guard our precious natural resources.

South Africa is generally sunny and pleasant and the winters are usually mild. Snow only falls on the high mountain peaks of the Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. The South African seasons are the reverse of those of the northern hemisphere. Despite regional climate differences, South Africa generally enjoys a mild climate throughout the year. The areas with the most significant differences in climate are the western Cape with its Mediterranean climate (warm, dry summers and wet, cold winters), the northern areas (hot summer days and frequent thunderstorms) and the coastal areas of Kwazulu-Natal (sub-tropical, all year round beach weather and high humidity). Average temperatures in South Africa can vary widely:

South Africa has one of the world’s highest daily sunshine rates and visitors who are not used to the sun, should take extra care, especially between 11:00 and 15:00. Sunscreen lotion with a protection factor of at least 15 is advised against the high UV rating of the South African sun.

For summer months, lightweight (cottons and linens), short-sleeved clothes are best, although a light jersey might be needed for the cooler evenings. Umbrellas and raincoats are essential
for the summers and the Western Cape winters. Warm clothes will be needed for the winter months.

Since the landing of Jan van Riebeeck at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652, the economy in South Africa has progressed rapidly. The South Africa of today is a powerful engine for economic growth in southern Africa. The country’s sophisticated physical and financial infrastructure provides the ideal investment platform for entry into the markets of other African countries.

The industrialization of South Africa began with the discovery of gold in 1888 on the Witwatersrand and today the country has a modern well-diversified economy.
The main contributing sectors are agriculture, manufacturing, mining, commerce, secondary industries and service industries. Although our mineral wealth contributes only 9 % to the gross domestic product (GDP), it is still the most important asset of the South African economy. Despite earlier political and labour
problems, South Africa also has one of the most sophisticated manufacturing industries in Africa. Manufacturing and services together represent some 40% of
the gross domestic product (GDP).

The South African flag was first used on 27 April 1994. Its colours are black, blue, green, red, yellow and white, but no universal symbolism is attached to the colours since different colours and colour combinations mean different things to different people. The central design, starting as a “V” at the flag-post, coming together in the centre and extending towards the edge in a single line represents the coming together of the diverse elements that form the South African society.

The national anthem of South Africa is Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika, composed in 1897 by a teacher called Enoch Sontonga. He was well known for his sad songs written to commemorate the suffering of the African people. The words of the first verse were written as a Xhosa hymn but for decades the oppressed people of South Africa regarded this as their national anthem. Eventually, on 20 April 1994, a proclamation issued by the State President formalised both Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika and Die Stem (The Call of South Africa) as the national anthems. In 1996, a shortened version, combining the two, was released. Nkosi sikelel’ iAfrika and Die Stem / The Call of South Africa Nkosi sikelel’ iAfrika Maluphakanyisw’ uphondo lwayo, Yizwa imithandazo yethu, Nkosi sikelela, thina lusapho lwayo. Morena boloka setjhaba sa heso, O fedise dintwa la matshwenyeho, O se boloke, O se boloke setjhaba sa heso, Setjhaba sa South Afrika - South Afrika. Uit die blou van onse hemel, Uit die diepte van ons see, Oor ons ewige gebergtes, Waar die kranse antwoord gee, Sounds the call to come together, And united we shall stand, Let us live and strive for freedom, In South Africa our land.