South Africa - some facts about a remarkable nation

Economy
1. The rand was the best performing currency against the US Dollar between 2002 and 2005
2. South Africa has 37,000 high net-wealth individuals (holding at least US$1million in financial assets)
3. South Africa has the 26th biggest economy in the world, with a Gross Domestic Product of US$126 billion
4. South Africa accounts for almost 45% of the GDP of the entire African continent, with an economy three times the size of the second biggest (Egypt)
5. Gauteng is South Africa’s smallest province but produces 37% of South Africa’s Gross Domestic Product
6. The Johannesburg Stock Exchange is one of the fifteen largest in the world in terms of market capitalization
7. South Africa’s banking system is ranked 8th in the world.

Infrastructure
1. South Africa generates two-thirds of Africa’s electricity
2. Forty percent of Africa’s telephones are in South Africa
3. South African power supplier provides the fourth cheapest electricity in the world
4. Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto is the biggest hospital in the world
5. South Africa is one of only 12 countries with potable tap water
6. Durban is the largest port in Africa and the ninth largest in the world.
7. There are 22 million cell phone users in South Africa

Social
1. Ten million South Africans (a quarter of the population) have access to social grants
2. Since 1994, 500 houses have been built each day for the poor and 1,000 houses per day have received electricity
3. Seventy percent of South Africa’s population is urbanized
4. Our population is set to stabilize at around 45 million people for the next 20 years
5. In the past 2 years, 300,000 people have moved into the middle classes and 500,000 have moved out of poverty, but we still have 20% of the population living in poverty

Tourism
1. The number of tourists visiting South Africa has grown by 116% since 1994
2. The Singita game reserve was voted the best hotel in the world by the readers of a leading travel magazine
3. For every seven tourists who journey to South Africa, one permanent job is created
4. The world's best land-based whale-watching spot is located in Hermanus in the Western Cape.
5. In 2002, South Africa was the world’s fastest growing tourist destination - for those of you that have read this far... under MY watch!!

Sport
1. The Cape Argus Cycle Tour is the largest timed cycle race in the world.
2. South Africa will become the first African country to host the Soccer World Cup in 2010
3. South Africa has the largest soccer league in the world
4. South Africa has two golfers in the World’s Top 10
5. In 1994, we won 11 medals in the Commonwealth Games. In 2002, we won 46.

SA Teaching the World
1. South Africa houses one of the three largest telescopes in the world at Sutherland in the Karoo
2. South Africa is the first, and to date the only, country to build nuclear weapons and then voluntarily dismantle its entire nuclear weapons programme
3. South Africa has the 8th best ratio of women to men in Parliament
4. South Africa’s Constitution is widely regarded as being one of the most progressive in the world, drawing from the experiences of the world’s most advanced democracies
5. South African Dr Christiaan Barnard performed the world’s first heart transplant in 1967 in Cape Town.
6. The South African oil company Sasol has established the only commercially proven oil-from-coal operations in the world.
7. Two of the world's most profoundly compassionate philosophies originated in South Africa – Ubuntu (the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity) and Gandhi's notion of "passive resistance" (Satyagraha), which he developed while living in South Africa.

Education
1. Almost a quarter of South Africa’s non-interest budget is spent on education
2. The University of South Africa UNISA is a pioneer of tertiary distance education and is the largest correspondence university in the world with 250,000 students.
3. Our learner to teacher ratio has improved from 1:50 in 1994 to 1:34 in 2004
4. South Africa’s matric pass rate has improved from 49% in 1994 to 70% in 2004, but student’s receiving university exemptions has remained at 18%
5. The adult literacy rate in South Africa now exceeds 80%

Environmental
1. The Kruger National Park supports the greatest variety of wildlife species on the African continent
2. The Cango Caves near Oudsthoorn is the world’s longest underground cave sequence
3. South Africa is home to both the largest land mammal (elephant) and the smallest mammal (shrew)
4. South Africa is the only country to house an entire floral kingdom (fynbos), one of only 6 on the planet
5. In 1991, South Africa became the first country in the world to protect the Great White shark.
6. South Africa has the oldest meteor scar in the world, at the Vredefort Dome near Parys. The scar is 2 billion years old.
7. South Africa has the third highest level of biodiversity worldwide
8. The Cape Hyrax’s (dassie) closest relative is the African elephant
9. South Africa has embraced the concept of trans-frontier ‘peace parks’, linking ecological reserves across national borders

General
1. South Africa is the cradle of mankind
2. Afrikaans is the youngest official language in the world
3. The Western Deep Levels is the world’s deepest mine at 3777 metres
4. South Africa has the world’s largest deposits of gold, chromium, platinum and manganese
5. The only street in the world to house two Nobel Peace Prize winners is in Soweto. Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu both have houses in Vilakazi Street, Orlando West.
6. South Africa has the world's second oldest air force, established 1920.
7. South African Breweries ranks as the second largest brewing company in the world. It supplies up to 50% of China's beer.
8. South Africa has the second oldest film industry in the world
9. South African media ranks 26th out of 167 countries in the Worldwide Press Freedom Index, ahead of the United Kingdom, Australia and Japan
10. In 2005, Time Magazine hailed President Thabo Mbeki as the Most Powerful Man in Africa
11. South Africa’s population is approximately 46.8 million (2005)
12. South Africa is a middle income, developing country with well-developed financial, communications and legal services and excellent energy and transport infrastructures

Source: South Africa - The Good News www.sagoodnews.co.za

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