piloto 03 Travel to South Africa_ TheBritishSchool Magazine | Page 6

IMPORTANT FACTS
YOU SHOULD
KNOW BEFORE
YOU VISIT
SOUTH AFRICA
by Marisa Guzmán
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is a country located at the
southern tip of Africa. South Africa is the 25th-largest country in the world by
land area, and with close to 53 million people, is the world’s 24th-most popu-
lar nation.
Capital
Pretoria (executive)
Bloemfontein (judicial)
Cape Town (legislative)
Largest city
Johannesburg
Official languages
11 languages
(Afrikaans, English, Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, Xhosa, Swazi,
Tsonga, Tswana, Venda and Zulu)
Government
constitutional parlamentary republic
President
Jacob Zuma
Deputy president
Kgalema Mothalthe
Currency
the rand
Population
51.19 million (2012)
Flag
adoption on April 27, 1994
(colors: white ,blue ,black ,red ,green and gold)
Ethnic Groups
79´5% black, many other ethnic groups
Why is South Africa an
English speaking country?
by Carlos Puente
The first colonists were dutch,
but then the British arrived. Later
came the Boers. South Africa was a
British colony in 1902 when Boers
lost the war. British and Boers were
intereting because in South Afri-
ca there were diamond fields and
gold mines. The Boer War started
with the conflict between British
and Boers. There were two wars,
the first was between 1880 and 1881,
and the second between 1899 and
1902. British and Boers have fought
for twenty years, but in 1902, Boers
knew they were going to lose the war
because British had all the power. Fi-
nally, in 1961 South Africa obtained
the independence and was declared
the Republic Of South Africa.