Portal:South Africa

More information List of selected articles, List of Good articles ...

Welcome to the

South Africa

Portal

Unity in Diversity

edit

Introduction

Flag of South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of the African continent. It borders the countries of Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Eswatini, and entirely surrounds Lesotho.

South Africa has the largest population of people of European descent in Africa, one of the largest Indian population outside of Asia, as well as the largest Coloured (of mixed European, Asian and African descent) community in Africa, making it one of the most ethnically diverse countries on the continent. Racial and ethnic strife between the black majority and the white minority have played a large part in the country's history and politics. The National Party began introducing the policy of apartheid after winning the general election of 1948; however, it was the same party under the leadership of F.W. de Klerk who started to dismantle it in 1990 after a long struggle by the black majority, as well as many white, coloured and Indian South Africans.

The country is one of the few in Africa never to have had a coup d'état, and regular free and fair elections have been held since 1994, making it a regional power and among the most stable and liberal democracies in Africa.

South Africa is ranked as an upper-middle income economy by the World Bank. It has the second largest economy in Africa after Nigeria, and the 34th-largest in the world. By purchasing power parity, South Africa has the 7th highest per capita income in Africa. Although being the second largest economy, South Africa has the most sophisticated economy in the continent, with modern infrastructure common throughout the country. The country is considered to be a newly industrialized country according to the World Bank classifications.

More about South Africa ...

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Selected article - show another

The Public Utility Transport Corporation (PUTCO) is a provider of commuter bus services in the provinces of Gauteng, Limpopo, and the western parts of Mpumalanga in South Africa. PUTCO was established in 1945 after the bus strike of 1944.

PUTCO is the only public passenger company previously listed on the JSE Limited and has grown into the biggest commuter bus operator in the country. It operates 1,600 buses, employs just over 3,300 people and transports more than 230,000 commuters daily. PUTCO vehicles travel more than 90 million kilometres per year. (Full article...)

List of selected articles

edit

Selected picture - show another

Shanty town

Photo credit: Matt-80

A shanty town on the outskirts of Soweto, South Africa. Shanty towns are settlements of impoverished people who live in improvised dwellings made from scrap plywood, corrugated metal, and sheets of plastic. Shanty towns, which are usually built on the periphery of cities, often do not have proper sanitation, electricity, or telephone services.

More selected pictures

edit

Did you know... - show different entries

...that the Pilanesberg Game Reserve is located in the crater of a long extinct volcano and the result of eruptions some 1,200 million years ago.
...that Table Mountain (pictured) in Cape Town is believed to be one of the oldest mountains in the world
...that The Cape Floral Kingdom has 9,600 plant species, 70% of which are not found anywhere else in the world.

More Did you know

edit

WikiProjects

WikiProject South Africa

WikiProject South Africa discussions • South Africa Wikipedians' Notice Board • South African Wikipedians • Wikipedians in South Africa • Wikimedia ZA • Subscribe to the Wikimedia ZA mailing list

Good article - show another

This is a Good article, an article that meets a core set of high editorial standards.

Goldstone in 2019

Richard Joseph Goldstone (born 26 October 1938) is a South African retired judge who served in the Constitutional Court of South Africa from July 1994 to October 2003. He joined the bench as a judge of the Supreme Court of South Africa, first in the Transvaal Provincial Division from 1980 to 1989 and then in the Appellate Division from 1990 to 1994. Before that, he was a commercial lawyer in Johannesburg, where he entered legal practice in 1963 and took silk in 1976.

He is considered to be one of several liberal judges who issued key rulings that undermined apartheid from within the system by tempering the worst effects of the country's racial laws. Among other important rulings, Goldstone made the Group Areas Act – under which non-whites were banned from living in "whites only" areas – virtually unworkable by restricting evictions. As a result, prosecutions under the act virtually ceased. (Full article...)

List of Good articles

edit

Selected biography - show another

Jan Christiaan Smuts, OM, CH, ED, KC, FRS, PC (24 May 1870 – 11 September 1950) was a prominent South African and British Commonwealth statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various cabinet posts, he served as Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 until 1924 and from 1939 until 1948. He served in the First World War and as a British field marshal in the Second World War. He led commandos in the Second Boer War for the Transvaal. During the First World War, he led the armies of South Africa against Germany, capturing German South-West Africa and commanding the British Army in East Africa. From 1917 to 1919, he was also one of five members of the British War Cabinet, helping to create the Royal Air Force. He became a field marshal in the British Army in 1941, and served in the Imperial War Cabinet under Winston Churchill. He was the only person to sign the peace treaties ending both the First and Second World Wars.

More selected biographies

More...

Selected fare or cuisine - show another

A piece of droëwors

Droëwors (/ˈdruːəvɔːrs/; Afrikaans for "dry sausage", from Dutch: "droge worst") is a Southern African snack food, based on the traditional, coriander-seed spiced boerewors sausage. It is usually made as a dunwors (Afrikaans for "thin sausage") rather than dikwors ("thick sausage"), as the thinner sausage dries more quickly and is thus less likely to spoil before it can be preserved. If dikwors is to be used, it is usually flattened to provide a larger surface area for drying. (Full article...)

List of selected fare/cuisine articles

edit

Selected quote - show another

Pride in our country is a common bond between us all. It is the essence of our new patriotism.

— Nelson Mandela

More selected quotes

More...

edit

Selected panorama - show another

Credit: Damien du Toit

View across the Victoria Basin at the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront

More selected panoramas

Read more...

General images - show another

The following are images from various South Africa-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1The Boer method of punishing natives, by Frank Patterson, 1900 (from History of South Africa)
Image 2The British Empire is red on the map, at its territorial zenith in the late 1910s and early 1920s. (India highlighted in purple.) South Africa, bottom centre, lies between both halves of the Empire. (from History of South Africa)
Image 3Frederik W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela, two of the driving forces in ending apartheid (from History of South Africa)
Image 4Regional geography during the period of the Anglo–Boer wars:
South African Republic/Transvaal
Orange Free State
British Cape Colony
Natal Colony (from History of South Africa)
Image 5Generals Smuts (right) and Botha were members of the British Imperial War Cabinet during World War I. (from History of South Africa)
Image 6King Moshoeshoe with his advisors (from History of South Africa)
Image 7Cecil John Rhodes, co-founder of De Beers Consolidated Mines at Kimberley (from History of South Africa)
Image 8Shaka Zulu in traditional Zulu military garb (from History of South Africa)
Image 9Children of different ethnic groups ride a bus in Cape Town, 1994 (from History of South Africa)
Image 10Meat on a traditional South African braai (from Culture of South Africa)
Image 11Looking out over the floodplains of the Luvuvhu River (right) and the Limpopo River (far distance and left) (from History of South Africa)
Image 12The statue of Jan van Riebeeck, the founder of Cape Town, in Heerengracht Street. (from History of South Africa)
Image 13Statue of Bartolomeu Dias at the High Commission of South Africa in London. He was the first European navigator to sail around the southernmost tip of Africa. (from History of South Africa)
Image 14Union Buildings, government administrative centre, Pretoria, c. 1925 (from History of South Africa)
Image 15View of Table Bay with ships of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), c. 1683. (from History of South Africa)
Image 16Church on Greenmarket Square in Cape Town, South Africa with a banner memorialising the Marikana massacre (from History of South Africa)
Image 17Replica of an East Indiaman of the Dutch East India Company/United East Indies Company (VOC). The Dutch East India Company was a major force behind the (c. 1590s–1720s) and Netherlandish cartography (c. 1570s–1670s). (from History of South Africa)
Image 18Jan van Riebeeck, first Commander of the Dutch East India Company colony (from History of South Africa)
Image 19Oracles of the Pink Universe by Simphiwe Ndzube, 2021 (from Culture of South Africa)
Image 20An account of the first trekboers (from History of South Africa)
Image 21Map of the black homelands in South Africa at the end of apartheid in 1994 (from History of South Africa)
Image 22An array of traditional South African cuisine (from Culture of South Africa)
Image 23Emily Hobhouse campaigned against the appalling conditions of the British concentration camps in South Africa, thus influencing British public opinion against the war. (from History of South Africa)
Image 24The rise of the Zulu Empire under Shaka forced other chiefdoms and clans to flee across a wide area of southern Africa. Clans fleeing the Zulu war zone included the Soshangane, Zwangendaba, Ndebele, Hlubi, Ngwane, and the Mfengu. Some clans were caught between the Zulu Empire and advancing Voortrekkers and British Empire such as the Xhosa . (from History of South Africa)
Image 25Harry Smith (from History of South Africa)
Image 26King Cetshwayo (ca. 1875) (from History of South Africa)
Image 27The Rhodes Colossus—Cecil Rhodes spanning "Cape to Cairo" (from History of South Africa)
Image 28Painting of the Sharpeville massacre of March 1960 (from History of South Africa)
Image 29Johannesburg before gold mining transformed it into a bustling modern city (from History of South Africa)
Image 30Nicolaas Waterboer, Griqualand ruler, 1852–1896 (from History of South Africa)
Image 31Simon's Town harbour and naval base in South Africa were used by the Allies during World War II. (from History of South Africa)
Image 32Old Dutch church in Ladismith (from Culture of South Africa)
Image 33Members of 44 Parachute Brigade on patrol during the South African Border War. (from History of South Africa)
Image 34Gateway to the Castle of Good Hope, the oldest building in South Africa (from Culture of South Africa)
Image 35Indian indentured labourers arriving in Durban (from History of South Africa)
Image 36Flag of the South African Republic, often referred to as the Vierkleur (meaning four-coloured) (from History of South Africa)
Image 37Zulus in Natal (from Culture of South Africa)
Image 38Groot Constantia, the oldest wine estate in South Africa, was founded in 1685 by Simon van der Stel. The South African wine industry (New World wine) is among the lasting legacy of the VOC era. The recorded economic history of South Africa began with the VOC period. (from History of South Africa)
Image 39The Castle of Good Hope (Kasteel de Goede Hoop in Dutch), Cape Town. Founded officially in 1652, Kaapstad/Cape Town is the oldest urban area in South Africa. (from History of South Africa)
Image 40Tents in the British concentration camp of Barberton, c.1901 (from History of South Africa)
Image 41Enoch Sontonga (from Culture of South Africa)
Image 42Boer Voortrekkers depicted in an early artist's rendition (from History of South Africa)
Image 43Olive Schreiner, the author of The Story of an African Farm (1883) (from Culture of South Africa)
Image 44Flag of the Republic of the Orange Free State (from History of South Africa)
Image 45Daniel François Malan, National Party leader from 1934 to 1953 (from History of South Africa)

edit

Topics

edit

Related portals

Recognized content

Wikipedia:WikiProject South Africa/Recognized content

New articles

This list was generated from these rules. Questions and feedback are always welcome! The search is being run daily with the most recent ~14 days of results. Note: Some articles may not be relevant to this project.

Rules | Match log | Results page (for watching) | Deleted articles| Last updated: 2026-06-13 20:30 (UTC)

Note: The list display can now be customized by each user. See List display personalization for details.