South Africa

History:
By the 14th century C.E, the region was settled by the Bantu people who migrated from
central Africa. South Africa was first inhabited by Europeans in 1488 when the Portuguese
arrived at the Cape of Good Hope. However, permanent settlement did occur until 1652 when
the Dutch East India Company established a small station for provisions on the Cape. In
following years, French, Dutch and German settlers began to arrive in the region.
By the late 1700s, European settlements were spread throughout the Cape and by the end
of the 18th century the British controlled the entire Cape of Good Hope region.
In the early 1800s in an effort to escape British rule, many native farmers called Boers
migrated north and in 1852 and 1854, the Boers created the independent Republics of the
Transvaal and Orange Free State.
In May 1910 though, the two republics and Britain formed the Union of South Africa, a
self-governing territory of the British Empire and in 1912, the South African Native National
Congress (eventually called the African National Congress or ANC) was founded with the goal
of providing blacks in the region with more freedom.
Despite the ANC in an election in 1948, the National Party won and began passing laws
enforcing a policy of racial separation called apartheid.
In the early 1960s the ANC was banned and Nelson Mandela and other anti-apartheid
leaders were convicted of treason and imprisoned. In 1961, South Africa became a republic after
it withdrew from the British Commonwealth because of international protests against apartheid
and in 1984 a constitution was put into effect. In February 1990, President F.W. de Klerk,
unbanned the ANC after years of protest and two weeks later Mandela was released from prison.
Apartheid- was a system of racial segregation in South Africa enforced through legislation by
the National Party (NP) governments.

South Africa Demographic Profile:

Land area: 1,221,037 km2
Population: 48,375,645
Capital: Pretoria (Executive), Bloemfontein (Judicial), Cape town (Legislative)
Type of government: Republic
Current President: Jacob Zuma
Legislature: Upper house (National Council of provinces) , Lower house (National
Assembly)
Religion: Christianity 75%, No religious affiliation - 15%, the other 10% is consist of
Judaism, Islam, Bahai, African traditional religions, Hinduism and Buddhism.
South Africans commonly used words:
Yes - Ja pronounced Yah
No - Nee pronounced kneer
Thank you - Dankie pronounced dunkey
Please - Asseblief pronounced asserbleef
Goodbye Totsiens pronounced totseens

Written Report
In
South Africa

Submitted by:
Ron Christian O. Canasa
PS 42