Facts & Figures: Republic of South Africa

  The Republic of South Africa (conventional short form: South Africa) is located at the southern tip of Africa. The population of the country is 49 million as estimated in 2009. There are 11 official languages: Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Northern Sotho, Tswana, English, Southern Sotho, Tsonga, Swazi, Venda and Southern Ndebele. Most South Africans can speak more than one language, and the main language of commerce and politics is English, although English is only the fifth-most common (some sources say sixth) home language (IsiZulu 23.8%, IsiXhosa 17.6%, Afrikaans 13.3%, Sepedi 9.4%, English 8.2%, Setswana 8.2%, Sesotho 7.9%, Xitsonga 4.4%, other 7.2%). Literacy of the total population is 86.4%.

South Africa has three capital cities: Cape Town, the largest of the three, is the legislative capital; Pretoria is the administrative capital; and Bloemfontein is the judicial capital. There are nine provinces: Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North-West, Western Cape. South Africa has a bicameral parliament: National Council of Provinces (upper house) and National Assembly (lower house). Since the end of apartheid in 1994, South African politics have been dominated by the African National Congress (ANC), which has been the dominant party with 60–70% of the vote. The political system in South Africa is constitutional democracy. The president of the Republic of South Africa is Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma who was elected in 2009 by parliament following his party's (ANC) victory at the general election.

From the point of view of means of technical communication:

• 4.425 million telephone main lines in use (2008)
• 45 million mobile phones (2008)
• 1.73 million internet hosts (2009)
• 4.187 million internet users (2008)

Unfortunately available data on radio and television broadcast stations are relatively old and have most probably changed by now:

• Radio stations (in 1998): 14 AM, 347 FM (plus 243 repeaters), 1 shortwav
• TV stations (in 1997): 556 (plus 144 network repeaters)
  

Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency - The World Factbook
Wikipedia - South Africa
South Africa's official tourism website