Basic data on South Africa

The South Africa of today is a stable democracy. In contrast to its apartheid predecessor, its governing party - the African National Congress (ANC) - manages to keep the national household in order. However, while economic development shows solid growth, social inequality has increased, with a large portion of the black majority population still living in poverty. Despite the domestic industry’s increasing need for skilled labour, unemployment rates maintain a steady high. Additionally, the national health situation is more than worrisome, as South Africa is one of the nations with the highest percentage of HIV&AIDS-infections. Yet, in spite of the government’s enormous efforts to improve basic public service provision, such as housing, health, education, water and electricity; overcoming poverty remains the paramount challenge.

Surface area of the country: 1,219,912 km²
Capital: Pretoria (seat of government)
Population: 49.99 million
Percentage of Renewable Energy: 0,3% (Germany: 17%; 2010)
Official languages: All of the 11 national languages are official languages, the most frequent being isiZulu (23.8%), isiXhosa (17.6%), Afrikaans (13.3%), Sepedi (9.4%), English (8.2%), Setswana (8.2%).
Government: Parliamentary democracy with an executive president and federal elements. Head of state and head of government is Honourable President Jacob Zuma, African National Congress (ANC).
Gross Domestic Product: 357.4 billion US$ (Germany: 3,089 trillion US$)
Human Development Index: Ranking number 129 of 182 (Germany: 22 of 182; 2009)
Percentage of people infected with HIV&AIDS: 10.9% (5,5 million people, 2008)
Population living below US$ 2 per day: 35.7% of population (2008)