Capital(s): Pretoria (administrative) Cape Town (legislative) Bloemfontein (judicial)

Time: GMT + 2 hours

Population: 43,647,658

Area: 1,219,912 km²

Currency: South African Rand (R)

Climate: South Africa has warm, sunny summers (October-April) with temperatures averaging between 25 to 30’C, and getting progressively warmer in the north.  Winter rainfall is significant only in Cape Province.  Winters (May/June-September) are mild and snowfall is extremely rare and limited to mountain ranges.  The average temperature in winter is around 10’C.

People: Black 75.2%, White 13.6%, Colored 8.6%, Indian 2.6%

Official language: 11 official languages: Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, Swazi, Tsongo, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa and Zulu

Geography: The country consists mostly of a vast, semi-arid interior plateau rimmed by mountains and a narrow coastal belt with subtropical vegetation.

Neighbouring countries: Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Zimbabwe

Economy: South Africa is still a developing nation, yet it is the world’s largest producer of platinum, gold and chromium.  It has well-developed telecommunications, financial, legal, energy and transport industries as well as a stock exchange that is among the top 10 largest in the world.  Public phones are widely distributed across the country and there are Internet cafés everywhere in all major cities – now even in tiny rural towns as well. Though struggling with poverty, unemployment, crime and AIDS, the economy is growing slowly.   

When to go: It depends largely on what reason you want to see when you travel to South Africa. South Africa is a year-round destination, with summer months favoured for beach and water sport activities and game viewing recommended for winter months (when the dry weather forces animals to congregate around waterholes – making for easier game viewing).

What to pack:
Bring comfortable, light-weight clothes. If you are coming on safari, try to keep your baggage to 12-15kg, preferably in a soft bag, as space is limited on safari transport.

• Shorts, T-shirts, sun dresses
• Swimming costumes
• Good comfortable walking shoes
• Casual lightweight cotton, khaki or neutral coloured clothes for safaris
• Fleece or sweater and a warm jacket for game drives or cool evenings
• Wide brimmed hat
• Lots of sun tan lotion, sunblock and lip cream – most foreigners tend to underestimate the hot, African sun and end up with uncomfortable sunburn that can tend to dampen the holiday spirit
• Anti-malaria prophylactics – consult your doctor/pharmacist about the regions you will be visiting as the southern parts of the country do not have malaria, but if you are going to the far north, you will definitely need them
• Insect repellent creams
• Binoculars, camera (different kinds of film are widely available )
• Sunglasses