South Africa

Dutch traders landed at the southern tip of modern day South Africa in 1652 and established a stopover point on the spice route between the Netherlands and the Far East, founding the city of Cape Town. After the British seized the Cape of Good Hope area in 1806, many of the Dutch settlers (the Boers) trekked north to found their own republics. The discovery of diamonds (1867) and gold (1886) spurred wealth and immigration and intensified the subjugation of the native inhabitants. The Boers resisted British encroachments but were defeated in the Boer War (1899-1902); however, the British and the Afrikaners, as the Boers became known, ruled together beginning in 1910 under the Union of South Africa, which became a republic in 1961 after a whites-only referendum. In 1948, the National Party was voted into power and instituted a policy of apartheid - the separate development of the races - which favored the white minority at the expense of the black majority. The African National Congress (ANC) led the opposition to apartheid and many top ANC leaders, such as Nelson MANDELA, spent decades in South Africa's prisons. Internal protests and insurgency, as well as boycotts by some Western nations and institutions, led to the regime's eventual willingness to negotiate a peaceful transition to majority rule. The first multi-racial elections in 1994 brought an end to apartheid and ushered in majority rule under an ANC-led government. South Africa since then has struggled to address apartheid-era imbalances in decent housing, education, and health care. ANC infighting, which has grown in recent years, came to a head in September 2008 when President Thabo MBEKI resigned, and Kgalema MOTLANTHE, the party's General-Secretary, succeeded him as interim president. Jacob ZUMA became president after the ANC won general elections in April 2009.
==Economical characteristics==
* Currency: Rand (ISO code: ZAR)
* Central bank discount rate: 7% (31 December 2009)
* Commercial banks lending rate: 11.71% (31 December 2009 )
* Stock of money (M1): $44.66 billion (31 December 2008)
* Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $124.1 billion (31 December 2008)
===Statistics===
Statistic / Year 	1999 	2000 	2001 	2002 	2003 	2004 	2005 	2006 	2007 	2008
GDP (million USD)World Bank. "South Africa: GDP", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-10-04. 	133 184	132 878	118 479	110 874	166 654	216 012	242 802	257 728	283 745	276 445
Govt. debt (% of GDP)World Bank. "South Africa: government debt", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-10-04. 	 	45.270 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Govt. revenue (% of GDP)World Bank. "South Africa: government revenue", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-10-04. 	 	26.347 	27.436 	26.431 	26.839 	28.517 	30.613 	32.017 	32.041 	30.719
Govt. expenses (% of GDP)World Bank. "South Africa: government expenses", from World Bank Data. Referenced 2010-10-04.	 	27.907 	27.824 	27.570 	29.284 	30.319 	30.461 	30.773 	30.748 	30.943
Debt to revenue (years) 	 	1.718 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
==References==
Note: statistical data was rounded. Different sources may use different methodologies for their estimates. Debt to revenue is calculated by dividing the two variables from their original ('unrounded') values. It represents how long it would a government take to repay its entire debt if it used its whole revenue for this purpose.
==External links==
* South Africa on Wikipedia
* Central bank of South Africa
* Country profile (pdf) from the Enterprise Studies page (part of the The World Bank Group)
* Studies from the Library of Congress (1986-1998)
* BBC country profile
Category:Countries