South Africa: History South Africa History Early History The San (Bushmen) are among the oldest indigenous peoples of South Africa. About 2,000 years ago, the pastoral Khoikhoi (called Hottentots by Europeans) settled mainly in the southern coastal region. By at least the 8th cent., Bantu speakers moving southward from E central Africa had settled the N region of present-day South Africa. These Bantu-speaking groups developed their own complex community organizations. In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias , a Portuguese navigator, became the first European to round the Cape of Good Hope (so named by King John II of Portugal). The diaries of shipwrecked Portuguese sailors attest to a large Bantu-speaking population in present-day KwaZulu-Natal by 1552. Colonialism and African-European Relations Although European vessels frequently passed by South Africa on their way to E Africa and India, and sometimes stopped for provisions or rest, no permanent European settlement was made until 1652, when Jan van Riebeeck and about 90 other persons set up a provisioning station for the Dutch East India Company at Table Bay on the Cape of Good Hope.

Soon van Riebeeck began to trade with nearby Khoikhoi, gave Europeans land for farms, and brought in Africans (from W and E Africa) and Malays as slaves. By 1662, about 250 Europeans were living near the Cape and gradually they moved inland, founding Stellenbosch in 1679. In 1689 about 200 Huguenot refugees from Europe arrived; they established a wine industry and intermarried with the earlier Dutch settlers. By 1707 there were about 1,780 freeholders of European descent in South Africa, and they owned about 1,100 slaves. By the early 18th cent., most San had migrated into inaccessible parts of the country to avoid European domination; the more numerous Khoikhoi either remained near the Cape, where they became virtual slaves of the Europeans, or dispersed into the interior. A great smallpox outbreak in 1713 killed many Europeans and most of the Khoikhoi living near the Cape. During the 18th cent.

intermarriage between Khoikhoi slaves and Europeans began to create what became later known as the Coloured population. At the same time white farmers (known as Boers or Afrikaners) began to trek (journey) increasingly farther from the Cape in search of pasture and cropland. By 1750 some farmers had migrated to the region between the Gamtoos and Great Fish rivers, where they encountered the Xhosa. At first the whites and blacks engaged in friendly trade, but in 1779 the first of a long series of Xhosa Wars (1789, 1799, 1812, 1819, 1834, 1846, 1850, 1877) broke out between them, primarily over land and cattle ownership. The whites sought to establish the Great Fish as the southern frontier of the Xhosa.

The British and the Boers During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars the British replaced the Dutch at the Cape from 1795 to 1803 and again from 1806 to 1814, when the territory was assigned to Great Britain by the Congress of Vienna. In 1820, 5,000 British settlers were given small farms near the Great Fish River. They were intended to form a barrier to the southern movement of the Xhosa, but most soon gave up farming and moved to nearby towns such as Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown . They were the first large body of Europeans not to be assimilated into the Afrikaner culture that had developed in the 17th and 18th cent. Great Britain alienated the Boers by remodeling the administration along British lines, by calling for better treatment of the Coloured and blacks who worked for the Boers as servants or slaves, by granting (Ordinance 50, 1828) free nonwhites legal rights equal to those of the whites, and by restricting the acquisition of new land by the Boers.

In 1833 slavery was abolished in the British Empire, an act that angered South African slaveowners, but the freed slaves remained oppressed and continued to be exploited by white landowners. To escape the restrictions of British rule as well as to obtain new land, about 12,000 Boers left the Cape between 1835 and 1843 in what is known as the Great Trek. The Voortrekkers (as these Boers are known) migrated beyond the Orange River. Some remained in the highveld of the interior, forming isolated communities and small states. A large group traveled eastward into what became Natal, where 70 Boers were killed (Feb., 1838) in an attack by Dingane's Zulu forces. Andries Pretorius defeated (Dec., 1838) the Zulu at the battle of Blood River, and the Boers proceeded to establish farms in Natal. After Britain annexed Natal in 1843, however, most of the Boers there returned to the interior. In the 1850s the Boer republics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal were established.

In 1860 the first indentured laborers from India arrived in Natal to work on the sugar plantations, and by 1900 they outnumbered the whites there. Natural Riches and British Victory Diamonds were discovered in 1867 along the Vaal and Orange rivers and in 1870 at what became (1871) Kimberley ; in 1886 gold was discovered on the Witwatersrand. These discoveries (especially that of gold) spurred great economic development in S Africa during 1870–1900; foreign trade increased dramatically, rail trackage expanded from c.70 mi (110 km) in 1870 to c.3,600 mi (5,790 km) in 1895, and the number of whites rose from about 300,000 in 1870 to about 1 million in 1900. At the same time there were complex political developments. In 1871 the British annexed the diamond-mining region (known as Griqualand West), despite the protests of the Orange Free State.

Britain annexed the Transvaal in 1877 but, after a revolt, restored its independence in 1881. In 1889, Cape Colony and the Orange Free State joined in a customs union, but the Transvaal (led by Paul Kruger ) adamantly refused to take part. In 1890, Cecil J. Rhodes , an ardent advocate of federation in S Africa, became prime minister of Cape Colony, and by 1894 he was encouraging the non-Afrikaner whites (known as the Uitlanders) in the Transvaal to overthrow Kruger. In Dec., 1895, Leander Starr Jameson , a close associate of Rhodes, invaded the Transvaal with a small force, planning to assist a hoped-for Uitlander rising; however, the Uitlanders did not revolt, and Jameson was defeated by early Jan., 1896. Tension mounted in the following years as British Prime Minister Joseph Chamberlain and the British high commissioner in South Africa, Alfred Milner , supported the Uitlanders against the dominant Afrikaners.

In 1896, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State formed an alliance, and in 1899 they declared war on Great Britain. The South African War (Boer War; 1899–1902) was won by the British. The Union of South Africa In 1910 the Union of South Africa, with dominion status, was established by the British; it included Cape of Good Hope, Natal, the Orange Free State, and the Transvaal as provinces. Under the Union's constitution, power was centralized; the Dutch language (and in 1925 Afrikaans) was given equal status with English, and each province retained its existing franchise qualifications (the Cape permitted voting by some nonwhites). After elections in 1910, Louis Botha became the first prime minister; he headed the South African party, an amalgam of Afrikaner parties that advocated close cooperation between Afrikaners and persons of British descent. In 1912, J. B. M. Hertzog founded the Afrikaner-oriented National party. By 1914, largely as a result of the efforts of Mohandas K.

Gandhi , the Indians living there were receiving somewhat better treatment. Botha led (1914) South Africa into World War I on the side of the Allies and quickly squashed a revolt by Afrikaners who opposed this alignment. In 1915, South African forces captured South West Africa (present-day Namibia ) from the Germans, and after the war the territory was placed under the Union as a League of Nations mandate. In 1919, Botha was succeeded as prime minister by his close associate J. C. Smuts . In 1921–22 skilled white mine workers on the Witwatersrand, fearful of losing their jobs to lower-paid nonwhites, staged a major strike, which Smuts ended only with a use of force that cost about 230 lives. As a result, Hertzog was elected prime minister in 1924 and remained in office until 1939; from 1934 to 1939 he was supported by Smuts, with whom he formed the United South African National party.

Hertzog led an Afrikaner cultural and economic revival; was influential in gaining additional British recognition of South African independence (through the Balfour Declaration of 1926 and the Statute of Westminster of 1931); took (Dec., 1932) South Africa off the gold standard, thus raising the price of gold and stimulating the gold-mining industry and the economy in general. He also curtailed the electoral power of nonwhites and furthered the system of allocating "reserved" areas for blacks as their permanent homes, at the same time regulating their movement in the remainder of the country. The Smuts-Hertzog alliance disintegrated over whether to support Great Britain in World War II. Winning a crucial vote in parliament (Sept., 1939), Smuts became prime minister again and brought South Africa into the war on the British (Allied) side; Hertzog, who was not alarmed by Nazi German aggression and had little affection for Great Britain, went into opposition. South African troops made an important contribution to the Allied war effort, helping to end Italian control in Ethiopia and fighting with distinction in Italy and Madagascar.

National Party Ascendancy and Apartheid The National party won the 1948 elections, partly by criticizing the more liberal policy toward nonwhites associated with Jan Hofmeyr, Smuts's close aide. D. F. Malan of the National party was prime minister from 1948 to 1954, and he was followed by J. G. Strijdom (1954–58), H. F. Verwoerd (1958–66), B. J. Vorster (1966–78), and P. W. Botha (1978–89)—all members of the National party, which won the general elections between 1953 and 1979. These governments greatly strengthened white control of the country. The policy of apartheid in almost all social relations was further implemented by a varied series of laws that included additional curbs on free movement (partly through the use of passbooks, which most blacks were required to carry) and the planned establishment of a number of independent homelands for African ethnic groups.

Black South Africans had long protested their inferior treatment through organizations such as the African National Congress (ANC; founded 1912) and the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union of Africa (founded 1919 by Clements Kadalie). In the 1950s and early 60s there were various protests against the National party's policies, involving passive resistance and the burning of passbooks; in 1960 a peaceful protest against the pass laws organized by the Pan-Africanist Congress (an offshoot of the ANC) at Sharpeville (near Johannesburg) ended when police opened fire, massacring 70 protesters and wounding about 190 others. In the 1960s most leaders (including ANC leader Nelson Mandela ) of the opposition to apartheid were either in jail or were living in exile, and the government proceeded with its plans to segregate blacks on a more permanent basis. The Republic of South Africa and Racial Strife In 1961, South Africa left the Commonwealth of Nations (whose members were strongly critical of South Africa's apartheid policies) and became a republic. The first president of the new republic was C. R.

Swart; he was succeeded by T. E. Donges and J. J. Fouché. In the 1960s there were international attempts to wrest South West Africa from South Africa's control, but South Africa tenaciously maintained its hold on the territory. In 1966, Prime Minister Verwoerd was assassinated by a discontented white government employee. From the late 1960s, the Vorster government began to try to start a dialogue on racial and other matters with independent African nations; these attempts met with little success, except for the establishment of diplomatic relations with Malawi and the adjacent nations of Lesotho, Botswana, and Swaziland, all of which were economically dependent on South Africa. South Africa was strongly opposed to the establishment of black rule in the white-dominated countries of Angola, Mozambique, and Rhodesia, and gave military assistance to the whites there. However, by late 1974, with independence for Angola and Mozambique under majority rule imminent, South Africa, as one of the few remaining white-ruled nations of Africa, faced the prospect of further isolation from the international community.

In the early 1970s increasing numbers of whites (especially students) protested apartheid, and the National party itself was divided, largely on questions of race relations, into the somewhat liberal verligte [Afrikaans, = enlightened] faction and the conservative verkrampte [Afrikaans, = narrow-minded] group. In the early 1970s, black workers staged strikes and violently revolted against their inferior conditions. South Africa invaded Angola in 1975 in an attempt to crush mounting opposition in exile, but the action was a complete failure. In 1976, open rebellion erupted in the black township of Soweto near Johannesburg as a protest against the requirement of the use of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in black schools. Over the next months rioting spread to other large cities of South Africa, resulting in the deaths of more than 600 blacks. In 1977, the death of black leader Steve Biko in police custody (and under suspicious circumstances) prompted protests and sanctions. After Botha became prime minister in 1978, he pledged to uphold apartheid as well as improve race relations.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the government granted "independence" to four homelands: Transkei (1976), Bophuthatswana (1977), Venda (1979), and Ciskei (1981). In the early 1980s, as the regime hotly debated the extent of reforms, it launched military strikes on the exiled ANC and other insurgent groups in neighboring countries, including Lesotho, Mozambique, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. In 1984, a new constitution was enacted which provided for a tricameral parliament. The new Parliament included the House of Representatives, comprised of Coloureds; the House of Delegates, comprised of Indians; and the House of Assembly, comprised of whites. This system left the whites with more seats in the Parliament than the Indians and Coloureds combined. Blacks violently protested being shut out of the system, and the ANC, which had traditionally used nonviolent means to protest inequality, began to advocate more extreme measures as well.

A Regime Unravels As attacks against police stations and other government installations increased, the regime announced (1985) an indefinite state of emergency. In 1986, Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu , a black South African leader, addressed the United Nations and urged further sanctions against South Africa. A wave of strikes and riots marked the tenth anniversary of the Soweto uprising in 1987. In 1989, President Botha fell ill and was succeeded, first as party leader, then as president, by F. W. de Klerk . De Klerk's government began relaxing apartheid restrictions, and in 1990, Nelson Mandela was freed after 27 years of imprisonment and became head of the recently legalized ANC. In late 1991 the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA), a multiracial forum set up by de Klerk and Mandela, began efforts to negotiate a new constitution and a transition to a multiracial democracy with majority rule. In Mar., 1992, voters in a referendum open only to whites endorsed constitutional reform efforts by a wide margin.

However, there was continuing violence by opponents of the process, especially by supporters of Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi , leader of the Zulu-based Inkatha movement, with the backing and sometimes active participation of South African security forces. There were also reprisals by supporters of the ANC and the Pan-Africanist Congress. In Sept., 1992, government-backed black police fired on a crowd of ANC demonstrators in Ciskei, killing 28. In Apr., 1993, the secretary-general of the South African Communist party was murdered by a right-wing extremist. The New South Africa Despite obstacles and delays, an interim constitution was completed in 1993, ending nearly three centuries of white rule in South Africa and marking the end of white-minority rule on the African continent. A 32-member multiparty transitional government council was formed with blacks in the majority. In Apr., 1994, days after the Inkatha Freedom party ended an electoral boycott, the republic's first multiracial election was held. The ANC won an overwhelming victory, and Nelson Mandela became president.

South Africa rejoined the Commonwealth in 1994 and also relinquished its last hold in Namibia, ceding the exclave of Walvis Bay . In 1994 and 1995 the last vestiges of apartheid were dismantled, and a new national constitution was approved and adopted in May, 1996. It provided for a strong presidency and eliminated provisions guaranteeing white-led and other minority parties representation in the government. De Klerk and the National party supported the new charter, despite disagreement over some provisions; Inkatha followers had walked out of constitutional talks and did not participate in voting on the new constitution. Shortly afterward, de Klerk and the National party quit the national unity government to become part of the opposition, after 1998 as the New National party. The new government faced the daunting task of trying to address the inequities produced by decades of apartheid while promoting privatization and a favorable investment climate. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission (1996–2003), headed by Archbishop Tutu, sought to establish the truth about atrocities committed during the country's apartheid era, while avoiding the expense and divisiveness of trials.

The commission's final report said the apartheid government had institutionalized violence in its fight against racial equality but was also critical of most of the groups involved in the liberation struggle, including the ANC. By the end of the 1990s, many blacks had entered the middle class, often through government jobs. Unemployment remained critically high, however, and crime and labor unrest were on the rise. In the 1999 elections Thabo Mbeki , who had succeeded Mandela as head of the ANC, led the party to a landslide victory and became South Africa's new president. The liberal Democratic party became the leading opposition party, and in 2000 it joined with the New National party to form the Democratic Alliance (DA). That coalition, however, survived only until late 2001, when the New National party left it to form a coalition with the ANC. The end of apartheid led as well to a reemergence of South Africa on the international stage, particularly in Africa.

The country has become active in the African Union (the successor of the Organization of African Unity) and the nonaligned movement, and has helped broker peace agreements in strife-torn Burundi (2001) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2002). In Apr., 2002, the small Federal Alliance party joined the Democratic party in the Democratic Alliance; and in Nov., 2003, the Alliance agreed to form a coalition with Inkatha against the ANC in the 2004 elections. AIDS has become a significant health problem in South Africa, and in late 2003 the government finally agreed to provide a comprehension anti-AIDS prevention and treatment program through the public health system. Parliamentary elections in Apr., 2004, resulted in a resounding victory for the ANC, which won nearly 70% of the vote; the DA remained the largest opposition party and increased its share of the vote. The new parliament subsequently reelected President Mbeki. As a result of its poor showing, the New National party merged with the ANC, and voted to disband in Apr., 2005.

In June, Mbeki dismissed Deputy President Jacob Zuma after Zuma's financial adviser was convicted of paying the deputy president bribes. The ANC, however, refused to remove Zuma from his deputy party leadership post, even after he was arraigned on corruption charges later in the month; he was formally indicted in November. In Dec., 2005, Zuma was also charged with rape in an unrelated case, and suspended his participation in the ANC leadership for the duration of that case. After his acquittal on the rape charge in May, 2006, he resumed his ANC duties; the corruption case was dismissed in Sept., 2006, for procedural reasons. Zuma was elected head of the ANC in Dec., 2007, defeating Mbeki; the result reflected widespread unhappiness with South Africa's president within the ANC. In May, 2008, there were a series of attacks on foreigners in various South African cities and towns, apparently sparked by frustrationss over economic issues; thousands of immigrants from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Nigeria were displaced and many fled South Africa.

In Sept., 2008, a judge again dismissed (for procedural reasons) the renewed corruption case against Zuma, but the trial judge also stated that it appeared that Mbeki's government had interfered with the prosecution of Zuma for political reasons. Although Mbeki strongly denied that accusation, the ANC called for him to resign as president and he did. Kgalema Motlanthe , the ANC's deputy leader and a Zuma ally, was elected as South Africa's interim president. The decision in the Zuma case was overturned on appeal in Jan., 2009, and the charges were dropped three months later. In the Apr., 2009, National Assembly elections the ANC again won by a landslide, but it narrowly failed to secure a two-thirds majority, which would have enabled it to amend the constitution without support from another party. The DA, which again increased its share of the vote, remained the largest opposition party, and the Congress of the People (COPE), formed by ANC members who left the party after Mbeki resigned the presidency, placed a distant third. The victory assured Zuma's election as president by the legislature, which occurred the following month.

In July, as South Africa suffered through its worst recession in some two decades, township protests against poor living conditions and inadequate services turned violent in a number of provinces. The murder of Eugene Terreblanche, a white supremist leader, by two black farmhands in Apr., 2010, raised fears that the incident would spark racial violence. The important mining industry was affected by strikes and violence in the second half of 2012 that began in part as a conflict between two competing labor unions; the unrest in the mining industry continued into 2013. Sections in this article: South Africa Provinces Buy data Donate Updates: I updated the populations to the 2011 census results as given in source [2]. Source [3] explained why the areas of the provinces have changed; I used the new areas in the main table below. ISO 3166-2 Newsletter Number I-9 was published on 2007-11-28. It adds the names of the country, and of its divisions, in nine other South African languages. We have another complicated situation in Pretoria.

The City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality was created on 2000-12-05, by merging a number of smaller entities, including the Greater Pretoria Metropolitan Council. The new metropolitan municipality covers an area of about 3,200 km.ï¿½, including all of the city of Pretoria (and several others). The Pretoria City Council was downgraded to a local municipal council. Then on 2005-03-07 the municipal council voted to rename the capital to Tshwane. The South Africa Geographical Names Council approved this change of name on 2005-05-26. It will become official when approved by the Minister for Arts and Culture. (A partisan pro-Pretoria summary of the name change issues may be found in source [5], a legal brief.) The City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality is divided into 76 municipal wards, plus a few slivers of land not in any ward. It is also divided into a large number of townships, overlapping with the wards, with a lot of territory not in any township.

I believe one of the wards, Pretoria Central, is the nucleus of the old Pretoria city, and will retain that name. Tshwane, originally after a native chief's name, has been the name used for Pretoria by some native groups for years. Local authorities also gloss it as Zulu for "we are the same". The name Pretoria was chosen to commemorate Andries Pretorius, reminding many citizens of the despised colonial past. FIPS Publication Change Notice No. 9, affecting FIPS PUB 10-4, was issued on 2004-10-01. It shows the change of the name of Northern Province to Limpopo. ISO 3166-2 Newsletter Number I-6 was published on 2004-03-08. It shows the change of the name of Northern Province to Limpopo. ISO was notified of this change by the South African Department of Arts and Culture (the department in charge of geographic names) on 2003-11-05. ISO has changed the code for this province to ZA-LP.

Northern Province had already begun using its new name, Limpopo, by January, 2002. However, the province's Web site stated that "The new name of the Province will become official after the amendment of section 103(1)(g) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. A request by the legislature has been submitted to Parliament for the necessary amendment to be submitted." The Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology must accept the name change for it to become official. That happened on 2003-06-11. International standard ISO 3166-2 was published on 1998-12-15. It superseded ISO/DIS 3166-2 (draft international standard). The draft standard showed a division of South Africa into nine provinces, with a two-letter code for each. The final standard shows the same nine provinces, but four of their codes have been changed. The new set of codes is shown in the table below. The book "Administrative Subdivisions of Countries" listed preliminary figures from the 1996 census, with a warning about the large margins of error.

Statistics South Africa has released final data, corrected for undercount (source [6]). Country overview: Pretoria, Cape Town, Bloemfontein In 1900, the Boer republics of Orange Free State and Transvaal were fighting Great Britain and the British colonies of Cape of Good Hope and Natal in the Boer War. The British won, and the peace treaty signed on 1902-05-31 made British colonies of all four lands. On 1910-05-31, they united to form the Union of South Africa (Afrikaans: Unie van Zuid-Afrika, but the Afrikaans spelling was changed from Zuid to Suid a few years later). The country voted on independence in 1960, and on 1961-05-31 it became independent under the name Republic of South Africa. Even before independence, the South African government was planning to address its racial problems by creating homelands, or Bantustans: black-majority enclaves within its territory.

The first of the Bantustans was Transkei, delimited in 1963 and granted nominal independence in 1976. There were eventually ten homelands, of which four became nominally independent. None of them ever received international recognition. In 1994, the segregationist apartheid policy came to an end, and the homelands were re-incorporated into the country. South Africa held a mandate over South-West Africa for many years (see Namibia). Other names of country: FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4, a U.S. government standard. CSS: Province codes used by the Central Statistical Service of South Africa. Conv: Conventional abbreviations used popularly (sometimes L for Limpopo). Population: 2011-10-10 census. Former: Former provinces from which these provinces were formed (a few small slivers of land are not mentioned). Postal codes: South Africa uses four-digit postal codes. The numbers are not aligned with province boundaries. Further subdivisions: See the Municipalities of South Africa page. The provinces were formerly subdivided into magisterial districts and administrative districts.

Some of these districts straddled the border between two provinces. The 1996 constitution established a division into 46 district municipalities and 6 metropolitan municipalities. Again, three of the district municipalities lie partly in two provinces each. Territorial extent: Eastern Cape had an exclave within KwaZulu-Natal, around the town of Umzimkulu. It coincides with the part of Transkei that used to lie within Natal. This exclave was apparently eliminated under the 12th and 13th amendments to the Constitution of South Africa. Western Cape includes the Prince Edward Islands. The Bantustans were generally composed of many scattered enclaves. The four Bantustans that were granted independence by South Africa, called the TBVC countries for short, were Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda, and Ciskei. Here are the capitals and approximate locations, relative to the old provinces, of all ten Bantustans.

(The actual number of enclaves changed as boundaries were redrawn.) Bophuthatswana (capital Mmabatho) was seven enclaves in northern Cape of Good Hope, western Transvaal, and Orange Free State. Ciskei (Bisho, which since then has been renamed Bhisho) was one enclave in eastern Cape of Good Hope. Gazankulu (Giyani) was four enclaves (two of them quite small) in northeastern Transvaal. KaNgwane (Louieville) was two enclaves in eastern Transvaal. KwaNdebele (Siyabuswa) was one enclave in central Transvaal. KwaZulu (Ulundi) was eight enclaves (one quite small) in Natal. Lebowa (Lebowakgomo) was eight enclaves (two or three very small) in northern Transvaal. Qwaqwa (Phuthaditjhaba) was a small area in Orange Free State, in its corner with Natal and Lesotho. Transkei (Umtata, now Mthatha) was two enclaves in Cape of Good Hope and one in Natal.

Venda (Thohoyandou) was two enclaves in northern Transvaal. for South Africa lists locations in the country, some of them with their latitudes and longitudes, some with their ISO 3166-2 codes for their subdivisions. This information can be put together to approximate the territorial extent of subdivisions. Origins of names: Gauteng: Sotho for place of gold Mpumalanga: = where the sun rises Natal: Portuguese for Christmas, named by Captain Manuel Mascaranhas when he established it on 1597-12-25 Orange Free State: after the Orange River, which was named for the ruling Dutch family of Orange-Nassau Transvaal: Latin trans: beyond + Vaal River (from Afrikaans vaal: yellowish), land beyond the Vaal from viewpoint of Capetown Change history: 1994-05-07: South Africa reorganized from four provinces into nine. ~1995: Name of Northern Transvaal changed to Northern Province. 1995-06-29: Name of Orange Free State province changed to Free State.

1995-08-24: Name of Eastern Transvaal province changed to Mpumalanga. 1995-12-08: Name of Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging province changed to Gauteng. (Another source says 1995-03.) 2003-07-11: Name of Northern Province changed to Limpopo, and the name of its capital from Pietersburg to Polokwane. Its old ISO code was ZA-NP. 2004: Ulundi ceased to be co-capital of KwaZulu-Natal. ~2004: Name of capital of Eastern Cape changed from Bisho to Bhisho. 2005-05-26: Name of administrative capital of South Africa changed from Pretoria to Tshwane. ~2005: Umzimkulu municipality moved from Eastern Cape to KwaZulu-Natal. 2007-12-14: Matatiele municipality moved from KwaZulu-Natal to Eastern Cape under the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of South Africa.

Other names of subdivisions: Namibia | South African History Online South African History Online View full archive Namibia, a former German colony, is situated towards the north west of South Africa. The Orange River marks the border between the two countries. The country is about 800 000 square kilometers big and borders on Angola to the north and Botswana in the east. The Caprivi Strip, which stretches off its northern edge, extends between Botswana and Zambia. The first European that landed in Namibia was the Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão, who came ashore north of Swakopmund at Cape Cross in 1484. Parts of Namibia are notoriously dry and much of the country is made up of the Namib Desert and the Kalahari. Towards the north the country becomes greener with the Etosha Pan filling with water from northern rivers. This area is rich in diverse wildlife. The Skeleton Coast marks the area where the Namib meets the Atlantic Ocean and is littered with wrecks of ships that ran ashore in the treacherous waters, whalebone shelters used by the San and ghost towns that boomed during the early diamond days.

Due to its harsh environment Namibia is sparsely populated with various different groups. Its population is made up of San, Damaras, Ovambos, Namas, Hereros, Oorlams, Kavangos, East Caprivians, Rehoboth Basters, Kaokovelders, Tswanas and European settlers, mostly German. The country is rich in natural resources and its main mineral products are copper, diamonds, gold, lead and uranium. The South African and Portuguese governments jointly developed the Kunene hydroelectric scheme in 1969. Fishing is also a prominent industry in Namibia, but exploitation of the rich marine resources led to the near extinction of pilchards and anchovies in the 1960s and 70s. Strict controls were put in place and the numbers of fish have steadily increased since then. In 1885 the Chancellor of the German Empire, Bismarck, held a convention in Berlin where European powers divided Africa among themselves. This was called the “Scramble for Africa”. In 1886 the border between Angola and what would become German South West Africa was negotiated between the German and Portuguese nations.

In 1890 the first German military fort was built at Windhoek and, in July of the same year, the British government also apportioned the Caprivi Strip to the Germans. This would give Germany access to the Zambezi River and its other East African territories, and it would give up its claims on Zanzibar. The reason Germany selected Namibia as its “protectorate” was influenced by the fact that a tobacco merchant from Bremen, Franz Luderitz, bought up coastal land in the area in 1882. This resulted in Germany actively establishing itself in the African country by 1884. They occupied Herero lands. Initially the Herero accepted the “treaties of protection”, but the Nama people resisted. In 1888 the Germans confiscated Herero lands and large numbers of their cattle. The aim was to turn South West Africa into a settler colony. In 1890 German soldiers attacked the Nama and by 1892, despite efforts by the Nama and Herero to put up a united front, they were crushed.

By the beginning of the twentieth century African resistance become the central theme under local leaders. German forces were still occupied in crushing the 1903 Bondelswarts Uprising and were hard pressed when the Herero rose in revolt in 1904. Once reinforcements arrived with superior guns German troops defeated them. The new German commander-in-chief, General Lothar von Trotha, ordered the extermination of all Herero people. Pursued by German troops they fled into the desert, into northern Ovamboland and into eastern Bechuanaland, or Botswana. While the German troops were destroying the Herero, the Portuguese launched a new offensive against the northern Ovambo. In 1905 the Nama, who responded a band of guerrilla fighters. After a year of fierce fighting, Witbooi was killed in action but Jacob Marengo continued to lead the Nama resistance for a further two years. In 1907, the death of Marengo brought about the end of the war of resistance. Many of the surviving Nama and Herero were imprisoned or sent to labour camps. All the remaining Herero lands were confiscated and they were forbidden to keep cattle.

Thereafter German policy altered to one of forcing the survivors into the workforce in order to develop the colony. When the First World War broke out in 1914 South Africa agreed to participate in an assault on German South West Africa. Some Afrikaner Nationalists in South Africa opposed this. Led by Generals J B M Hertzog and C R de Wet they were against South African participation in the war against Germany and any attack on South West Africa, which they viewed as the colonial territory of a friendly power. The Union Government, however, had military necessity and economic reasons to incorporate the territory into the Union after the war. These conflicting motives and ideals led to the South African Rebellion. With the suppression of the rebellion General Louis Botha launched South Africa's troops upon the conquest of the German colony and the British navy captured Luderitz Bay in September 1914, cutting off German supplies. South African occupation started in May 1915 when General Louis Botha, first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, ordered 40 000 South African troops into the territory. Heavily outnumbered, the German forces were forced into retreat.

The colony surrendered on 9 July 1915, bringing 31 years of German rule to an end. General J C Smuts , a member of the British War Cabinet, put forward the idea of a League of Nations Mandate system for Germany's conquered colonial possessions. He did not intend this to apply to Germany's African colonies because he hoped to see South West Africa incorporated into South Africa. He was unable to persuade the Peace Conference to approve this and in 1920 he and General Louis Botha very reluctantly agreed that South Africa should administer South West Africa under a Class C Mandate from the League of Nations. The mandate purported to safeguard the rights and interests of the indigenous people. It was also obliged to submit annual reports to the League of Nations Permanent Mandates Commission. The hopes of the inhabitants of South West Africa for redress of grievances when the Union Government took over the territory were soon dashed. During the period 1922 to 1946 the indigenous peoples were allocated from 10,6% to as little as 3,6% of the budget. Even though about 6000 Germans left the country, grazing lands sequestrated by the German colonial government were not restored.

Instead, pastoral chiefdoms and communities were dispossessed and almost half the territory was allocated to some 3 000 White settler ranches that were heavily subsidised. Some of these were given to about three hundred Afrikaners, descendants of Voortrekkers who had previously settled in Angola. Until 1948 the highest authority in the territory was the Administrator of the territory, appointed by the South African Government. Only White settlers were allowed to vote for the Legislative Assembly and local authorities. A resident commissioner and magistrates administered the local inhabitants, issuing directives to chiefs and headmen. Four native commissioners exercised authority in Ovamboland. Black chiefs were treated as government agents who could be replaced or dismissed. Ovamboland was looked on as a labour reserve and very little development was undertaken there. The greater part of the territory outside Ovamboland included White settlements and the mines. The Herero and Nama communities within this zone were allocated reserves. Expenditure on development of the reserves was curtailed in order to pressure the local people into seeking employment on White farms. This would develop contract labour and establish a migrant labour system similar to that of South Africa.

One incident in particular served to draw international criticism to South Africa. In 1921 the Union administration became involved in the suppression of the Bondelswarts, who, although living on the borderlines of poverty, managed to retain their economic independence by hunting, using dogs. To break this activity the tax on dogs was levied. In addition, their leader, Jacobus Christian, was arrested without proper cause. In May 1922 the popular hero Abraham Morris, who had led the Bondelswarts resistance to the Germans in 1903, decided to come home with some armed refugees who had fled to the Union for sanctuary during the German occupation. Morris had served as a guide to the South African invasion forces, and had been given a gun in recognition of his services. The Bondelswarts were ordered to hand him over. Violence broke out when Morris' followers refused to surrender their guns. Although Morris agreed to hand over the guns, a fortnight later the new Administrator-General of South West Africa, G R Hofmeyr, and the Bondelswarts leader, Christian, failed to agree. Hofmeyr ordered a punitive expedition.

Smuts tried to restrain Hofmeyr, but failed, and the South African army with bomber support attacked the community, killing some women and children. With this, the Bondelswarts men openly rebelled, but they were soon completely crushed. Thereafter, and throughout the period that led to Second World War, South Africa was subjected to regular criticism by the United Nations Permanent Mandate Commission. The United Nations (UN) was formed in 1944 and soon afterwards began trying to persuade South Africa to submit the mandate to United Nations trusteeship. Smuts made a determined effort to incorporate South West Africa into the Union of South Africa after the war. In May 1946 the White Legislative Assembly of the territory called for South West Africa's incorporation in South Africa and chiefs and headmen were also persuaded to petition for transfer of the territory to the Union. The South African proposal was opposed by the UN General Assembly, with India, already at loggerheads with South Africa over the treatment of South African Indians, leading the attack. The liberal English clergyman, Reverend Michael Scott, and Dr Xuma , president of the African National Congress (ANC) , provided evidence against South Africa on the grounds of racial discrimination.

They had also received reports from the Herero and others that indicated that the local chiefs had misunderstood the petition and that many of them were, in fact, against incorporation in South Africa. Smuts refused to accept that the UN was the legitimate successor to the defunct League of Nations by refusing to register South West Africa as a UN Trusteeship Territory. Dr D F Malan used Smuts' difficulties with the UN over South West Africa as a tool in his election campaign before 1948. The National Party (NP) intended to incorporate the territory into South Africa unilaterally, and to apply its racial policies in spite of world opinion. After the NP won the South African election of 1948 the new government refused to submit further reports on South West Africa to the UN because the mandate over South West Africa had lapsed, but they stopped short of open defiance of UN authority. In 1949, without incorporating the territory, the Nationalists ingeniously increased their majority in the South African Parliament by creating six new seats for the White population of South West Africa in the Lower House and four in the Senate. In this way it brought about effective rule over South West Africa as a fifth province, without UN recognition.

The UN challenged South Africa's actions in the International Court of Justice. The next year the Court of Justice gave an advisory opinion that South Africa's mandate to administer the territory should remain in force, but that as the UN was the League of Nations' successor, South Africa must still report to it. South Africa rejected the court's ruling and in 1954. South West African “Native Affairs” were placed under the direct control of Pretoria. Although it had withdrawn from the Trusteeship Committee, South Africa was persuaded to rejoin in 1957 for negotiations with Charles Arden-Clarke, the UN negotiator. When these failed, the period of resolutions condemning South Africa's policies began. In 1959 riots broke out in Windhoek over the extension of urban apartheid to South West Africa, and the forced removal and resettlement of people from locations near Windhoek to one remote from the city. In November of that year the UN Assembly noted that South Africa was administering the territory in a manner contrary to the mandate, the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the advisory opinions of the International Court of Justice, and earlier resolutions of the UN Assembly itself.

The Trusteeship Committee required that South Africa revoke all apartheid laws that applied in South West Africa and it appointed a seven-nation committee to investigate conditions. In 1960 Liberia and Ethiopia applied to the International Court of Justice at The Hague, the World Court, for binding judgment against South Africa. The South African government invited the chairman and secretary of the seven-nation committee, Victorio Carpio of the Philippines and Dr Martinez de Alva of Mexico respectively, to visit the territory. They arrived in 1962 and while they were in South Africa they issued a report favourable to it. After leaving the country they brought out another report affirming that apartheid was being rigorously enforced in South West Africa and stating that South Africa did not intend to abandon its policies, and was not preparing the people of South West Africa for independence. Carpio repudiated the first report. At the time, Carpio and De Alva lost credibility, not only because the two reports seemed contradictory, but also because the South West African case was sub judice at The Hague. However, with the publication of the Odendaal Report in 1964, the substance of the second report was proved correct.

In 1962 the World Court decided that it had the power to judge the case and it rejected the South African argument that the plaintiffs, Ethiopia and Liberia, had no standing. The plaintiffs argued that the franchise in South West Africa was restricted to Whites. They said that inadequate educational facilities were provided and that the inhabitants had to use travel passes. They observed that political party and trade union membership had been banned, that the inhabitants were kept racially segregated, that certain jobs were reserved for Whites, that Blacks were excluded from the right to own landed property over large areas of the territory and that the administrator of the territory could force deportation of individuals without right of appeal. The case dragged on for six years, during which time one judge died and a successor with different views was appointed who rejected the legal standing of Ethiopia and Liberia. South Africa narrowly won the case by eight votes to seven. This strengthened the determination of members of the UN General Assembly to end South Africa's mandate over the territory and to place it under UN control. Rising political consciousness in South West Africa resulted in the formation of Black political parties. The South West African National Union (SWANU) was founded in 1962 and was active in central South West Africa for a time.

Other small parties developed in the south. Toivo ya Toivo and Sam Nujoma transformed the Ovamboland People's Organization (OPO) into the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) in 1960 and began training a guerrilla army. SWAPO gained the sympathy of the Black African states and through them the UN, resulting in the resolution of the UN Security Council that banned the sale of arms to South Africa. During 1966 SWAPO’s first military action took place in Ovamboland. Two years later SWAPO members were convicted in the Pretoria terrorism trial and their leader, Toivo ya Toivo, was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment. This changed South Africa's political approach to a policy of separate development. In 1964 the Report of the Commission of Enquiry, which had been prepared in close collaboration with Dr H F Verwoerd , recommended that South West Africa be partitioned. The 1968 the Development of Self-Government for Native Nations in South West Africa Act laid the foundations for homelands.

As in South Africa bantustans, later known as homelands, were defined for the various Black, Khoi, San and Damara communities. More than 50% of the land was to be reserved as a homeland for the White minority. This included most of the territory's mineral wealth and agricultural potential, and was ultimately to be absorbed into South Africa. This scheme was furthered when the South West Africa Affairs Act of 1969 transferred many powers from the Territorial Assembly in Namibia to the South African Assembly. Lack of Black support in Namibia for these plans, especially in SWAPO-supporting territory, was demonstrated in 1973 by the very small poll in the elections for Ovamboland's so-called ‘self-government'. In 1967 the UN Council for South West Africa was established, and subsequently renamed the Council for Namibia. Prodded by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) international pressure mounted against South Africa. The UN again tried unsuccessfully to take over the administration of the territory in 1967, and two years later passed a resolution that South Africa should terminate its administration over South West Africa.

South Africa ignored this and took the administration of the territory under direct rule in 1969. Although the UN Security Council endorsed the termination of South Africa's mandate with a declaration that South Africa was an illegal occupier of Namibia (Resolution 276), and although it requested sanctions against South Africa (Resolution 283), it was unable to do anything about it. It therefore asked the World Court for an advisory opinion on the consequences of South Africa's occupation. In 1971 the World Court advised that South Africa's presence in South West Africa was unlawful. South Africa held that it was not bound by the advisory opinion of the World Court. A visit to South Africa and Namibia in March 1971 by, the Secretary General of the UN, Dr Kurt Waldheim, ended in a deadlock with Prime Minister Vorster . Further attempts to negotiate a solution to the dispute failed. To pursue their policy of partitioning the territory into a series of ‘independent' ethnic states the South African Parliament passed the ‘Development of Self-Government for Native Nations in South West Africa Amendment Act' in 1973. This provided for ‘self-government' in Ovamboland and East Caprivi.

The UN responded by recognising SWAPO as the only lawful representative of the population of Namibia. During the next two years South Africa deployed a large police and military force to the territory to protect White farmers in outlying areas from terrorist attacks, and to protect Blacks who had not joined SWAPO from intimidation. South Africa persisted in extending apartheid to Namibia in the face of all international opposition. With the collapse of Portuguese rule in Mozambique South Africa's position was weakened on its eastern borders because Mozambique was taken over by the Marxist-oriented Frelimo regime. UN pressure increased. The Security Council threatened South Africa with expulsion if it did not recognise the territorial and national integrity of Namibia by withdrawing South African administration. While seeking to protect White interests, security and law and order, South Africa attempted to placate international criticism in an attempt to prevent a communist-backed SWAPO government from coming to power in Namibia. It changed its policy of partition and sought to establish a federation of Black states in Namibia. The South African government hoped this would meet UN demands for the preservation of the national integrity of Namibians, while allowing Whites to retain control over the greater part of its resources.

To bring this plan to fruition representatives of the various ethnic regions met at the Windhoek Turnhalle in September 1975 to work out a federal constitution based on ethnic states. Some of the social aspects of apartheid were abandoned. SWAPO and the UN rejected it. In 1976 the South African Government stalled on giving Namibia unilateral independence because the Zimbabwe election, where Robert Mugabe's radical ZANU party won a resounding victory, had alerted South Africa to the likelihood of SWAPO sweeping to victory in Namibia. Mutual differences led to the collapse of the settlement attempt and arrangements for the elections were delayed under a variety of pretexts. The prolonged stalemate led to the establishment of an interim government, but the South African Government held back on pushing the territory into unilateral independence, maintaining it would allow UN-sponsored elections once agreement could be reached on the details. In the meantime SWAPO stepped up its guerrilla activity and its political support in Namibia expanded. By 1981 a drastic economic downturn had occurred in Namibia. A general world depression had affected the prices of Namibia's chief exports, diamonds, karakul, copper, and uranium.

Drought and terrorism had crippled cattle ranchers, and the fishing industry was at low ebb, due to over-fishing during the 1970s. Whites began leaving Namibia in increasing numbers. South Africa, equally hard-pressed, was finding Namibia less profitable and its Namibian subsidies and defence of that country were heavy burdens. Friction developed between the Administrator-General of the Territory appointed by the South African Government and ministers of the interim government, which collapsed in 1983 with the resignation of Chairman, Mr Dirk Mudge and the Council of Ministers. Direct South African rule through the Administrator-General was re-imposed. South African troops repeatedly attacked SWAPO bases in Angola and openly supported Jonas Savimbi's guerrilla struggle against the Angolan MPLA, causing the MPLA to call for more support from the Cuban troops. By 1983 as many as 20 000 South African soldiers were stationed in Namibia to combat SWAPO's guerrilla forces. Cross-border raids continued until a massive invasion by South African forces into Angola saw South Africans occupying wide areas of the southern part of the country. Both sides gained breathing space when an agreement was reached in Lusaka.

The MPLA Government agreed that South African troops would withdraw from Angola and stop supporting UNITA, while the Angolan authorities would prevent SWAPO establishing bases on their territory. The Angolan authorities were unable to eliminate the SWAPO bases and South Africa did not complete its withdrawal. During the Carter regime relations between the United States of America (USA) and South Africa deteriorated. The Reagan administration supported South Africa in its insistence that Cuba withdraw as a precondition for any settlement that would permit UN-sponsored elections in Namibia. In 1985 a new grouping of anti-SWAPO parties was formed and the idea of a Multiparty Conference (MPC) to form a transitional government was put forward. There was still no sign of a withdrawal of South African troops from the territory for fear that a SWAPO-dominated government, backed by Communists would be installed. In 1987 and 1988 South Africa increased the number of troops sent to the border and stepped up attacks against SWAPO fighters in Angola. At the end of the decade, Namibia's future remained unresolved.

A Joint Commission, instituted in 1988 supervised the implementation of UN Resolution 435 for the independence of Namibia and monitored Namibian/Angolan peace initiatives. Independence was achieved after negotiations were conducted between South Africa, Western powers, the UN and the South West African Peoples' Organization (SWAPO). The settlement was signed in New York in December 1988. The New York agreement led in turn to the Namibian independence election in which democratic principles had been inserted into the independence process by the Western powers. SWAPO won 57% of the votes, but as this was not an absolute majority, other parties also took part in the drafting of the constitution. It contained, in the words of Professor Gerhard Erasmus of Stellenbosch University, “a remarkable set of finely tuned checks and balances on the exercise of power”. Six parliamentary opposition parties were supported by 43% of the electorate. In 1991 national reconciliation was still the watchword, capital was still largely White-controlled, and the fishing and uranium industries had taken a downturn. South Africa cut its subsidies and totted up a bill of R700-million, which it said Namibia must pay.

At that stage it was still withholding Walvis Bay, Namibia's trade lifeline, but, by 1994, the city had been returned to Namibia. By then South Africa, led by Nelson Mandela 's Government of National Unity, and the SWAPO Government had embarked on a policy of national reconciliation. SWAPO, having adopted a policy of caution concerning economic and social reform, was proving Namibia to be one of the most democratic states in Africa. References:

Question: Which country used to be called South West Africa?
Answer: Namibia