SouthAfrica

 =__South Africa __=

**__Essential Guide to the Nation__**
  **Official Name of the Country:** Republic of South Africa Natural Resource:** Mainly diamonds, gold, other fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas, metals and minerals like platinum, copper, iron, phosphates, tin, titanium.
 * Capital:** Pretoria
 * Neighbouring countries** include Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Nambia, Swaziland, Zimbabwe
 * Population:** 49,052,489
 * Literacy Rate:** Total: 8 6.4% Male: 87% Female: 85.7%
 * Type of government:** Republic
 * Economic System:** Conservative economic policy
 * Races of People:[[image:sf-map.gif width="296" height="317" align="right" caption="South Africa is located at the southern tip of Africa. 1,219,912 sq km in size. Map taken from CIA- The World Factbook"]]** 79% black African, 9.6% white, 8.9% mixed/ coloured, 2.5% Indian/ Asian
 * Languages:** There were 11 official languages in 1996, and 11 other languages were to be developed. The Afrikaans and English are the dominant languages in society, educational and business area.
 * Religions: [[image:religion.GIF width="332" height="227"]]
 * Main Exports:** Gold, diamonds, platinum and other metal and minerals. South Africa Also exports machineries and equipments. Africa is the largest gold, platinum, chromium producer in the world.
 * Main Imports:** petroleum products, other machineries and equipments, scientic instruments and materials, food.
 * Major Trading Partners:** The United States, The United Kingdom, Japan, China and Germany



** Leadership ** The current president of South Africa is Jacob Zuma. He is the leader of the ruling party, African National Congress(ANC), in South Africa since 2007. He was newly elected in May 2009. Zuma joined the ANC in 1959 and its military- Umkhonto we Sizwe  in 1962. He was sentenced for 10 years in jail for the conspriracy for taking over the apartheid government in South Africa at that time. He continued working for the ANC secretly after he was released for over a decade. He became the member of national executive commitee in the ANC in 1977. He was forced to leave the country in 1987. He went to the ANC's headquaters and became the head of underground structuresand head of the intelligence department. After the ANC banned was cancelled, he cotinued to gain more power within the organization. Between 1997-1999, he was appointed as the deputy president of the ANC and the country. Zuma was a respected person within the ANC even after serveral accusations of corruption and fraud. After president Mbeki signed off from presidency. Zuma was once again charged by the National Prosecuting Agency (NPA). However, people believed that the ANC had put pressure on the NPA to drop the charges for Zuma. Zuma became the new president of South Africa after the election held in April 2009. Zuma follows the conservative political ideology. Current Issues ** Some current issues that South Africa is facing are the challenge for the newly elected president Jacob Zuma; HIV and AIDS; Major criminal issues within the country.

South Africa's AIDS problem was not given attention between 1993-2000 because of political issues in the country distracted the media. They were focusing on the apartheid. Some internation HIV preventing organizations were already in South Africa since the 1990s. However, people in South Africa did not seem to care and let AIDS continued to spread.
 * [[image:1274.jpg width="300" height="224" align="left" caption="One of the HIV prevention campaign in South Africa. Source: Avert, International AIDS charity"]]AIDS :** The high percent of HIV has been affecting South Africa for a very long period of time. People in South Africa are suffering from AIDS every day. 5.7 million people have AIDS and 1000 deaths every day. About 1 out of 5 people are infected. Over half of the 15 year olds are not expected to live pass the age of 60. The average life span of South African is 54 years old only. The first AIDS case was found in 1982, 0.8% of pregnant women were found HIV positve in 1990. One of the major source of this problem is that people in South Africa are not aware of or do not care about HIV prevention. Another source of the problem is that when HIV positive women are continue to spread. Approximately 280,000 children under 15 are infected with AIDS.

In the post- apartheid era, lands are still not distribute reasonably among the citizen in South Africa. Most farms are still white- owned. The source of this problem is the time of apartheid, lands were mostly owned by whites at that time and non- whites were not allowed. Since apartheid just ended, the government has been trying to redistribute lands to black South Africans. The government is expecting 30% of the land would be transfer to black South Africans in 2014.
 * Land Redistribution:**

The high crime rate is a serious problem in South Africa. There are more than 300 murders and violent attacks everyday. South Africa is the world's third most dangerous country to live in. The main source of this problem is poverty. People are suffering in starvation and they want to survive. In the post- apartheid period, because the wealth are not distributed reasonably between the whites and the non- whites. Crime rate will still increase if people are in poverty. The international community has been notified by this issue but still have not responded that much to this issue. It is South Africa's own issue and other nations cannot do much to solve the problems. The South African government needs to create more jobs and educate its citizens to lower the crim rate.
 * Crime:**[[image:_42553467_s_afr_stats_2.gif align="right" caption="Number of crimes in Sout Africa. Picture taken from BBC News"]]

South Africa has been going through diplomatic isolation until 1994 after the apartheid era. It is also one of the member in the United Nations. It does not have any military alliances and it has a peace keeping force in other countries such as Sudan, Zimbabwe and Republic of Congo. South Africa has many economic alliances, including the US, the UK, China, Japan. South Africa is seen as the head of anti- poverty. However, the poverty within the country itself is still problematic. South Africa is still seen to be the biggest economy in the continent.
 * Foreign Relations**

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