"ore from the interior. South Africa is largely a dry country, with most of its western regions being semi-desert. The rainfall increases in the east, (the Highveld, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Eastern Midlands), and falls primarily in summer. The narrow southern coastal strip receives all-year rainfall in the east (the Garden Route), and winter rainfall in the west (on the Cape Peninsula and its surrounds). The summers are warm to hot, while the winter temperatures can vary, depending on locality from bitterly cold to cool. Thus the Karoo, which occupies a large part of the western Central Plateau, has a climate"
"self contained. It includes public housing units, a town centre and other amenities. Helmed by a hierarchy of commercial developments, ranging from a town centre to precinct-level outlets, there is no need to venture out of town to meet the most common needs of residences. Employment can be found in industrial estates located within several towns. Educational, health care, and recreational needs are also taken care of with the provision of schools, hospitals, parks, sports complexes, and so on. The most populous town in the country is Bedok. In South Africa the Afrikaans term ""Dorp"" is used interchangeably with the"
"geographical part of what used to be known as the Transvaal, as described for example in the story Jock of the Bushveld. Much of the interior of Southern Africa consists of a high plateau, the higher portions of which are known as the Highveld, starting at the Drakensberg escarpment, to the east of Johannesburg and sloping gradually downwards to the west and south west, as well as to the north, through the Bushveld towards the Limpopo river. These higher, cooler areas (generally more than above sea level) are characterised by flat or gently undulating terrain, vast grasslands and a modified"
"country is Sutherland in the western Roggeveld region of the Upper Karoo, with minimum midwinter temperatures as low as −15 °C. The deep interior provides the hottest temperatures: in 1948 the mercury hit in the Northern Cape Kalahari near Upington. South Africa has lost a large area of natural habitat in the last four decades, primarily due to overpopulation, sprawling development patterns and deforestation during the 19th century. South Africa is one of the worst affected countries in the world when it comes to invasion by alien species with many (e.g. black wattle, Port Jackson willow, ""Hakea"", ""Lantana"" and ""Jacaranda"")"
"of Johannesburg. On a map, the southern suburbs appear to hang down from the border of Soweto and Johannesburg South. It is about 40 kilometres south of the inner city. It is actually the most isolated, least integrated area of Johannesburg, with its east, west, and southern boundaries also forming Johannesburg proper's boundaries in the area. It is diagonally traversed by the N1, with the N12 running along its northern border. The southern suburbs tend to be either solely industrial or solely residential, with most residents in the residential areas being long-term residents in well-established communities. The majority of houses"
"Gauteng Gauteng ( ; Southern Sotho: ""Gauteng"" ; ; Afrikaans, Northern Sotho, ; ; ; ; ), which means ""place of gold"", is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Situated in the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province in South Africa, accounting for only 1.5% of the land area. Nevertheless, it is highly urbanised, containing the country's largest city, Johannesburg, its administrative capital, Pretoria, and other large areas such as Midrand and Vanderbijlpark. , Gauteng is the most populous province in South Africa with a population of approximately 14,700,000 people according to estimates. The name ""Gauteng"" is derived"
"Karoo The Karoo ( ; from a Khoikhoi word, possibly ""garo"" ""desert"") is a semi desert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its extent is also not precisely defined. The Karoo is partly defined by its topography, geology and climate, and above all, its low rainfall, arid air, cloudless skies, and extremes of heat and cold. The Karoo also hosted a well-preserved ecosystem hundreds of million years ago which is now represented by many fossils. The Karoo formed an almost impenetrable barrier to the interior from Cape Town, and the"
"South Africa in the mid-90’s by buying a tumbledown tin-roof shack in a remote Karoo dorp (village) where, he said, he planned to live the life of the ascetic artist, painting desolate landscapes populated by scrub, sand, and rusty windmills. Ah well, to each his own."" Excerpt: ""The artist sees himself as a chronicler of an outer and an inner landscape. 'I'm inspired by the city - it's the drama of a deeply problematic space that is contested and unequal. I'd like to think that my work gets to the heart of the South African condition. Johannesburg is the microcosm"
"South Africa's unmapped interior to preempt further disputes and live completely independent from British rule. Others, especially ""trekboers"", a class of Boers who pursued semi-nomadic pastoral activities, were frustrated by the apparent unwillingness or inability of the British government to extend the borders of the Cape Colony eastward and provide them with access to more prime pasture and economic opportunities. They resolved to trek beyond the colony's borders on their own. Although it did nothing to impede the Great Trek, Great Britain viewed the movement with pronounced trepidation. The British government initially suggested that conflict in the far interior of"
"South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline of Southern Africa stretching along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; and to the east and northeast by Mozambique and Eswatini (Swaziland); and it surrounds the enclaved country of Lesotho. South Africa is the largest country in Southern Africa and the 25th-largest country in the world by land area and, with over 57 million people, is the world's 24th-most populous nation. It"
"from the fact that the initial settlers of the Cape were primarily Dutch. The style has roots in medieval Holland, Germany, France and Indonesia. Houses in this style have a distinctive and recognizable design, with a prominent feature being the grand, ornately rounded gables, reminiscent of features in townhouses of Amsterdam built in the Dutch style. The rural landscape of South Africa is populated with traditional and European-influenced African architecture. There are 11 national languages in South Africa. South Africa's unique social and political history has generated a rich variety of literatures, with themes spanning pre-colonial life, the days of"
"the Pretoria Zoo. Botanical gardens in the province include the Pretoria and Walter Sisulu national botanical gardens maintained by the South African National Botanical Institute as well as the Johannesburg and Manie van der Schijff botanical gardens. The Coca-Cola Dome and the Gallagher Convention Centre, which are both popular events and expos venues, are also located within Gauteng. Gauteng Gauteng ( ; Southern Sotho: ""Gauteng"" ; ; Afrikaans, Northern Sotho, ; ; ; ; ), which means ""place of gold"", is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Situated in the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province in South"
"The north is primarily Kalahari Desert, characterised by parallel red sand dunes and acacia tree dry savanna. Northern Cape has a shoreline in the west on the South Atlantic Ocean. It borders the following areas of Namibia and Botswana: Domestically, it borders the following provinces: The major river system is the Orange (or Gariep) River Basin, draining the interior of South Africa westwards into the Atlantic Ocean. (The political philosopher Neville Alexander has used the idea of the ‘Garieb’ as a metaphor for nationhood in South Africa, a flowing together, in preference to the rainbow metaphor where the diverse colours"
"short distances from Kamieskroon and Springbok, respectively. The vast majority of South Africa's border consists of the ocean—or two oceans, which, according to the International Hydrographic Organization, officially meet at Cape Agulhas, the most southern point of Africa. Its territory includes Marion and Prince Edward Islands, nearly south of Cape Town in the sub-antarctic Indian Ocean. The cold Benguela current is a mineral-rich upwelling current, which flows away to the north along the western coastline, after having come up from the cold depths of the Atlantic Ocean. Plankton grow in these fertile waters, and support large numbers of fish, and"
"southwestern corner of South Africa. It stretches about northwards along the Atlantic coast and about eastwards along the South African south coast (Southern Indian Ocean). It is bordered on the north by the Northern Cape and on the east by the Eastern Cape. The total land area of the province is , about 10.6% of the country's total. It is roughly the size of England or the State of Louisiana. Its capital city and largest city is Cape Town, and some other major cities include Stellenbosch, Worcester, Paarl, and George. The Garden Route and the Overberg are popular coastal tourism"
"which 69 percent are endemic. Cape Provinces The Cape Provinces of South Africa is a biogeographical area used in the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD). It is part of the WGSRPD region 37 Southern Africa. The area has the code ""CPP"". It includes the South African provinces of the Eastern Cape, the Northern Cape and the Western Cape, together making up most of the former Cape Province. The area includes the Cape Floristic Region, the smallest of the six recognised floral kingdoms of the world, an area of extraordinarily high diversity and endemism, home to more than"
"be found in its sediments. Springbok Flats The Springbok Flats is an extensive plain situated in Limpopo, South Africa. The southern boundary is the Pienaars River which intersects the N1 main road between Pretoria and Polokwane. To the west it includes the towns of Bela-Bela, Modimolle, Mookgophong and Mokopane. Towards the east it includes the towns Roedtan, Crecy, Marolong, Nutfield, Tuinplaas and Settlers. The 80 km wide and 130 km long swath of land is orientated in a northeasterly direction and is centered on Roedtan. Subsequent to the Boer War the area became accessible as a farming region. Grasslands made"
"Geography of South Africa South Africa occupies the southern tip of Africa, its coastline stretching more than from the desert border with Namibia on the Atlantic (western) coast southwards around the tip of Africa and then northeast to the border with Mozambique on the Indian Ocean. The low-lying coastal zone is narrow for much of that distance, soon giving way to a mountainous escarpment (Great Escarpment) that separates the coast from the high inland plateau. In some places, notably the province of KwaZulu-Natal in the east, a greater distance separates the coast from the escarpment. Although most of the country"
"south by bands of high ground which fall steeply to the coasts. On this account South Africa has a general resemblance to an inverted saucer. Due south, the plateau rim is formed by three parallel steps with level ground between them. The largest of these level areas, the Great Karoo, is a dry, barren region, and a large tract of the plateau proper is of a still more arid character and is known as the Kalahari Desert. The South African Plateau is connected towards East African plateau, with probably a slightly greater average elevation, and marked by some distinct features."
"habitat loss, land degradation, and invasive alien plants. In 2004, the ""Cape Floral Region Protected Areas"" were inscribed as a World Heritage Site. The site includes eight representative protected areas: This article incorporates CC BY-3.0 text from the reference Cape Floristic Region The Cape Floristic Region is a floristic region located near the southern tip of South Africa. It is the only floristic region of the Cape (South African) Floristic Kingdom, and includes only one floristic province, known as the Cape Floristic Province. The Cape Floristic Region, the smallest of the six recognised floral kingdoms of the world, is an"
"house in a Johannesburg suburb, the location of which has remained a tightly guarded secret. The cast was made up of inhabitants of the house, both people and animals, and most notably the ever-present birds, all performing within a sculptural and decorated theatrical interior created and orchestrated by Ballen. In 2006 the co-leader of the South African rap group Die Antwoord, Yolandi, contacted Ballen proposing a collaboration. In 2008, together with Ballen, Die Antwoord began to appear in a series of photographs that incorporated his later aesthetic and which ultimately would take his imagery to a new audience of millions."
"about 80 years, and at its height its population was about 5,000 people. The first historical records begin in the late 15th century, with the beginning of European exploration. The first historical record of South Africa dates to 1488, by Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias. In November 1497, a fleet of Portuguese ships under the command of the Portuguese mariner Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope. Historical records of the interior begin significantly later, with the foundation of the Dutch Cape Colony in 1652. Early history of South Africa The Prehistory of South Africa (and, inseparably, the wider"
"Ndlopfu is a term of the Tsonga language, the language of the Tsonga people. It means ""The new dawn"". https://web.archive.org/web/20120412174843/http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/pebble.asp?relid=195 Mahlamba Ndlopfu Mahlamba Ndlopfu is the official residence for the President of South Africa in Bryntirion, Pretoria. The house, formerly called ""Libertas"", was designed by Architect Gerard Moerdijk in a traditional Cape Dutch style and completed in 1940 as the official residence for the Prime Minister of South Africa in the Bryntirion suburb of Pretoria. It is surrounded by impressive gardens. Through the years, slight changes were made on the building. After the post of Prime Minister was abolished in"
"Africa, about 80 kilometers north of the coastal city of Port Elizabeth and about northeast of the Klasies River Mouth, the location of another important South African archaeological site. The cave is situated within a steep ravine in the Cape Folded Mountain Belt, a range of mountains that marks the boundary between the more tropical ecological zone of the inland Karoo and the coastal plain. The Eastern Cape can be divided into four main geographic areas: the coastal strip, the coastal plain, the Cape Folded Mountain Belt, and the Karoo-Cape Midlands. The coastal strip consists mostly of sand beaches bordered"
"at the southern tip of Africa. Upon formation, the country was named the Union of South Africa in English, reflecting its origin from the unification of four formerly separate British colonies. Since 1961, the long form name in English has been the ""Republic of South Africa"". In Dutch, the country was named ""Republiek van Zuid-Afrika"", replaced in 1983 by the Afrikaans ""Republiek van Suid-Afrika"". Since 1994, the Republic has had an official name in each of its 11 official languages. ""Mzansi"", derived from the Xhosa noun ""umzantsi"" meaning ""south"", is a colloquial name for South Africa, while some Pan-Africanist political"
"gently undulating. Only a few rocky ridges protrude from this flatness: the Vredefort Dome, the Witwatersrand Ridge and the Magaliesberg just north of Pretoria, from where the Highveld gives way to the Bushveld to the north. The South African portion of the coastal strip between the Limpopo and Mpumalanga Drakensberg and the ocean, together with the Limpopo River valley, is called the Lowveld. These lowlands, below about altitude, form South Africa's northern border with Botswana and Zimbabwe, where a 180‑million-year-old failed rift valley cuts into Southern Africa's central plateau and locally obliterates the Great Escarpment. The Limpopo and Save rivers"
"tree. The bridge would curve downward. Cape Dutch architecture is a traditional Afrikaner architecture and is one of the most distinctive type of settler architecture in the world. It developed during the century and a half that the Cape was a Dutch colony. Even by the end of the period, early 19th-century, the colony was inhabited by fewer than fifty thousand people, spread over an area roughly the size of the United Kingdom. Despite their small number the Cape Dutch style was of an amazing consistency, clearly related to rural architecture in northwestern Europe, but equally clearly with its own"
"is classified as semi-arid, it has considerable variation in climate as well as topography. South African central plateau contains only two major rivers: The eastern and southern coastal regions are drained by numerous shorter rivers. There are very few coastal rivers along the arid west coast north of 31°30′S. In such a dry country, dams and irrigation are extremely important: the largest dam is the Gariep on the Orange River. Like much of the African continent south of the Sahara, South Africa’s landscape is dominated by a high Central Plateau surrounded by coastal lowlands. This plateau is rimmed by the"
"South Africa and much of its natural resources, instead focusing on an economically underdeveloped and semi-desert area in the north-western Cape. This desert state, ""Orandeë"", because of its very inhospitableness would not be feared or coveted by the South African government. Even proponents of the idea conceded that this model would demand significant economic sacrifices from Afrikaners who moved to the ""volkstaat"". The model is based on the principle of 'own labour', requiring that all work in the ""volkstaat"" be performed by its citizens, including ploughing fields, collecting garbage and tending gardens, which is traditionally performed by blacks in the"
"feathers, but today includes ostrich leather and ostrich meat, which is very lean and particularly tasty. The Cape Fold Mountains are separated from the Great Escarpment by an approximately 100–150 km wide plain known as the Lower Karoo (not to be confused with the ""Little Karoo"") at an altitude of about 600–800 m above sea level. Geologically and geographically the Cape Fold Mountains and the Great Escarpment are quite different and independent entities. South Africa’s coastline is remarkably smooth, with very few natural harbours. The reason is that Southern Africa has been continuously uplifted for the past 180 million years,"
"Highveld The Highveld (Afrikaans: ""Hoëveld"") is the portion of the South African inland plateau which has an altitude above roughly 1500 m, but below 2100 m, thus excluding the Lesotho mountain regions to the south-east of the Highveld. It is home to some of the country's most important commercial farming areas, as well as its largest concentration of metropolitan centres, especially the Gauteng conurbation, which accommodates one-third of South Africa's population. The Highveld constitutes almost the whole of the Free State, and Gauteng Provinces, and portions of the surrounding areas: the western rim of Lesotho, and portions of the Eastern"
"Highveld The Highveld (Afrikaans: ""Hoëveld"") is the portion of the South African inland plateau which has an altitude above roughly 1500 m, but below 2100 m, thus excluding the Lesotho mountain regions to the south-east of the Highveld. It is home to some of the country's most important commercial farming areas, as well as its largest concentration of metropolitan centres, especially the Gauteng conurbation, which accommodates one-third of South Africa's population. The Highveld constitutes almost the whole of the Free State, and Gauteng Provinces, and portions of the surrounding areas: the western rim of Lesotho, and portions of the Eastern"
"South African cities such as Rustenburg and Bloemfontein. The capital, Mmabatho, was situated in the enclave bordering Botswana. The territory and borders of the country were fluid as the South African government frequently incorporated territory into the country. As a result, when independence was declared in 1977, the country originally consisted of six enclaves but just before its reincorporation into South Africa, it had seven enclaves. Another example was the incorporation of Mafeking, which was located just outside the borders of Bophuthatswana when it gained independence in 1977, into the country in 1980 after a local referendum. Districts of Bophuthatswana"