SOUTH AFRICA

officially Republic of South Africa, formerly Union of South Africa the southernmost country on the African continent. The country extends for about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from north to south, as well as from east to west. South Africa is bordered by Namibia (northwest), Botswana and Zimbabwe (north), Mozambique and Swaziland (northeast and east), the Indian Ocean (southeast), and the Atlantic Ocean (southwest). The country entirely surrounds the independent state of Lesotho. South Africa's executive capital is Pretoria, its legislative capital is Cape Town, and its judicial capital is Bloemfontein. Area 470,689 square miles (1,219,080 square km). Pop. (1995 est.) 41,465,000. officially Republic of South Africa, formerly Union of South Africa, the southernmost country on the African continent. It has an area of 470,693 square miles (1,219,090 square kilometres). It measures almost 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometres) from north to south, as well as from east to west. South Africa is bordered by Namibia to the northwest, by Botswana and Zimbabwe to the north, and by Mozambique and Swaziland to the northeast and east. Lesotho, an independent constitutional monarchy, is entirely surrounded by South African territory in the eastern part of the republic. South Africa's coastlines border the Indian Ocean to the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the southwest. The capitals are Pretoria (executive), Cape Town (legislative), and Bloemfontein (judicial). South Africa is relatively isolated, distant even from major African cities such as Nairobi, Kenya (more than 1,500 miles away), and Lagos, Nigeria (more than 2,400 miles away); it is 5,100 miles from South America, 4,700 miles from Australia, and more than 6,000 miles from most of Europe, North America, and eastern Asia, where many of its major economic links lie. The four original provinces of South AfricaCape of Good Hope, Orange Free State, Transvaal, and Natalwere reorganized in 1994 into nine new provinces: Western Cape, Northern Cape, Eastern, North-West, Free State, Gauteng, Eastern Transvaal, Northern, and KwaZulu/Natal; Eastern Transvaal subsequently was renamed Mpumalanga. South Africa possesses two small subantarctic islands, Prince Edward and Marion, situated in the Indian Ocean about 1,200 miles southeast of Cape Town. The former South African possession of Walvis Bay, an enclave on the Atlantic coast some 400 miles north of the Orange River, was transferred to Namibia in 1994. South Africa has long been a focus of world attention. The former South African government, dominated by the minority white population, maintained a policy of apartheid (apartness) that enforced segregation between government-defined races in housing, education, and many other spheres of life. Apartheid evoked vehement opposition internally and from most countries in the world. In 1990 the South African government began repealing the apartheid laws, initiating the transition to government led by the black majority. This process culminated in the permanent nonracial constitition promulgated in 1997. Andries Nel David Frank Gordon Alan S. Mabin