30 facts about South Africa

South Africa is – obviously – a huge country. Indeed, entire encyclopedias have been written about the many peoples, cultures, languages, and traditions. But, if they ask you who the indigenous peoples of South Africa are or who conducted the first successful heart transplant, would you know the answer?

Here are some interesting facts about South Africa you (maybe) didn’t know:

Historical facts about South Africa

South Africa is a former nuclear power

Many political leaders have spoken about nuclear weapons disarmament, but no one has ever followed through (here’s looking at you, America and Russia).

South Africa is the only country in the world to build and then dismantle its nuclear weapons program.

Former president Frederik Willem de Klerk (1989–1996) said the country had built six crude atomic bombs during a 15-year clandestine operation. Their scientists had already started on a seventh when South Africa decided to voluntarily dismantle its arsenal in 1989.

Modern humans originated in South Africa

Fossilized bones found in South Africa have led to the Out of Africa theory, which suggests that most human ancestors originated from Africa.

The archeological evidence dating back between 4.5 and 2.5 million years was uncovered in the limestone caves some 50 kilometers northwest of Johannesburg. In fact, one of the first major discoveries there was that of Mrs Ples, an almost complete skull of the pre-human Australopithecus africanus, which dates back more than 2 million years.

You can see similar fossils and stone tools at the Cradle of Humankind UNESCO World Heritage Site. The visitors center also offers a tour of the Sterkfontein Caves and exhibition. Or, if you’d rather stay at home, you can watch the Netflix documentary Unknown: Cave of Bones to learn more.

South Africa’s national flag was first used in 1994

Nicknamed the Rainbow Flag and Seskleur (six colors), South Africa’s national flag was designed in March 1994 to replace the previous flag (used from 1928–1994). It was first used in public on Freedom Day 1994.

At the time, the flag was the only one in the world to comprise six colors without a seal and brocade. The colors in themselves have no particular meaning; the red, white, and blue come from the Dutch and British flags, and the green, yellow (gold), and black honor the political party African National Congress (ANC).

The V-shape symbolizes the coming together of the different elements in South African society and moving ahead in unity.

The first African country to legalize gay marriage

With a nickname like Rainbow Nation, it’ll come as no surprise that South Africa is more tolerant towards the LGBTQ+ community than many other places on the continent.

In 2006, it became the first African country and the fifth country in the world to recognize same-sex marriage, after the Netherlands (2001), Belgium (2003), Spain (2005), and Canada (2005). Subsequently, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer couples can marry and adopt children and have equal access to IVF and surrogacy.

Cape Town has the largest LGBTQ+ scene in South Africa and is known as the gay capital of Africa.

The world’s largest diamond was found in Pretoria

The magnificent Cullinan Diamond is the largest and arguably most famous diamond ever found. It was discovered in the Premier No. 2 Mine in Pretoria, present-day South Africa, on 25 January 1905.

The stone, weighing 3,106 carats (621.2 grams), gets its name from Thomas Cullinan, the owner of the mine. The Transvaal Colony government later bought the stone and gave it to then-King Edward VII of the UK.

The diamond was then cut into nine large stones and about 100 smaller ones. The largest, the 530.2 carats Cullinan I or Great Star of Africa, now adorns the royal scepter as a poignant symbol of British colonialism. Meanwhile, the Koh-i-Noor diamond, the largest ever found in India, is set in the Queen Mother’s Crown.

The world’s leading diamond company, De Beers, was set up in Kimberley, South Africa, in 1881. Today, the group operates all over the globe and sells more than a third of the world’s rough diamonds. South African mines account for 10% of all diamonds.

Cape Town saw the first successful heart transplant

On 3 December 1967, Dr Christiaan Barnard performed the first successful human heart transplant at the Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town.

The 53-year-old patient, Louis Washkansky, had been terminally ill with heart failure when he received his new heart. The donor, Denise Darvall, was just 25 when she died in a car accident. Her father knew his daughter loved to help others and decided to donate her organs.

Washkansky’s first words after waking up were: “I’m still alive.” Unfortunately, he died 18 days later after catching pneumonia.

Some facts about South Africa’s nature

The Table Mountain is super old

Table Mountain, the iconic flat-topped landmark overlooking Cape Town, is one of the oldest mountains in the world. It is older than the Alps, the Andes, the Rockies, and the Himalayas (individually, not combined). The rocks on the range are roughly 600 million years old, while Table Mountain itself has been around for 240 million years.

The landmark is, of course, a famous tourist attraction. The national park attracts almost a million visitors each month, making it one of the most popular national parks in South Africa. It has more than 8,200 plant species, roughly 80% of which are fine plants (Afrikaans: fynbos).

South Africa has the world’s largest visible crater

Around 2 billion years ago, an asteroid with the size of 15 kilometers (about 150 football or soccer fields) fell to earth in South Africa’s Free State. It created a crater of 170–300 kilometers across. To put it into context, the city of East London is around 169 kilometers, and Johannesburg is around 335.

The Vredefort crater is around the same size or bigger as the one that was formed by the asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. The Chicxulub crater (200 kilometers) is burried underneath the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico.

The Cape Winelands is the world’s longest wine route

Many tourists travel the Garden Route each year. Some, however, choose to replace part of their trip with Route 62 (R62).

This road runs from Cape Town to Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth) or vice versa and goes right through the beautiful Karoo desert. Along the way, it passes green mountains, 200 wine cellars, and countless vineyards and wineries in places like Wellington, Tulbagh, Worcester, and Robertson.

R62 is an incredible 850 kilometers long, making it the longest wine route in the world.

South African fish migration can be seen from space

Between May and July, millions of small silver fish travel in vast shoals from the cold waters off South Africa’s Cape Point up to the coastlines of the northern Eastern Cape and southern KwaZulu-Natal. This annual migration event is the Sardine Run.

The shoals are so big – 15 kilometers long, 3.5 kilometers wide, and up to 40m deep – they can be seen by satellite. In their wake come hundreds of birds, sharks, whales, and dolphins, all eager to fill their bellies.

According to marine biologist Stephanie Plön: “All of a sudden, they come together – and you see the water boiling, as dolphins and sharks follow the sardines, and the gannets start diving. You have to give up taking [identification] photos because there are just too many dolphins!”

South Africa is full of record-breaking animals

South Africa is home to:

• The largest land mammal (elephant)
• The largest bird (ostrich)
• The tallest animal (giraffe)
• The largest fish (whale shark)
• The largest reptile (leatherback turtle)
• The fastest land mammal (cheetah)
• The largest antelope (eland)

Although they aren’t record-breaking, they’re cute, so they’ll get an honorable mention: South Africa also has genuine African penguins.

Sports and culture facts about South Africa

South Africa’s Indigenous people are the San and Khoikhoi

The various African Indigenous communities in South Africa are collectively known as Khoe-San (also spelled Khoesan, Khoi-San, and Khoisan). They comprise the hunter-gatherer San and herding Khoikhoi peoples, who traditionally speak non-Bantu languages with click sounds.

The peoples originate from what is now the Western Cape Province, as well as Nabia and Botswana, where they remained predominant until European colonization. It’s estimated just 1% of South Africa’s total population is indigenous.

In 2020, a group of Khoisan members seized a site near Table Mountain. That same year, seven tribal members occupied a 1,800-hectare area in the Western Cape. They demanded land ownership, recognition as South Africa’s First Nation tribe, and official recognition of their language. Since then, the number of occupants has grown to around 4,000.

The case was referred to the Western Cape High Court in 2022.

The Khoi-San communities are represented politically by the National Khoisan Council (NKC), formed by former President Nelson Mandela in 1999. However, African Indigenous San and Khoikhoi peoples are not formally recognized in terms of national legislation.

South Africa has 12 public holidays

Throughout the year, a whole assortment of national holidays offers you a day away from the office or school. For example, South Africa celebrates:

• Human Rights Day on 21 March
• Freedom Day on 27 April (which commemorates South Africa’s first non-racial election in 1994)
• National Women’s Day on 9 August
• Heritage Day on 24 September
• Day of Reconciliation on 16 December

The country has hosted a trifecta of world cups

South Africa has hosted the World Cups for men’s rugby (1995), cricket (2003), and football (2010). It is the only country in the world other than England to have done so.

Incidentally, the events around the 1995 Rugby World Cup were excellently portrayed by the 2009 movie Invictus, featuring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon.

In 2027, South Africa will once again welcome the teams and players of the Cricket World Cup, together with co-hosts Namibia and Zimbabwe.

South Africa also hosts the world’s biggest timed bicycle race

With 35,000 riders cycling 109 kilometers, the annual Cape Town Cycle Tour is the biggest timed bike race in the world. It’s traditionally held on the second Sunday of March and runs across Cape Town’s south peninsula and along the spectacular, mountainous coastal road called Chapman’s Peak Drive.

The first Cape Town Cycle Tour was held in 1978. Well-known past participants include:

• Lance Armstrong (2010)
• Miguel Indurain (2005)
• Jan Ullrich (2007)
• American actor Matt Damon (2009).

The oldest cyclist to complete the race within the maximum allotted seven hours is Japie Malan, who was 92 years old at the time (2012).

And is home to the world’s highest natural bungee jump

With a 216-meter jump off Africa’s highest bridge, the Bloukrans Bridge in the Western Cape is the highest commercial natural bungee jump in the world.

The oldest person to bungee jump there is Mohr Keet, who completed the plunge when he was 96 years old (2010). It also got him the Guinness World Record for being the oldest bungee jumper in the world. Interestingly, however, Keet was unaware that he had broken a world record until after the plummet.

Paul Simon’s album Graceland was influenced by South Africa

Graceland, released in 1986, is the seventh solo studio album by the American singer-songwriter Paul Simon (b. 1941). In 1987, it won the Grammy for Album of the Year, and has estimatedly sold more than 16 million copies worldwide.

Graceland incorporates music genres, including pop, rock, zydeco, and the South African styles of isicathamiya and mbaqanga. The album features South African musicians such as the Boyoyo Boys Band, General M. D. Shirinda & the Gaza Sisters, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Lulu Masilela, Tao Ea Matsekha, Isaac Mtshali, and Ray Phiri.

The six-month world tour that followed (Graceland: The African Concert) also headlined South African legends and exiles Hugh Masekela and Miriam Makeba.

Graceland caused much controversy.

Organizations such as Artists United Against Apartheid criticized Simon for breaking the cultural anti-apartheid boycott imposed on South Africa. Others accused him of cultural appropriation. For example, South African trombonist and anti-apartheid activist Jonas Gwangwa said: “So, it has taken another white man to discover my people?”

Graceland is Simon’s most successful studio album and highest-charting album in over a decade. It features renowned songs such as You Can Call Me Al, Graceland, and Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes.

Facts about South Africa’s famous people

Eleven Nobel Prize winners are from South Africa

The Nobel Prizes are six awards given to people who excel in the fields of chemistry, economics, literature, peace, physics, and physiology or medicine.

Eleven South Africans have received one so far, including:

Recipient	Year	Field	Reason
Max Theiler	1951	Physiology or Medicine	Developing a vaccine against yellow fever in 1937
Albert Luthuli	1960	Peace	His role in leading the nonviolent anti-apartheid movement in South Africa
Allan MacLeod Cormack	1979	Physiology or Medicine	Developing the CT scan (awarded together with Godfrey Hounsfield)
Aaron Klug	1982	Chemistry	Developing crystallographic electron microscopy and structural elucidating nucleic acid-protein complexes
Archbichop Desmond Tutu	1984	Peace	His unifying role in leading the nonviolent anti-apartheid movement in South Africa
Nadine Gordimer	1991	Literature	Being a “magnificent [and] epic” writer
Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk	1993	Peace	Their work toward the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime and laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa
Sydney Brenner	2002	Physiology or Medicine	His work on the genetic code and programmed cell death (awarded together with H. Robert Horvitz and John E. Sulston)
John Maxwell Coetzee	2003	Literature	Being a writer with “innumerable guises”
Michael Levitt	2013	Chemistry	Developing multiscale models for complex chemical systems (awarded together with Martin Karplus and Arieh Warshel)

Interestingly, Vilakazi Street in the Soweto township has been home to two Nobel Peace Prize winners: Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu.

In 2004, a list of the greatest South Africans was compiled

Great South Africans was a TV show on the free-to-air TV channel SABC3 that aired from September to October 2024. It held a nationwide poll to determine the 100 Greatest South Africans of all time.

Of course, Nelson Mandela easily won the most votes and ranked first.

However, scandal soon erupted when some South Africans – who are arguably (objectively?) less great – were ranked high on the list. For example, the Architect of Apartheid, Hendrik Verwoerd, placed 20^th, while Nobel Peace Prize winner Albert Luthuli ranked 41^st. The show was canceled before positions 2 to 10 could formally be decided.

With that said, the top 10 Greatest South Africans included (in alphabetical order):

• Nelson Mandela
• Hansie Cronje (cricketer)
• Dr Christiaan Barnard
• Mahatma Gandhi (not an South African, but lived there for some time)
• Nkosi Johnson (child HIV/AIDS activist)
• Winnie Madikizela (politician and wife of Nelson Mandela)
• Thabo Mbeki (former president)
• Gary Player (golfer)
• Jan Smuts (former president and supporter of apartheid)
• Desmond Tutu

Nelson Mandela has six different names in South Africa

Mandela was born Rolihlahla Mandela (1918–2013). On his first day of school, his teacher gave him the name Nelson. This was per the custom in the 1920s to give all children English names, since the colonials “couldn’t” (i.e., didn’t want to) pronounce African names.

When he was 16, Mandela was given the name of Dalibhunga (‘creator or founder of the council’) during a traditional rites of passage ceremony.

Nowadays, South Africans commonly call him Madiba, which is the name of the Thembu clan to which he belongs. Others simply refer to him as Tata or Khulu, the Xhosa words for father and grandfather.

Miriam Makeba’s nickname is Mama Africa

Zenzile Miriam Makeba (1932– 2008), nicknamed Mama Africa, was a South African singer-songwriter and civil rights activist. She’s generally known for becoming the first African artist to globally popularize African music. Among her notable songs are Pata Pata, Qongqothwane (The Click Song), and Soweto Blues.

Throughout the 1960s, she spoke out against apartheid in South Africa. Makeba was also involved with various black political movements like Black Power, anti-apartheid, and Black Consciousness.

She was once quoted as saying, “Africans who live everywhere should fight everywhere. The struggle is no different in South Africa, the streets of Chicago, Trinidad, or Canada. The Black people are the victims of capitalism, racism, and oppression, period.” She didn’t say ‘no cap’, but it is assumed.

Makeba died of a heart attack during a 2008 concert in Italy. Former President Nelson Mandela said of her that “her music inspired a powerful sense of hope in all of us.”

Geopolitical facts about South Africa

South Africa has three official capital cities

South Africa is the only country in the world that has three capital cities. They are:

• Cape Town – home to the government legislative branch
• Pretoria – the center of the government’s administrative branch
• Bloemfontein – where South Africa’s judicial power is housed

Incidentally, these powers are on the national level. South Africa has nine provinces in total, each with its own local government.

The country also has 12 national languages

The South African Constitution recognizes 12 official languages, each with equal status. From most to least commonly used, they are:

• isiZulu
• isiXhosa
• Afrikaans
• Sepedi
• Setswana
• English
• Sesotho
• Xitsonga
• siSwati
• Tshivenda
• isiNdebele
• South African Sign Language (SASL)

Besides those, the country also counts over 30 other non-recognized and marginalized languages. These derive from (among others!) the linguistic families of Bantu, Khoe, Kxʼa, and Tuu.

Desmond Tutu came up with the Rainbow Nation

Post-apartheid South Africa is called the Rainbow Nation because of its various cultural, racial, and ethnic groups. Archbishop Desmond Tutu coined the term after the country’s first democratic election in 1994.

In July 2024, South Africa’s population passed the 63 million mark. According to official government statistics and terminology, the demographics were:

• 81.7% Black Africans
• 8.5% Coloured Africans
• 7.2% White Africans
• 2.6% Asian Africans

South Africa is part of BRICS and the G20

BRICS is an intergovernmental organization of emerging world markets founded in 2009. The initial group comprised Brazil, Russia, India, and China. South Africa joined a year later, completing the acronym.

Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates became members in 2024. Combined, the BRICS member states represent around 30% of the world’s land surface and 45% of the global population.

All five OG members are also part of the G20, an international forum for the world’s top 20 economies.

South Africa has another country within its borders

There are only three enclaved countries in the world: San Marino, Vatican City (both surrounded by Italy), and Lesotho. Nestled in the Drakensberg plateau, the Kingdom of Lesotho is a tiny, landlocked nation that plays a crucial role in South Africa’s water supply.

The country, nicknamed The Mountain Kingdom, became fully independent in 1966 and encompasses just over 30,350 square kilometers.

Other facts about South Africa

South Africa’s national animal is the springbok

The springbok (or the Antidorcas marsupialis if you want to be clinical) is the only southern African antilope in existence and South Africa’s national animal.

You can recognize the springbok by its white face, dark stripe running from the eyes to the mouth, and long horns that curve backward. It has a light-brown coat, white rump flap, and a reddish-brown stripe that runs from the upper foreleg to the buttocks area.

Mainly active at dawn and dusk, you can spot them on open bushes and grassland by water.

South Africa’s national rugby team features the springbok on its emblem and derives its nickname from it. Springbok is also a popular alcohol shot, made with crème de menthe and Amarula cream liqueur.

Over 2,500 shipwrecks happened off the coast of South Africa

South Africa’s beautiful yet temperamental coastline has been the final resting place of seafaring ships for centuries.

The most infamous of places was the rocky peninsula, Cape of Good Hope, also known as the Cape of Storms. Legend has it that the Flying Dutchman once failed to reach the harbor there and was doomed to sail till Judgement Day. The ghost ship would appear in storms and vanish without a trace when the weather calmed down.

The Flying Dutchman was last seen during World War II by a German Submarine boat passing through – strangely – the east of Suez, Egypt.

In total, there have been more than 2,500 shipwrecks along South Africa’s coastline. While many of these have already been salvaged, some remain. Treasure hunters should be discouraged, however; South African law protects all shipwrecks from scavengers.

South Africa is the world’s largest producer of platinum

South Africa accounts for 70% of global production, making it the largest producer of platinum in the world. The country completely eclipses the output of its competitors, Canada, Russia, and Zimbabwe.

While platinum is pretty rare, many – vital – things use the heavy metal. End products include cars and vehicles, chemotherapy, medicines and medical devices, petroleum, and more.

In 2021, the most popular names were Melokuhle and Lethabo

According to official government statistics, the most popular boy baby names in 2021 were:

• Lethabo (meaning ‘joy’ or ‘happiness’)
• Lubanzi (isiZulu, meaning ‘vast love’ or ‘deep love’)
• Melokuhle (isiZulu, meaning ‘to uphold beautiful things’)

For girls, the most popular names were:

• Melokuhle
• Omphile (Bantu and isiXhosa, meaning ‘God has given me’)
• Iminathi (meaning ‘He (god) standing with us’)

Many African names can be given to male, female, and non-binary babies. This is similar to Asian, European, and Northern American names, such as Aalam, Akira, Ashley, Avery, Bo, Charlie, Casey, Dylan, Fu, Hiraku, Jiang, Jordan, Kyo, Parker, Sindhu, Robin, and Rowan.