South Afric A Place Like No Other - 1569 Words

South Africa is a place like no other. If you’re looking at a map, you’ll find it South of Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia. Spanning from the Atlantic Ocean on the West coastline and The Indian Ocean on the East, South Africa is over 2500 kilometers long (South Africa s Geography). This largely populated country houses over 52 million people, who collectively speak ten different languages. South Africa alone is the same size as Niger, Angola, Mali, and Columbia (South Africa s Geography). Within the borders of this vast land include nine provinces, the smallest being Gauteng and the largest being Northern Cape. Unlike many other countries in the world, South Africa has three capitals. Cape Town controls its legislative†¦show more content†¦In 1912, black South Africans founded the South African National Congress achieving very little. When the National Party came to power in South Africa a strict policy of apartheid was put in place. Although whites and blacks were already segregated, new laws made segregation far worse. However, in 1955 organizations representing all people formed including the Congress Alliance and the Freedom Charter, yet division soon occurred. High tension helped Robert Sobukwe to create the pan Africanist Congress or PAC with a few followers. Not long after ANC and PAC planned demonstrations against the pass laws, which restricted the movements of black people. This led to a government ban of the ANC and the PAC group and protesters such as Nelson Mandela being to life imprisonment; not a ripple effect of riots. In 1978 P.W. Botha became prime minister, at this point he introduced a new constitution with a tri-cameral parliament, with houses for whites, coloreds and Indians and no representation for blacks. Ten years later he was forced out of office. The next year, Willem de Klerk was voted in. He pledged to end apartheid, released Nelson Mandela, and introduced a new constitution with rights for all. At this point a new leaf turned over for the country of South Africa. Now that we know about the social side, let’s take a look at