1. The capital cities of South Africa are Pretoria (executive), Cape Town (legislative) and Bloemfontain (judicial). 2. The city known as Mother City is Cape Town. The mother city is the place where most tourists go and where there are the more possibilities to have fun. 3. The first settlers were Dutch, the navigator's name was Jan Van Riebeeck. India was too far away from Spain so they decided to settle in South Africa and install a harbor . He landed there on April 6 th 1652. 4. The Anglo-Boer war broke out on February the eleventh 1899 and ended in 1902. 5. The first non-racial democratic elections took place on April 27 th 1994. It marks the end of three centuries of colonialism. 6. The languages spoken in South Africa and mentioned in the Constitution are the Khoi, Nama and San languages, sign language, Arabic, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Portuguese, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telegu and Urdu. There are also a few indigenous creoles and pidgins. Though English is the language of media, business and understood in the whole country, it is recognised to be only the fifth mother language. 7. The current president's name is Jacob Zuma. 8. From 1967 to 1972, Desmond Tutu taught Theology, the science which deals with religion. 9. Johannesburg's nicknames are Gauteng /Egoli which mean « Place of Gold » and Maboneng which means « City of Lights ». 10. Soweto became known to the world in 1976 because the uprising of the sudents started there. They wanted education to be taught in Afrikaans rather than in English. But Soweto, which means South WEst TOwnships existed prior to the uprising and gathered black people in kind of poor suburbs. 11. The flag of South Africa was designed by Frederick Brownell and was adopted on April 27th 1994 at the beginning of the elections. It was chosen to represent the new democracy. 12. Apartheid is derived from Apart-hood, meaning « the state of being apart ». It was a system of racial segregation. It started under the Dutch rule but began an official policy from 1948.
13. It was progressively stopped between 1990 and 1993 but officially ceased on April 27th 1994 for the first non-racial democratic elections. 14. The chief Executive of Apartheid was Hendrik Verwoerd. 15. Nelson Mandela was born on July 18th 1918 in Mvezo. 16. He stayed for 26 years in prison, successively on Robben island (1964 – 1982) and Pollsmoor Prison (1982 – 1988) and Victor Vester prison (1988 – 1990). 17. In 1993, he and former President F De Klerk were awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. 18. The novel by Alan Paton adapted by Darrell James Roodt is Cry, Beloved Country. It was released in 1952 and denounces the racial segregation. 19. The letters ANC stand for African National Congress. It was formed in 1912 and its goal was to fight against racism. They want to create a united, nonracial, non-sexist and democratic society.
