south-africa – Jo-AnneRamplings

Good morning all it is a much cooler day here in my part of the world, this week we are looking at another African country but this one you should all have heard of it is South Africa.

It is on the southernmost tip of the African continent, it is known for its great diversity in cultures, languages, religious beliefs and ethnic groups.

When we think of the capital most of us would say Cape Town but in fact, South Africa has three capitals as each branch of government has its own capital city. The administrative capital of South Africa is Pretoria, the legislative capital is Cape Town, and the judicial capital is Bloemfontein.

Why is this well in 1910, when the Union of South Africa was formed, there was a great dispute about the location of the new country’s capital city. A compromise was reached to spread a balance of power throughout the country, and this led to the three capitals of South Africa.

The population is around 63 million, with Black South Africans as the majority, with around 80% the rest is made up of coloured South Africans at around 8%, Indian or Asian South Africans at around 2.6% and White South Africans being around 8%.

The country has nine provinces:

The Eastern Cape
The Free State
Gauteng
KwaZulu-Natal
Limpopo
Mpumalanga
The Northern Cape
North West
The Western Cape

Each province has its own government, including a premier, legislature, and executive council. The provinces also have their own distinct landscapes, populations, economies, and climates.

South Africa’s provinces were increased from four to nine in the lead-up to the 1994 general election.

This was done by reintegrating the country’s former homelands, known as Bantustans, into the country.

The flag is a horizontal bicolour of red and blue with a green band in the middle that splits into a “Y” shape. The flag also features a black triangle on the hoist side, with narrow yellow or gold bands separating the triangle from the arms of the “Y”.

The flag was adopted in 1994 after the end of Apartheid to represent the country’s new democracy.

The country has a diverse religious population, with Christianity being the most widely practice with around 85% of the population being Christian. The largest group of Christian churches are the African Independent Churches, which include the Zion Christian Church and the Apostolic Church.

Around 7% of the population practices Indigenous beliefs. Many Indigenous people combine Christian and Indigenous religious practices.

It is believed that about 6% of the population is atheist or agnostic.

There is also Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism practiced in the country.

South Africa is a secular state with a constitution that guarantees freedom of religion. The state’s relationship with religion is more moderate and tolerant, allowing for voluntary religious observances within state institutions.

Like many African countries South Africa isn’t considered a safe country to visit due to crime, civil unrest, and kidnapping. Violent crime is common and includes armed robbery, rape, carjacking, and mugging. There are also “smash-and-grab” attacks on vehicles. It is the 20^th worst country in regards of safety and security.

Many would know of Apartheid which was in South Africa from 1948 to 1994 and was the racial segregation under the all-white government of South Africa which dictated that non-white South Africans (a majority of the population) were required to live in separate areas from whites and use separate public facilities and contact between the two groups would be limited. The different racial group were physically separated according to their location, public facilities and social life.

In 1948, after the National Party won that year’s elections, Apartheid became a social project of the government based on a series of laws which made it legal.

There are at least thirty-five languages are spoken in the country with twelve of them being regarded as official languages, they are Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Afrikaans, Xhosa, Zulu, English and South African Sign Language.

English is the primary language used in parliamentary and state discourse, though all official languages are equal in legal status.

The South African Rand is the currency of South Africa and is issued by the South African Reserve Bank. The South African rand has the symbol R. It is subdivided into 100 cents. The name is derived from the word ‘Witwatersrand’, which means ‘ridge of white waters’.

Ok let’s move onto central and southern Africa and area that includes Burundi, Chad, Central African Republic, South Africa, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Namibia.

Let’s start with Burundi, officially the Republic of Burundi, it is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa, with population of over 14 million people.

It is considered by some to be the poorest country in the world and is one of the least developed countries. Over 1 million of its people are facing crisis levels of hunger today. This is due to poverty, climate shocks, soaring inflation and fuel shortages.

The town of Gitega, located in the central part of Burundi as the Political Capital, while Bujumbura, which is in the southwestern of the country, adjacent to the Lake Tanganyika is the Economic Capital.

Prior to 2019 Bujumbura served as Burundi’s national capital, but legislation passed that year designated Gitega as the country’s political capital and Bujumbura as the economic capital. The transfer of government functions to Gitega proceeded in the following years.

The original flag was adopted after the country’s independence from Belgium on 1 July 1962. It went through several revisions and now consists of a white saltire which divides the field into alternating red and green areas. The centre of the saltire merges into a white disk, on which there are three red solid six-pointed stars outlined in green. The current ratio is 3:5, which was changed from 2:3 on 27 September 1982.

The franc is the currency of Burundi. It is nominally subdivided into 100 centimes, although coins have never been issued in centimes since Burundi began issuing its own currency.

Burundi’s political system is that of a presidential representative democratic republic based upon a multi-party state. The president of Burundi is the head of state and head of government. The president is elected by absolute majority vote through a two round system. The supreme court is the highest court of the land. Judges are nominated by the judicial service commission and then appointed by the president with the approval of the senate.

Burundi has a diverse religious population, with the majority identifying as Christian and a minority identifying as Muslim:

Christianity is the most common religion in Burundi, with about three-fifths of the population identifying as Roman Catholic and more than one-eighth identifying as Protestant.

Islam is a minority religion in Burundi, with Muslims making up less than one-twentieth of the population. The majority of Muslims in Burundi are Sunni, but there are also Shia and Ismaili communities.

A large minority of the population, including some Roman Catholics, practice traditional religions.

The government of Burundi has granted tax waivers to religious groups for the purchase of materials for development projects and for imported religious items. The government has also provided opportunities for religious leaders to preach about scriptures and moral issues.

This is another country that is not considered a safe destination for tourists due to a number of risks, such as a threat of terrorism, political violence, violent crime, including mugging, purse snatching, pickpocketing, assault, carjacking, home invasion, grenade attacks, and armed robbery and there is a risk of kidnapping for ransom, and criminals have targeted foreigners in the past.

Not somewhere I would go.