Fun Facts About South Africa

Currency

The Official Currency of South Africa is the Rand.

The symbol for the Rand is "R".

The iso 4217 code is "ZAR" from the Dutch, Zuid-Afrikaanse Rand.

A Rand is subdivided into 100 cents, with the symbol "c".

South African coins consist of: 5c, 10c, 20c, 50c, R1, R2, and R5.

South African Bank Notes consist of: R10, R20, R50, R100, and R200.

Each bank note has a picture of Nelson Mandela on the front and a picture of one of the big five at the back.

The Map

South Africa is located at the Southern most tip of Africa and is the only country in the world to have it's name comprise of a cardinal point and the continent that it is located in.

South Africa has 9 provinces: Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, Kwa-Zulu Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North West, and Western Cape.

The Official Languages

South Africa is the only country in the world to have 11 Official Languages.

The 11 Official Languages of South Africa are:

Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sesotho sa Leboa, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga.

Besides the 11 Official Languages, there are many other unofficial languages that are spoken in South Africa. These unofficial languages that are spoken are: Arabic, Chinese Languages, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Koi, Nama and San Languages, Portuguese, Sanskrit, Sign Language, Tamil, Telegu, and Urdu.

Even though English is the most commonly spoken business language, statistics show that it is only the fifth most spoken home language.

The Flag 

The South African Flag which was introduced in April 1994, just before the first democratic elections of the country, is the only national flag to have six colours as part of it's primary design.

The colours of the flag represent the Rainbow Nation of South Africa and is made up of: black, yellow, green, red, white, and blue. The black, yellow, and green are the colours of the ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC) and the red, white, and blue are borrowed from the old English and Boer flags.

The flags first official appearance was on the 10th May 1994 when Nelson Mandela was inaugurated  as the first democratically elected president of South Africa.