GEOGRAPHY OF SOUTH AFRICA,….or should we say "the lay of our land". Let us go and find out what it's all about.

THE NAME
THE LOCATION
THE LAND
THE BOUNDARIES
THE ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE
THE COAST LINE
THE RIVERS
THE LAKES

The Name….and the geography of South Africa. What is in a name?....one could ask. In South Africa the answer could be: "a rainbow". A rainbow of 11 different official languages, 7 different ways of saying "South Africa".

ENGLISH	SOUTH AFRICA
SOUTHERN SOTHO	AFRIKA BORWA
NORTHERN SOTHO	AFRIKA BORWA
TSWANA	AFRIKA BORWA
XHOSA	MZANTSI AFRIKA
ZULU	NINGIZIMU AFRIKA
SWATI	NINGIZIMU AFRIKA
NDEBELE	NINGIZIMU AFRIKA
VENDA	AFURIKA TSHIPEMBE
TSONGA	AFRIKA DZONGA
AFRIKAANS	SUID AFRIKA

The official name is of course “REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA”.

Official abbreviation: RSA

Short abbreviation: SA

Noun and adjective: SOUTH AFRICAN(S)

The ISO country code is: ZA

Internet country code is: .CO.ZA


The Location…. and the geography of South Africa. You will find South Africa at the southern tip of the African continent, stretching north to south for approximately 1,600 km (994 mi) between 22 and 35 degrees latitude, and east to west also for about 1,600 km (994 mi) between 17 and 33 degrees longitude.

The Tropic of Capricorn slices through the extreme north of the country at 23 degrees 26’ 22” latitude.

The Land…. and the geography of South Africa. The total surface area of South Africa is 1,219,912 sq km (460,693 sq mi).

Maybe that does not say much, but by comparison you can think in terms of the combined size of Germany, France, Italy, Belgium and Holland together, or, for our American friends, almost twice the size of Texas.

This includes Prince Edward and Marion islands, situated 1,920 km (1,193 mi) south east of Cape town in the Atlantic, annexed by South Africa in 1947.

About 40 % of South Africa’s surface area lies 1,210 m (3,970 ft) above sea level. Lowest point of the country is at sea level of course, and the highest point is Mount Njesuthi in the Drakensberg mountain range, at 3,446 m (11,396 ft) above sea level.


The Boundaries…. and the geography of South Africa. Apart from a coastline of 2,798 km (1,738 mi) with the Atlantic ocean to the west and the Indian ocean to the east, South Africa has common boundaries with the republics of Botswana 1,840 km (1,143 mi), Namibië 967 km (600 mi), Mozambique 491 km (305 mi), Zimbabwe 225 km (139 mi) and the kingdoms of Lesotho 909 km (564 mi), and Swaziland 430 km (267 mi).

The kingdom of Lesotho is completely enclosed by South African territory. The same applies for the kingdom of Swaziland, except for a small stretch of border that it has with Mozambique.

It all ads up to a total inland boundary of 4,872 km (3,027 mi), and a total circumference of our country of 5,331 km (3,312 mi).

The Administrative structure….and the geography of South Africa. South Africa has nine provinces and three capitals.

The provinces each with its provincial capital are, (7) Gauteng and Johannesburg, (9) Limpopo and Polokwane, (8) Mpumalanga and nelspruit, (6) North-West province and Mmabatho, (5) Free State and Bloemfontein, (3) Eastern cape and Bisho, (2) Northern Cape and Kimberley, (1) Western Cape and Cape Town, (4) Kwazulu-Natal and Pietermaritzburg.

The national capitals are, Pretoria as the administrative capital, Cape Town as the legislative capital and Bloemfontein as the judicial capital. The numbers correspond with those on the map.


The Coastline….and the geography of South Africa. South Africa’s 2,798 km (1,738 mi) coastline has few bays or coves and only one good natural harbour at Saldanha bay in the Western Cape.

The other major ports, following the coastline clockwise are, Richardsbay and Durban in Kwazulu-Natal, East London, Port Elizabeth and Mosselbay in the Eastern Cape and Cape Town in the Western cape.

A total of 98 % of all South Africa’s exports are conveyed by sea through these seven ports.

The two most distinctive promontories on our country’s coastline are the Cape peninsula, with the Cape of Good Hope at it’s southern tip and Cape Agulhas, the most southern tip of the African continent.

This is the place where the two oceans, the Atlantic ocean and the Indian ocean, meet.

The Rivers…. and the geography of South Africa. The three main rivers in South Africa are the Orange, the Vaal and the Limpopo.

The Orange river is the longest, stretching west about 2,100km (1,300 mi). It rises in Lesotho, where it is called the Senqu river and flows northwest to the Atlantic, forming the boundary with Namibia along the river’s westernmost section.

The Vaal river rises in the northeast near Swaziland and is a tributary of the Orange river. It is 1,120 km (695 mi) long and flows south west to its confluence with the Orange river.

The Limpopo river with a length 1,700 km (1,056 mi), rises further north In the highveld ridge west of Pretoria, flowing northeast to the Botswana border and then eastward along the Botswana and Zimbabwe borders until it enters Mozambique, where it empties into the Indian ocean.


The Lakes…. and the geography of South Africa. Apart from Fundudzi lake, which was formed by a huge landslide in the Soutpansberg mountain range in Venda, there are no true natural inland lakes of any significance in South Africa. Rivers are the main source of water.

What you will find in our country are many large artificial lakes, large storage dams that have been constructed to regulate the natural variable flow of rivers and to facilitate water transfers between catchment-areas.

There are 26 major dams in South Africa, ranging in capacity from the Gariep dam in the Free State at 5,341 million cubic metres, down to the midmar dam in Kwazulu-natal at 175 million cubic metres.

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