With a Population of over 1 billion people, and with One sixth of the world’s arable land, Africa is one of the richest and most endowed continents on earth.However fragmentation along national borders into 54 states that are not integrated has created small markets with different systems and
conflicting policies on matters of common interest to the continent thus marginalizing Africa in global affairs.
Africa is one of the fastest growing regions in the world. Opportunity to further enhance the growth by increasing average growth rates to above 7% of GDP to ensure substantial reduction in poverty and to achieve the rapid structural transformation necessary to create prosperity and a better life for all Africa’s peoples.
Africa is responsible for a significant proportion of its developing finance, as more than $527.3 billion comes from domestic taxes compared to
$73.7 billion received in private flows and 51.4 billion in official development assistance (NEPAD and ECA, 2014).
The economic value of the Blue Economy for Africa is estimated at over one trillion US Dollars, with hundreds of thousands of job opportunities for young African women and men. However not more than 1% of seafarers and just
1.8% of ships globally are African owned, whereas over 90% of Africa’s
imports and exports are conducted by sea.
The volume of intra-African trade has increased from $32 billion in 2000 to $130 billion in 2011; with increased diversification in manufactured goods,intra-African trade has huge potential trade to support Africa’s industrialization and structural transformation
South Africa generates two-thirds of Africa’s electricity (Eskom)
South African power supplier provides the fourth cheapest electricity in the world
Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto is the biggest hospital in the world
Durban is the largest port in Africa and the ninth largest in the world.
There are 39 million cell phone users in South Africa (International
Telecommunication Union)
The number of tourists visiting South Africa has grown by 200% since 1994, from 3 million to over 9 million in 2007 (Dept of Environment and Tourism)
The Singita game reserve was voted the best hotel in the world by the readers of a leading travel magazine (Conde Nast Traveller)
The world's best land-based whale-watching spot is located in
Hermanus in the Western Cape.
In 2002, South Africa was the world’s fastest growing tourist
destination. In 2006, South Africa’s tourism grew at three times the global average.
South Africa hosts the largest timed cycle race in the world (the Cape ArgusCycle Tour), the world's oldest and largest ultra-marathon (the ComradesMarathon) and the world's largest open water swimming event (the
Midmar Mile).
South Africa will become the first African country to host the Soccer World Cup in 2010 … and only the second country in the world to have hosted
the Cricket, Rugby and Soccer World Cups.
Since the 1940s, South African golfers have won more golf majors than any other nation, apart from the United States.
In 1994, we won 11 medals in the Commonwealth Games. In 2002, we
won 46.
South Africa houses one of the three largest telescopes in the world at Sutherland in the Karoo
South Africa is the first, and to date the only, country to build nuclear weapons and the voluntarily dismantle its entire nuclear weapons
programme
South Africa Constitution is widely regarded as being one of the most
progressive in the world, drawing from the experiences of the world’s
most advanced democracies
The South African oil company Sasol has established the only commercially viable oil-from-coal operations in the world.
Two of the world's most profoundly compassionate philosophies
originated in South Africa – Ubuntu (the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity) and Gandhi's notion of "passive resistance"
(Satyagraha), which he developed while living in South Africa.
Education
Almost a quarter of South Africa’s non-interest budget is spent on education
The University of South Africa UNISA is a pioneer of tertiary distance education and is the largest correspondence university in the world
with 250,000 students.
Our learner to teacher ratio has improved from 1:50 in 1994 to 1:34 in 2004
South Africa’s matric pass rate has improved from 49% in 1994 to 70% in 2004, but student’s receiving university exemptions has remained at 18%
The first MBA programme outside of the United States was started by
the University of Pretoria in 1949 (Gordon Institute of Business Science).
Over thirteen million South Africans (a quarter of the population) have access to social grants (Department of Social Development)
Since 1994, 500 houses have been built each day for the poor and 1,000
houses per day have received electricity
Seventy percent of South Africa’s population is urbanised
The Kruger National Park supports the greatest variety of wildlife species on the African continent
The Cango Caves near Oudsthoorn is the world’s longest underground
cave sequence
South Africa is the only country to house an entire floral kingdom
(fynbos), one of only 6 on the planet
4.
In 1991, South Africa became the first country in the world to protect the Great White shark.
South Africa has the oldest meteor scar in the world, at the Vredefort
Dome near Parys. The scar is 2 billion years old.
South Africa has the 3rd highest level of biodiversity (SA Tourism)
The Cape Hyrax’s (dassie) closest relative is the African elephant
South Africa has embraced the concept of trans-frontier ‘peace parks’,linking ecological reserves across national borders
The Western Deep Levels is the world’s deepest mine at 3777 metres
South Africa has the world’s largest deposits of gold, chromium, platinum and manganese
The only street in the world to house two Nobel Peace Prize winners is in Soweto. Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu both have houses in Vilakazi Street, Orlando West.
South African Breweries (SABMiller) ranks as the second largest brewing company in the world. It supplies up to 50% of China's beer.
Cape Town has the fifth-best blue sky in the world, according to the UK's National Physical Laboratory
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