Facts about South Africa

capital cities — Pretoria, Cape Town & Bloemfontein

South Africa splits its seat of government three ways: the executive in Pretoria, Parliament in Cape Town, and the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein.¹⁸²

UNESCO World Heritage Sites

From the Cradle of Humankind to Robben Island and the Cape Floral Region, South Africa's tally grew to twelve with two new inscriptions in 2024.^4, 131

meet at the tip of Africa

South Africa is washed by the cold Atlantic in the west and the warm Indian Ocean in the east. The International Hydrographic Organization places the boundary between them at Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point of the African continent.^69, 299

full-status Blue Flag beaches (2025/26)

For the 2025/26 season WESSA awarded South Africa 50 full-status Blue Flag beaches — plus 20 pilot sites, 5 marinas and 7 tourism boats — the international mark of clean, safe, well-managed coast.³⁹⁶

of coastline, along two oceans

South Africa's shore stretches more than 3,000 km from the desert border with Namibia on the Atlantic coast, around the southern tip of Africa, north to the Mozambique border on the Indian Ocean.⁹

the Orange, South Africa's longest river

The Orange rises in the Drakensberg of Lesotho and flows west to the Atlantic. It is the country's longest river, though published lengths vary from roughly 2,100 to 2,400 km.²³⁹

official languages, including South African Sign Language

South African Sign Language became the 12th official language in July 2023, joining Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda and Xitsonga.²⁰

people across nine provinces

Census 2022 counted 62,027,503 people in South Africa, up from 51.8 million in 2011.⁹¹

lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo & rhino

The 'Big Five' were named by hunters for the animals hardest to track on foot — today they are the icons of a South African safari.²⁷⁵

floral kingdoms on Earth — the Cape's is the richest

The Cape Floristic Region is the smallest of the world's six floral kingdoms and, per unit area, the most diverse — around 9,000 plant species, most found nowhere else.²²⁴

megadiverse nations on Earth

South Africa is one of only 17 'megadiverse' countries, which together hold more than two-thirds of the planet's biodiversity, and it ranks in the global top ten for plant species richness.⁸⁷

safari's answer to the Big Five

Beyond the famous Big Five, South Africa has a 'Little Five' worth hunting with a magnifying glass: the elephant shrew, ant lion, rhino beetle, red-billed buffalo weaver and leopard tortoise.¹⁶¹

distinct biomes in one country

SANBI recognises nine terrestrial biomes -- from Fynbos and Succulent Karoo to Savanna, Grassland and Forest -- spanning 463 distinct terrestrial ecosystem types across the country.⁸⁷

bird species recorded

BirdLife South Africa's official checklist records more than 860 bird species on the mainland (around 870 including the sub-Antarctic Prince Edward Islands) -- roughly 7% of all the world's birds.^87, 333

whale season on the Cape Whale Coast

Each winter southern right whales migrate from the Antarctic to calve and mate in the shelter of Walker Bay off Hermanus, earning the town a reputation for some of the world's best land-based whale watching from June to November.¹²³

dinosaur-era fish off Sodwana

The coelacanth, a lineage once thought to have vanished with the dinosaurs some 66 million years ago, survives off South Africa -- divers found and photographed living coelacanths at about 104 m depth off Sodwana Bay in 2000.^272, 319

the Sardine Run, the 'greatest shoal on Earth'

Each winter billions of sardines migrate north along the KwaZulu-Natal coast in shoals kilometres long, trailed by sharks, dolphins, Cape gannets and whales in a spectacular feeding frenzy.¹⁴⁷