South Africa

Dutch traders landed at the southern tip of modern day South Africa in 1652 and established a stopover point on the spice route between the Netherlands and the Far East, founding the city of Cape Town. After the British seized the Cape of Good Hope area in 1806, many of the Dutch settlers (the Boers) trekked north to found their own republics. The discovery of diamonds (1867) and gold (1886) spurred wealth and immigration and intensified the subjugation of the native inhabitants. The Boers resisted British encroachments but were defeated in the Boer War (1899-1902); however, the British and the Afrikaners, as the Boers became known, ruled together beginning in 1910 under the Union of South Africa, which became a republic in 1961 after a whites-only referendum. In 1948, the National Party was voted into power and instituted a policy of apartheid - the separate development of the races - which favored the white minority at the expense of the black majority. The African National Congress (ANC) led the opposition to apartheid and many top ANC leaders, such as Nelson MANDELA, spent decades in South Africa's prisons. Internal protests and insurgency, as well as boycotts by some Western nations and institutions, led to the regime's eventual willingness to negotiate a peaceful transition to majority rule. The first multi-racial elections in 1994 brought an end to apartheid and ushered in majority rule under an ANC-led government. South Africa since then has struggled to address apartheid-era imbalances in decent housing, education, and health care. ANC infighting, which has grown in recent years, came to a head in September 2008 when President Thabo MBEKI resigned, and Kgalema MOTLANTHE, the party's General-Secretary, succeeded him as interim president. Jacob ZUMA became president after the ANC won general elections in April 2009.

Economical characteristics

 * Currency: Rand (ISO code: ZAR)
 * Central bank discount rate: 7% (31 December 2009)
 * Commercial banks lending rate: 11.71% (31 December 2009 )
 * Stock of money (M1): $44.66 billion (31 December 2008)
 * Quasi money (with M1 makes M2): $124.1 billion (31 December 2008)

Notable events:

 * Banking crisis: 1977-1978, 1989
 * Years in inflation: 1% (share of years 1910-2009 with annual inflation above 20 per cent per annum)
 * Public default: 1985-1987, 1989, 1993 (external)

Links

 * South Africa on Wikipedia
 * Central bank of South Africa
 * Country profile (pdf) from the Enterprise Studies page (part of the The World Bank Group)
 * Studies from the Library of Congress (1986-1998)
 * BBC country profile
 * South Africa's last tea farm tries to bounce back after costly pay dispute by David Smith, March 2012
 * South Africa: Women Drinking To Harm Babies by Alex Crawford, January 2013
 * Chris Becker's Austrian Perspective on South Africa, Gold and the Ludwig von Mises Institute by Anthony Wile, June 2013
 * Legalizing the Rhino Horn Trade by Logan Albright, July 2013