South Africa

American  

noun

1. Republic of South Africa, a country in southern Africa; member of the Commonwealth of Nations until 1961. 472,000 sq. mi. (1,222,480 sq. km). Capitals: Pretoria and Cape Town.

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South Africa British  

noun

1. Former name (1910–61): Union of South Africa.  a republic occupying the southernmost part of the African continent: the Dutch Cape Colony (1652) was acquired by Britain in 1806 and British victory in the Boer War resulted in the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, which became a republic in 1961; implementation of the apartheid system began in 1948 and was abolished, following an intense civil rights campaign, in 1993, with multiracial elections held in 1994; a member of the Commonwealth, it withdrew in 1961 but was re-admitted in 1994. Mainly plateau with mountains in the south and east. Mineral production includes gold, diamonds, coal, and copper. Official languages: Afrikaans; English; Ndebele; Pedi; South Sotho; Swazi; Tsonga; Tswana; Venda; Xhosa; Zulu. Religion: Christian majority. Currency: rand. Capitals: Cape Town (legislative), Pretoria (administrative), Bloemfontein (judicial). Pop: 48 601 098 (2013 est). Area: 1 221 044 sq km (471 445 sq miles)

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South Africa Cultural  

1. Officially the Republic of South Africa, a nation at the southern tip of Africa spanning the Cape of Good Hope where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. It is bordered by Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe to the north, and Mozambique to the northeast. Its capitals are Pretoria for its administrative government and Cape Town for its legislature. (See also Johannesburg.)

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Under President F. W. De Klerk, the white minority government released Mandela from jail in 1990 and repealed some of the major laws establishing apartheid. In 1994, the ANC triumphed in elections and Mandela became president. As president, Mandela appointed a truth commission to document human-rights abuses under apartheid.

Black South Africans, who constitute approximately seventy percent of the nation, protested the racist policies of the white minority through organizations such as the African National Congress (ANC), headed by Nelson Mandela, who spent much of his life in jail as a political prisoner.

Dutch settlers, known as Boers, were the first Europeans to migrate in large numbers to the territories that now make up South Africa. Britain was granted the territory surrounding the Cape of Good Hope at the Congress of Vienna, and friction between the British and Dutch remained a constant in the region. Tensions were increased by the discovery of gold and diamonds in the late nineteenth century and came to a head in the Boer War (1899–1902), in which the British defeated the Dutch-descended Afrikaners.

South Africa's policy of apartheid, the aggressive separation of the races and enforcement of the inferior political status of all nonwhites, was the hallmark of its internal political system. South Africa's race policies became the subject of international protest and economic sanctions.

Example Sentences

There have been no reports of attacks by Iran-backed Houthis in the Red Sea, but shipping companies prefer the safety of the South Africa route, Teodoro said.

From MarketWatch • May 15, 2026

Two British nationals with confirmed cases are being treated in the Netherlands and South Africa.

From BBC • May 14, 2026

Five California residents have been potentially exposed to the virus — four aboard the cruise ship, and the fifth while on a plane with an infected person in South Africa.

From Los Angeles Times • May 14, 2026

South Africa responded by saying it had "nothing to hide".

From BBC • May 13, 2026

In modern times, European farmers thereby replaced western North American Indian hunters, Aboriginal Australians, and the San people of South Africa.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond