South Africa

General Information

The BBC Country Profiles include links to relevant BBC coverage, newspapers, radio stations, TV channels and an online country timeline. Update information provided.

The U.S. Department of State offers a detailed country profile on South Africa. This site focuses on implications for US/US policy.

Portals to the World is a service by the Library of Congress (LOC). The site provides collections of annotated website links for every nation as selected by LOC experts. Links are to both government sites as well as outside servers.

Official websites on South Africa

Das Auswärtige Amt bietet Länderinformationen über Südafrika, gibt Reise- und Sicherheitshinweise sowie informiert über die Wirtschaftslage und Wirtschaftsstruktur des Landes.

The official website of South Africa's government.

The official website of South Africa's Department of International Relations and Cooperation.

Facts and Statistics

The Country Indicator for Foreign Policy (CIFP) project represents an on-going effort to identify and assemble statistical information conveying the key features of the political, economic, social and cultural environments of countries around the world. Maintained by Carleton University (Canada).

The International Data Base (IDB) contains statistical tables of demographic and socio-economic data for 227 countries and areas of the world. Output is displayed in charts and graphs, but can also be modified individually for use in spreadsheets etc. Maintained by the US Census Bureau.

The CIA World Factbook is a reliable, much-quoted resource on basic country statistics. Update information provided.

Maps

The Perry Castañeda Library Map Collection offers a comprehensive collection of maps in various formats (political, historical, relief, etc.). Maintained by the University of Texas (Austin).

Embassy World provides a collection of maps of various countries including South Africa.

TheMaps of Worldsite provides both maps of South Africa and basic information on the country.

Geography, Climate, Geology

Rita M. Byrnes, ed. South Africa: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1996. Includes information on South Africa's Geography, Geographic Regions,  Lakes and Rivers, Climate and Rainfall.

Press

The Star - Johannesburg-based daily, city's oldest newspaper

The Sowetan - Johannesburg-based tabloid

Daily Sun - mass-circulation tabloid

Beeld - largest Afrikaans daily

Mail & Guardian - weekly, operates Mail & Guardian online

Business Day - daily

Financial Mail- business weekly

Sunday Times/The Times - South Africa's oldest Sunday newspaper; publishes subscription-only daily

News Agency

South African Press Association (SAPA)

Radio

SABC - state broadcaster with 20 regional and national services in 11 languages, including: national English-language network SAfm; contemporary music station 5 FM; national Afrikaans station Radio Sonder Grense; national Zulu station Ukhozi FM; Sesotho station Lesedi FM

Channel Africa - SABC's external radio service, targeted at the African continent

YFM - popular Johannesburg commercial R&B, soul and hip-hop station

702 Talk Radio - Johannesburg commercial news and talk station

Television

SABC - state broadcaster, operates three national TV networks, two pay-TV channels

e.tv - free-to-air commercial network

M-Net - pay-TV, pan-African audience

Political and Legal Situation

The Guide to Law Online by the U.S. Law Library of Congress is an annotated compendium of online sources for legal information including selected links to primary documents, legal commentary, and general government information about specific jurisdictions and topics.

Politicalresources.net offers an index of political sites available on the Internet, sorted by country, with links to Parties, Organizations, Governments, Media.

Wikipedia has an extensive list of political parties in … (national and state level).

Human Rights Situation

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch offer frequent reports on human rights issues in each country.

The Country Reports on Human Rights Practices offers a detailed overview of the human rights situation in each country. Submitted annually to the Congress by the US Department of State.

History

The BBC Country Profiles include an online timeline of each country.

History of Nations is based on information from the US Department of State and highlights each nation's history.

Wikipedia's History of South Africa.

Internet African History Sourcebookpresents historical sources on the history of human societies in the continent of Africa. This page is a subset of texts derived from three major online Sourcebooks.

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Empire Online is an exciting collection of original documents relating to Empire Studies, sourced from libraries and archives around the world. Each Section features thematic essays by leading scholars in the field of Empire Studies. (Access only via university network or vpn client)

The Making of the Modern World: full text database providing access to a myriad of historical documents, mostly related to economic and colonial history. (Access only via university network or vpn client)

Early History

The BBC World Service offers the sections  "The Origins of the Human Race", "Homo sapiens: Out of Africa"and "Early History Timeline" concerning the "Early History" of the African continent and humankind. It also provides radio programs from the series "The Story of Africa". 

Apartheid