AFRICA/SOUTH AFRICA - Brief Sketch of the Country

Johannesburg (Agenzia Fides) – Located at the southernmost tip of Africa, South Africa has a surface area of 1,224,297 sq km. It is bordered in the north by Zimbabwe and Botswana, to the west by Namibia, to the east by Mozambique and Swaziland, and complete surrounds the territory of Lesotho. The coastline is bordered by the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.
The country has a population of 48.7 million inhabitants, of which 80% are Africans and nearly 9.5% are of European origin.
There are eleven official languages in South Africa: Afrikaans, English, isiNdebele, Sepedi, Sesotho, Swati, Xitsonga, Setswana, Tshivenda, isiXhosa, and isiZulu.
South Africa has three capital cities: Pretoria (executive capital), Cape Town (legislative capital), and Bloemfontein (judicial capital). Johannesburg is the largest city in the country and the most important in terms of industry and finance.

History
Colonized by the Dutch in 1652, South Africa soon became a British Colony. In 1910, it was formally established as a British dominion of the Commonwealth, with the name of South African Union. It remained a part of the Commonwealth until 1961, when it was declared a republic and separated itself from the British Crown. The event marked the end of a process begun in late 1948, with the rise to power of the National Party (NP), which institutionalized the so-called “progress with racial segregation,” better known as Apartheid. This system was gradually dismantled in 1989, with the election of President Frederik de Klerk. The African National Congress (ANC) fought for decades for an end to Apartheid. Their leader, Nelson Mandela, was freed in 1990, after 27 years in jail. In 1990/1991, the ANC was declared legal and the racial laws were abolished, while President de Klerk and Mandela carried out negotiations to insure a pacific transition into democracy.
In 1994, the ANC won the first multi-racial elections. Mandela became the first African President of the country. In 1999, Thabo Mbeki, Mandela's successor, was elected President and later re-elected in 2004, after a great ANC victory in legislative elections. In 2008, Mbeki resigned as a result of lost trust within the ANC, who accused him of having influences judges working on the case of his rival, Jacob Zuma. Kgalema Motlanthe became the President ad interim.
South Africa, which has a subsoil extremely rich in minerals and precious metals, and is the largest platinum producer, third largest gold producer, and fourth largest diamond producer in the world. The industry, mainly focused on automobile manufacturing and minerals, is one of the motors of the economy. Due to outdated infrastructures, however, the country suffers frequent electrical blackouts.
From a social perspective, after the end of Apartheid, a middle class and entrepreneurial black class were formed, however 43% of the population lives on less than 2 dollars per day.

The Catholic Church
There are 3,234,000 Catholics, distributed in 27 dioceses with 760 parishes. There are 33 Bishops, 548 diocesan priests, 631 religious priests, 176 professed brothers, 2,266 religious sisters, 13,153 catechists. The Catholic Church runs 234 early child care centers with 22,354 students; 264 elementary schools with 85,331 students; 108 middle and high schools with 50,949 students. The Church also runs 10 hospitals, 47 clinics, 25 leper colonies, 98 centers for housing, 62 orphanages, 61 kindergartens, and 28 family consultations (statistics taken from the Official Statistics of the Catholic Church). (LM) (Agenzia Fides 22/4/2009)