Economy
1. The rand was the best performing currency against the US Dollar between 2002 and 2005
(Bloomberg Currency Scoreboard)
2. South Africa has 55,000 high net-wealth individuals holding at least US$1million in financial assets
(World Wealth Report 2008)
3. South Africa has the 27th biggest economy in the world, with a Gross Domestic Product of US$254 billion
(World Bank)
4. South Africa accounts for almost 25% of the GDP of the entire African continent, with an economy more than twice the size of the second biggest – Algeria.
(World Bank)
5. Gauteng is South Africa’s smallest province but produces 34% of South Africa’s Gross Domestic Product
(Stats SA)
6. The JSE Securities Exchange is the 14th largest equities exchange in the world, with a total market capitalisation of some R2.3 trillion
(JSE)
7. More than 12,000 'Black Diamond' families (South Africa’s new black middle class) - or 50,000 people - are moving from the townships into the suburbs of South Africa's metro areas every month
(UCT Unilever Institute)
8. The black middle class grew by 30% in 2005, adding another 421,000 black adults to SA's middle-income layer and ramping up the black population's share of SA's total middle class to almost a third. Between 2001 and 2004, there were 300,000 new black entrants to the middle class
(Financial Mail)

Infrastructure
1. South Africa generates two-thirds of Africa’s electricity
(Eskom)
2. South African power supplier provides the fourth cheapest electricity in the world
3. Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto is the biggest hospital in the world
4. Durban is the largest port in Africa and the ninth largest in the world.
5. There are 39 million cell phone users in South Africa (International Telecommunication Union)

Tourism
1. The number of tourists visiting South Africa has grown by 200% since 1994, from 3 million to over 9 million in 2007
(Dept of Environment and Tourism)
2. The Singita game reserve was voted the best hotel in the world by the readers of a leading travel magazine
(Conde Nast Traveller)
3. The world's best land-based whale-watching spot is located in Hermanus in the Western Cape.
4. In 2002, South Africa was the world’s fastest growing tourist destination. In 2006, South Africa’s tourism grew at three times the global average.

Sport
1. South Africa hosts the largest timed cycle race in the world (the Cape Argus Cycle Tour), the world's oldest and largest ultra-marathon (the Comrades Marathon) and the world's largest open water swimming event (the Midmar Mile).
2. South Africa will become the first African country to host the Soccer World Cup in 2010 … and only the second country in the world to have hosted the Cricket, Rugby and Soccer World Cups.
3. Since the 1940s, South African golfers have won more golf majors than any other nation, apart from the United States.
4. In 1994, we won 11 medals in the Commonwealth Games. In 2002, we won 46.

SA Teaching the World
1. South Africa houses one of the three largest telescopes in the world at Sutherland in the Karoo
2. South Africa is the first, and to date the only, country to build nuclear weapons and the voluntarily dismantle its entire nuclear weapons programme
3. South Africa Constitution is widely regarded as being one of the most progressive in the world, drawing from the experiences of the world’s most advanced democracies
4. The South African oil company Sasol has established the only commercially viable oil-from-coal operations in the world.
5. Two of the world's most profoundly compassionate philosophies originated in South Africa – Ubuntu (the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity) and Gandhi's notion of "passive resistance"
(Satyagraha), which he developed while living in South Africa.

Education
1. Almost a quarter of South Africa’s non-interest budget is spent on education
2. The University of South Africa UNISA is a pioneer of tertiary distance education and is the largest correspondence university in the world with 250,000 students.
3. Our learner to teacher ratio has improved from 1:50 in 1994 to 1:34 in 2004
4. South Africa’s matric pass rate has improved from 49% in 1994 to 70% in 2004, but student’s receiving university exemptions has remained at 18%
5. The first MBA programme outside of the United States was started by the University of Pretoria in 1949.

Social
1. Over thirteen million South Africans (a quarter of the population) have access to social grants
(Department of Social Development)
2. Since 1994, 500 houses have been built each day for the poor and 1,000 houses per day have received electricity
3. Seventy percent of South Africa’s population is urbanised

© South Africa: The Good News
To the best of our knowledge, these facts are correct.
If you have evidence that any of the above are incorrect or inaccurate, please contact us at +27 (0)11 463 5713
ian@sagoodnews.co.za
http://www.sagoodnews.co.za

Environmental
1. The Kruger National Park supports the greatest variety of wildlife species on the African continent
2. The Cango Caves near Oudsthoorn is the world’s longest underground cave sequence
3. South Africa is the only country to house an entire floral kingdom (fynbos), one of only 6 on the planet
4. In 1991, South Africa became the first country in the world to protect the Great White shark.
5. South Africa has the oldest meteor scar in the world, at the Vredefort Dome near Parys. The scar is 2 billion years old.
6. South Africa has the 3rd highest level of biodiversity (SA Tourism)
7. The Cape Hyrax’s (dassie) closest relative is the African elephant
8. South Africa has embraced the concept of trans-frontier ‘peace parks’, linking ecological reserves across national borders

General
1. South Africa is the cradle of mankind
2. Afrikaans is the youngest official language in the world
3. The Western Deep Levels is the world’s deepest mine at 3777 metres
4. South Africa has the world’s largest deposits of gold, chromium, platinum and manganese
5. The only street in the world to house two Nobel Peace Prize winners is in Soweto. Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu both have houses in Vilakazi Street, Orlando West.
6. South Africa has the world's second oldest air force, established 1920.
7. South African Breweries (SAB-Miller) ranks as the second largest brewing company in the world. It supplies up to 50% of China's beer.
8. South Africa has the second oldest film industry in the world
9. In 2007 South African businessman Cyril Ramaphosa was included in the Time 100, an annual list, assembled by Time magazine, of the 100 most influential people in the world
10. Cape Town has the fifth-best blue sky in the world, according to the UK's National Physical Laboratory

ok. impressive statistics.

can you please post statistics on the courntry's crime rate?

funkybaby:

ok. impressive statistics.

can you please post statistics on the courntry's crime rate?

I could but I thought everyone knows about it,I mean the South Africa everyone knows is the crime riddle and HIV/AIDS one.I just wanted to point out the other side that people hardly mention.

But if you still want the crime rate stats,I will gladly post them for you.

RSA:

I could but I thought everyone knows about it,I mean the South Africa everyone knows is the crime riddle and HIV/AIDS one.I just wanted to point out the other side that people hardly mention.

But if you still want the crime rate stats,I will gladly post them for you.

ok. please do post the stats.
a friend told me that the crime rate is bad. i just want to know how really bad it is. thanks

funkybaby:

ok. please do post the stats.
a friend told me that the crime rate is bad. i just want to know how really bad it is. thanks

This are the latest

http://www.issafrica.org/dynamic/administration/file_manager/file_links/0909CRIMETOTALS.PDF?link_id=24&slink_id=8302&link_type=12&slink_type=13&tmpl_id=3

Please go through this site as well


http://www.issafrica.org/index.php?link_id=24&slink_id=2489&link_type=12&slink_type=12&tmpl_id=3

funkybaby:

ok. please do post the stats.
a friend told me that the crime rate is bad. i just want to know how really bad it is. thanks

That ur friend is absolutely right, couple yrs ago we went to SA for shopping, at the final day of our trip, we loaded everything in a bus while we went to our hotel room to pick our bags by the time we came down the bus is gone with EVERYTHING we bought for 3days.

There is nothing police could do about it.

RSA:

http://www.issafrica.org/dynamic/administration/file_manager/file_links/0909CRIMETOTALS.PDF?link_id=24&slink_id=8302&link_type=12&slink_type=13&tmpl_id=3

http://www.issafrica.org/index.php?link_id=24&slink_id=2489&link_type=12&slink_type=12&tmpl_id=3

those stats are horrific !!

justwise:

That your friend is absolutely right, couple yrs ago we went to SA for shopping, at the final day of our trip, we loaded everything in a bus while we went to our hotel room to pick our bags by the time we came down the bus is gone with EVERYTHING we bought for 3days.

There is nothing police could do about it.

i now see why when i suggested to my ex-boyfriend that we go there for vacation (i was thinking about during the FIFA world cup), he said NO

it seems naija is even safer than SA

funkybaby:


those stats are horrific !!


i now see why when i suggested to my ex-boyfriend that we go there for vacation (i was thinking about during the FIFA world cup), he said NO

it seems naija is even safer than SA

Its crime capital of the world though a very very gr8 country to visit, fantastc holiday destination. If u want to visit then go with somebody who knows the good areas and no-go areas.

Poster you are full of shit, there is nothing Good about South Africa, wordering if you are a South African?

I would like to see Nigeria's crime stats, with its corrupt system and its failing Police Force, does it have a crime stat?

nice-guy10:

Poster you are full of poo, there is nothing Good about South Africa, wordering if you are a South African?

And there is everything good about Nigeria? 419jering, overpopulated corrupt slum and oh not mention a terrorist country.
If there is any good about Nigeria prove it.

justwise:

Its crime capital of the world though a very very gr8 country to visit, fantastc holiday destination. If u want to visit then go with somebody who knows the good areas and no-go areas.

Could you prove your point, by using facts and figures in comparison to countries like Mexico, Brazil, Russia, Colombia. Don't forget the word crime is made up of different activities resulting into a crime thats why its necessary to use figures to claim your point.

yoruba:

Could you prove your point, by using facts and figures in comparison to countries like Mexico, Brazil, Russia, Colombia. Don't forget the word crime is made up of different activities resulting into a crime thats why its necessary to use figures to claim your point.

If u are looking for SA crime stat then type SA crime rate in google and enjoy the reading, u seems to be the only one in the dark abt SA crime record.

Hopefully in the World Cup, SA will put some extra security on Nigerian fans. Nobody would want a world cup plagued with terrorism.
@Justwise
Did you read my previous comment, and also can I get a recent crime stat of Nigeria. Not to compare but I just want to see how much terrorism there is.

justwise:

If u want to visit then go with somebody who knows the good areas and no-go areas.

no, thanks
with those crime stats, i think i will pass

funkybaby:

no, thanks
with those crime stats, i think i will pass

I guess its highly safe to come from a terrorist nation and that is on a brink of a civil war

yoruba:

I guess its highly safe to come from a terrorist nation and that is on a brink of a civil war

I guess u are learning how to talk, Nigeria a terrorist state? If the USA had done their job the silly boy wouldn't have boarded the flight to start with.
The dady reported him, that shows u that Nigerians got no business with terrorist activities. Nigeria provide for Nigerians, White provide for black South Africans.

If South Africa do what Zimbabwe did and get rid of White farmers and their communities then Zimbabwe will be heaven compared to South Africa.

How many NGOs and celebs trooping to SA to donate money and other materials? But in Nigeria, we work for it, we don't depend on donations from all over the world to survive. Nigeria fought to give SA freedom, just like we did for Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Congo and still doing it till today

U know nothing about Nigeria, some of u are just full of jealous. Many victims of 419 are just as bad as the 419ners themselves

@ RSA,

Thanks for the info. Just give me more insight on the policies that were formulated and implemented by your government for it to supply cheap electricity. UNBELIEVABLE electricity bills are killing us here in Kenya. I am honestly eager to know. How come your electricity is so cheap?

Crime or no crime, Absolutely nothing is stopping me from going to that world cup, even if Jesus wan come

If i have to carry my bullet proof, juju and so on. No way am I missing the only WOrld cup to set foot on African soil probably in my life time.

VIVA AFRICA!!!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYfa0__P_pI&feature=related

Crime rate and all is bad in south Africa but you dont see the South Afircans running down their country as Nigerians run down their country Nigeria.

@labiyemmy:

You dont see the South Afircans running down their country as Nigerians run down their country Nigeria.

That's largely because they don't have much of a choice. More than half their population were systematically run down for the greater part of the twentieth century, until the powerful came to their senses.

Funny most posters missed a salient point RSA made.
He is not disputing the fact the SA is renowned for crime.
He merely chose to state the positives and when asked for the negatives, he did too!
cut him some slack, it aint his fault Nigeria is like this.

Else start your own thread and highlight Nigeria's positives

::

yoruba:

I guess its highly safe to come from a terrorist nation and that is on a brink of a civil war

Slowpoke go to the Grave , Who are U to call nigeria a terrorist nation ? South-Africa , Home of horror , seems Like u've never been there yourself , knock it off u got no point .

I guess u are learning how to talk, Nigeria a terrorist state? If the USA had done their job the silly boy wouldn't have boarded the flight to start with.
The dady reported him, that shows u that Nigerians got no business with terrorist activities. Nigeria provide for Nigerians, White provide for black South Africans.

I guess you know alot of your beloved Nigeria, all across the world people scamper for safety whenever a Nigerian is around while ironically I was just reading a thread about it.
https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-375248.160.html
I think Nigerians could do alot better with there time than drug smuggling, 419ing, prostituting, religious killing, corrupt leading and the list is just endless,
Heck I even asked for Nigeria's crime stat, but knowing how much corrupt there institution is I suppose I'll never get it.

If South Africa do what Zimbabwe did and get rid of White farmers and their communities then Zimbabwe will be heaven compared to South Africa.

And I'm sure that applies the same for Nigeria, just yesterday I was just doing my research for the Quality of life index between South Africa and Nigeria(SA scored higher) I find that its interesting to know that Nigeria had a lower score for Safety and Security meaning that the overpopulated slum(Nigeria) is more dangerous than South Africa.

How many NGOs and celebs trooping to SA to donate money and other materials? But in Nigeria, we work for it, we don't depend on donations from all over the world to survive. Nigeria fought to give SA freedom, just like we did for Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Congo and still doing it till today

Why would anyone invest in a corrupt society like Nigeria? And I'm sick and tired of hearing how much Nigeria fought to give SA freedom   while they actually did nothing. Has there ever been a Nigerian soldier who died in South African shores during apartheid? I guess its typical of a Nigerian to claim something that is non-existent, that's why you failing to except that you are a terrorist nation. And speaking of your military, where were they when MEND was busy attacking the Niger Delta? While you thinking about that, do your research about the South African Special Operations Unit, according to the BBC they say the have in the toughest training regime the world(more tougher than the US Navy) they have been operating all over Africa and Nigeria in 1996.

U know nothing about Nigeria, some of u are just full of jealous. Many victims of 419 are just as bad as the 419ners themselves

Who in what world would be jealous of a FAILED STATE? Nigeria is an overpopulated failed state.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Failed_States_Index

Quality of Life Index:
http://www.il-ireland.com/il/qofl06/index.php
Check at the difference

Check out ur SA slums

Watch this clips.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q27xtHbgXcU

Ur wonderful SA.

justwise:

Watch this clips.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q27xtHbgXcU

your wonderful SA.

Chei !!

Scores

One : One

@justwise

why are you joining issues with the guy? his likes are best ignored.

what started as a simple thread with an innocent question from me has turned into a naija/SA bashing thread.

funkybaby:

@justwise

why are you joining issues with the guy? his likes are best ignored.

what started as a simple thread with an innocent question from me has turned into a naija/SA bashing thread.

My sis. . some pple don't get it, SA is still colonized, take away the white community and the donations from the west then what happened to Zimbabwe will happen to SA.

Is like living on benefit here

Look I'm not going to defend Southy's crime stats,but like every South African I am happy that I'm aware about our problems,I'm not in denial.
I will like to also point out that rape and murders are mostly commited in poor communities where the victims probably know the culprits or related to them eg boyfriends,friend family member,community member and so on.
In this communities alchol and cheap drugs are abused.

I was not really marketing Southy to most of you broke azz niggars ,I dont have to,as I'm writing this,there are plenty of your countrymen lining at our Home Affaires applying for assylum.

I mean intelligent people know the situation in South,like they know how crime happen,or where it happen and why it happens.That is why South is one of the leading tourist destination in Africa,yes with all it's crime.This year you'll see record breaking visitors to South for the world cup and I'm not complaining and why should you?