Introduction
As HMS Endurance and her crew come towards the end of their 2006/2007 deployment, they have made their way to Cape Town in South Africa.
The Republic of South Africa is a large and diverse country and can be found on the southern tip of the continent of Africa. Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Mozambique border South Africa to the north and Lesotho towards the south-east. South Africa covers 1.23 million sq. km - an area roughly five times the size of Britain.
Map of South Africa
South Africa is a multiparty democracy within the Commonwealth. There are nine provinces, each with its own government: Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, Kwazulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, NorthWest, Northern Cape and Western Cape. With a population of over 43 million, South Africa has 11 official languages: Zulu, Afrikaans, Xhosa, Pedi, English, Sotho, Ndebele, Setswana, Venda, siSewati and Tsonga.
South Africa is famous, first and foremost, for its incredible natural beauty. It has some of the most extreme and varied environments in the world, from tropical beaches of KwaZulu Natal to the vast emptiness of the Kalahari Desert.
Children
Yet it is its people, an intriguing mix of cultures, ethnicities and religions, who give meaning to its nickname, `Rainbow Nation’ as the country has the most diverse population in Africa. 77% of the population is African, 11% is white, 9% is `coloured’ (a term without negative connotations, which refers to mixed race descendants of slaves, white settlers and Africans) and 3% is Indian.
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