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NATURE
1. Home to one of the world’s 6 floral kingdoms, South Africa has one-tenth (23 200) of the world’s flowering species. 19 000 are endemic, making it the richest region in the world in terms of species per area – 70% richer than even Brazil. The Cape Peninsula has the highest concentration of plant species per hectre – more than the whole of Great Britain.
2. The Kruger National Park is the 8th largest reserve in the world (the size of Switzerland) and has the largest concentration of elephants, lions, rhinoceros and buffalos in the world. It also boasts the best hotel in the world.
3. There’s more mammals in South Africa than in North and South America combined; or Europe and Asia together.
4. SA has the smallest and largest mammal in the world as well as the biggest animal (elephant), fastest (cheetah) and longest (giraffe)
5. The Western Cape has the longest wine route in the world. KWC Cellars in Paarl is the largest wine cellar in the world. Graaff-Reinet in the Western Cape has the world’s biggest grapevine.
6. Hermanus is the whale watching capital of the world. You can see more than 37 species of whales in South Africa
7. Johannesburg, with its 3.3 million people, boasts the largest man-made and urban forest in the world. Johannesburg has more than 10 million trees
8. Cape Town has the 5th brightest sky in the world and is according to the London Times the “hottest sun spot in the world”
9. Table Mountain in Cape Town is one of the seven wonders in the geological world. Standing at just over 1000 metres, it dominates the skyline. Table Mountain can be seen as far as 200 kilometres out of sea. A recent survey amongst British Airway staff rated Table Mountain 2nd best view in the world
10. There are more mountains in Cape Town than hills in San Francisco
11. According to Discovery Travel Channel, Clifton Beach in Cape Town is one of the 10 best beaches in the world
12. The Tugela Falls in Kwazulu Natal is the the 2nd highest waterfall in the world.
13. SA has the highest bungee jumping spot in the world
14. More than 50 percent of paragliding records have been set in South Africa
15. The Cango Caves, a 3km long sequence of caverns of glittering stalagmites and stalactites, is the longest cave sequence in the world
16. The Blyderivier Canyon in the Mpumalanga province is the 3rd largest canyon in the world
17. Seal Island in False Bay is the only place in the world where Great White sharks consistently breach
18. Kimberley’s ‘Big Hole’ is the largest hand-dug hole in the world and is deeper than Table Mountain is high.
19. The Boesmansgat is the 2nd deepest sinkhole in the world and the largest of its kind in the world
20. The crater in Vredefort is the oldest known crater on the planet
21. The St. Lucia estuarine system in Kwazulu Natal is the largest in Africa
THE PEOPLE
22. South Africa is one of the most diverse societies in the world with 12 difference culture groups and 4 main ethnic groups.
23. South Africa has the most official languages in the world (11)
24. South Africa is the 8th most optimistic country in the world and the 4th proudest nation pipping Australia in 5th place
25. Afrikaans is the youngest official language in the world and the only European-originated language on African soil
26. Worldaudit.org ranks South Africa as the 32nd most democratic country out of 150 nations
27. Opera Winfrey said that South Africa’s people have more spirit and hope than any people she had met
28. The Sterkfontein Caves host the cradle of mankind
SOUTH AFRICAN CITIES
29. The Lost City Resort in Sun City is the largest thermal resort in the world as well as the largest building project undertaken in the southern hemisphere
30. Johannesburg is the richest city in Africa and only African city with ‘global city’ status. The purchase power parity of the average Johannesburg citzen is more than than the average citizen in Paris, Athens, Singapore and Hongkong and 65% of the average New Yorker.
31. Johannesburg features the highest building in Africa as well as the busiest airport in Africa and the largest shopping complex in the Southern Hemisphere
32. Pretoria has the 2nd highest number of embassies in the world after Washington D.C. and Church Street in Pretoria is one of the longest urban streets in the world
33. Durban has the 9th busiest port in the world and the busiest in Africa
34. Cape Town, is according to the readers of the world’s leading travel magazine, Travel & Leisure, the 6th best tourist city in the world. Better than New York, San Francisco, London and Hong Kong.
EDUCATION
35. Four of South Africa’s 22 universities feature in the top 500 in the world. There are +-9300 universities in the world
36. The University of South Africa is the largest long-distance university in the world
37. The University of Cape Town has one of the top 100 business schools in the world
38. Stellenbosch University has the largest underground library in the Southern Hemisphere and was the first University in the world to design and launch a microsatellite
COMPANIES
39. SABMiller is the world's largest bottler and distributor of Coca-Cola products outside the USA. It’s also the 2nd largest brewing company in the world and supplies up to 50% of China’s beer.
40. The Mercedes-Benz C-class, the BMW 3-series and VW Golf and Jetta vehicles, for all right-hand drive markets, are produced in SA.
41. Four of South Africa's banks rank among the world's top 500.
42. South Africa’s banking sector is consistently one of the top ten most competitive in the world
43. The Rand Refiniery is the largest refinery of gold in the world
44. SASOL has established the only commercially proven oil from coal operations in the world
45. The world’s biggest producer of non-fuel minerals is South African company Anglo American Corporation
46. Eskom, the national electricity unit, is the world’s 4th largest in terms of both sales volumes and normal capacity
47. The De Beers Group of companies control more than 80% of the world supply of rough diamonds
48. Samancor Limited is the world’s largest producer by sales of manganese and chrome products
49. KSDP Pentagraph is rates as the world’s 2nd best design company by British design magazine, ‘Creative Review’. The company was responsible for the a new-look packaging of “Fanta” and design modifications of Coca-Cola soft drinks worldwide
INVENTIONS
50. Professor Chris Barnard, performed the first heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town on December 3rd 1967.
51. The Kreepy Krawly, the world’s first automatic pool cleaning unit, wat invented by two engineers of Randburg
52. The CT Scanner was invented by Allan Macleod Cormack of Cape Town, for which he won a Nobel Physics Prize in 1979
53. South Africans developed the technology of using micro-organisms like bacteria to extract gold from ore. The process is used worldwide for a wide variety of other metals too.
54. Mark Shuttleworth, first African to undertake a space journey and developed world-class open-source software e.g. Ubuntu
MILITARY
55. The Ango Boer War (1899-1902) was the the introduction of trench-warfare, sadly – the first large-scale use of concentration campe for non-combatants, and the most prolonged period of guerilla warfare by a “conquered” nation’s military against “victorious” army
56. The world’s first news footage and propaganda films were shot during the Anglo-Boer War.
57. Technologically, it saw the first use of a generation of weapons that are still with us today – automatic handguns, magazine-fed rifles, and machine guns
58. The Anglo-Boer war is officaillt Britain’s most costly war outside the two World Wars.
59. The Zulus gave the English the biggest defeat in a battle in their colonial history
60. South Africa has the 2nd oldest airforce and is the currently the only country in the world which has voluntary dismantled its nuclear arsenal
ECONOMY & INFRASTRUCTURE
61. South Africa, with 4.8% of Africa’s population accounts for almost 45% of the GDP of the entire African continent, with an economy three times the size of the second biggest, Egypt
62. The Johannesburg stock exchange is one of the 15 biggest stock exchanges in the world and was the 7th best performer in 2005
63. In 2003 South Africa boasted more than 50% of the cars, phones, automatic bank tellers and industrial facilities on the continent
64. South Africa is the best-ranked country in the world in terms of price stability, has the 11th best fiscal policy in the world, is 21st for international trade competitiveness and is the 28th most attractive destination for foreign investment, according to the World Competitiveness Yearbook 2005
65. South African business owners of mid-size companies are the second most optimistic worldwide about their economic prospects of the year ahead, according to the annual Grant Thorton International Business Owners Survey for 2005.
66. Over the past 5 years, Consumer Confidence in SA has improved by 43%.
67. South Africa is the world’s biggest producer of gold, platinum, chromium, vanadium, manganese and alumino-silicates.
68. The world’s largest platinum mines are located near Rusternburg
69. South African mines are deeper than any other country in the world, up to depths of 2.5 miles
70. The first bio-ethanol franchise was opened in SA
71. The rand, the world’s most actively traded emerging market currency, has joined and elite club of only 15 currencies where forex transactions are settled immediately, lowering the risks of transaction costs over time-zones
72. South Africa has the biggest hospital in the world
73. South Africa is only one of 12 countries where tap water is safe to drink
74. The largest hydro-electric tunnel system in the world is found in South Africa
75. South Africa is the biggest producer and exporter of mohair
76. At the 2005 World Travel Awards The Shamwari Game Reserve came out tops in the awards for the eighth consecutive year, winning two global awards: the world's leading conservation company and the world's leading safari and game reserve. The reserve was also voted Africa's leading safari.
77. The world's leading responsible tourism project went to Bushman Sands in the Eastern Cape, while South Africa's Rovos Rail company was voted the world's leading luxury train and Africa's leading safari train.
78. South Africa has the 3rd largest telescope in the world in Sutherland
79. South Africa has the 4th largest coal reserves in the world
80. SA property rose with 35% in 2005 - the highest in the world
81. SA property is amongst the world’s best with the only country outside Europe and USA which impressed Forbes with its amount of mansions above US$5 million
82. South African media ranks 31st out of 167 countries in the WorldWide Press Freedom Index 2005, higher than any country in Asia, the Middle Ease or South America, and ahead of Japan, Spain, Italy and the United States.
83. South Africa is ranked 28th in the world for ease of doing business according to a survey conducted by the World Bank and International Finance Corporation
84. South Africa has 42 000 high net-wealth individuals (holding at least US$1 million in financial assets) in 2006, according to the World Wealth report
85. South Africa was one of the first two countries in the world to launch HSDPA mobile internet
86. South Africa's economy is one of the 25 biggest in the world
87. South Africa's per capita GDP, corrected for purchasing power parity, positions the country as one of the 50 wealthiest in the world
88. Of the 10 LSM levels ( LSM1=poorest; LSM10 wealthiest ), the average SA family located in LSM6
SPORT
89. The Cape Argus Cycle Tour is the largest timed cycle race in the world
90. South Africa offers some of the world’s toughest endurance races, including the 82-year old Comrades Marathon (regarded as "The Ultimate Human Race") and the Two Oceans, which wends its way amidst the mountains around Cape Town.
91. South Africa won the African Cup Nations in 1996
92. The Springboks, South Africa's national rugby team, won the Rugby World Cup in 2005, beating New Zealand 15-12 in the final
93. South Africa lost the 2006 Soccer World Cup bid to Germany 12-11. South Africa will however host the 2010 World Cup.
94. The 2003 Cricket World Cup was succesfully hosted by South Africa
94. South Africa has the 3rd best rugby team in the world
95. Two of South Africa’s golf players are under the top 10 of the world
96. South Africa's swimmers are amongst the world's best. Roland Schoeman and Ryk Netthling is two of the leading swimmers in the world and have several gold medals of major competitions behind their name.
97. A look at the latest International Cricket Council test bowling ratings shows South Africa's Makhaya Ntini in second place, behind only Sri Lanka's prolific Muttiah Muralitharan.
98. Team Shosholoza, South Africa's entry for the America's Cup, is up to the level of the best yachts in the world. That's the word from the team's managing director, Salvatore Sarno, after they finished eighth in the 12th Louis Vuitton regatta in Valencia and seventh overall in the 2006 America's Cup Season Championship.
99. South Africa won the 5th most medals at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Australia
100. Schalk Burger, South African rugby player won the International Rugby Player of the Year Award in 2005
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