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TransportationAirports World Ranking: 11
567 (2012)
Airports - with paved runways
Total 145
Over 3,047 m 11 2,438 to 3,047 m 6 1,524 to 2,437 m 53 914 to 1,523 m 66 Under 914 m 9 (2012) Airports - with unpaved runways
Total 422
2,438 to 3,047 m 1 1,524 to 2,437 m 29 914 to 1,523 m 260 Under 914 m 132 (2012) Heliports
1 (2012)
Pipelines
Condensate 11 km; gas 908 km; oil 980 km; refined products 1,382 km (2010) Railways World Ranking: 14
Total 20,192 km
Narrow gauge 19,756 km 1.065-m gauge (8,271 km electrified); 122 km 0.750-m gauge; 314 km 0.610-m gauge (2008) Roadways World Ranking: 18
Total 362,099 km
Paved 73,506 km (includes 239 km of expressways) Unpaved 288,593 km (2002)Merchant marine World Ranking: 136
Total 3
By type Petroleum tanker 3 Registered in other countries 19 (Australia 1, Isle of Man 2, Mexico 1, NZ 1, Seychelles 1, Singapore 13) (2010) Ports and terminals
Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Richards Bay, Saldanha Bay
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South Africa (Pretoria):
 
GPS points from South Africa (Pretoria)
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Dutch traders landed at the southern tip of modern day South Africa in 1652 and established a stopover point on the spice route between the Netherlands and the Far East, founding the city of Cape Town. After the British seized the Cape of Good Hope area in 1806, many of the Dutch settlers (the Boers) trekked north to found their own republics. The discovery of diamonds (1867) and gold (1886) spurred wealth and immigration and intensified the subjugation of the native inhabitants. The Boers resisted British encroachments but were defeated in the Boer War (1899-1902); however, the British and the Afrikaners, as the Boers became known, ruled together beginning in 1910 under the Union of South Africa, which became a republic in 1961 after a whites-only referendum. In 1948, the National Party was voted into power and instituted a policy of apartheid - the separate development of the races - which favored the white minority at the expense of the black majority. The African National Congress (ANC) led the opposition to apartheid and many top ANC leaders, such as Nelson MANDELA, spent decades in South Africa's prisons. Internal protests and insurgency, as well as boycotts by some Western nations and institutions, led to the regime's eventual willingness to negotiate a peaceful transition to majority rule. The first multi-racial elections in 1994 brought an end to apartheid and ushered in majority rule under an ANC-led government. South Africa since then has struggled to address apartheid-era imbalances in decent housing, education, and health care. ANC infighting, which has grown in recent years, came to a head in September 2008 when President Thabo MBEKI resigned, and Kgalema MOTLANTHE, the party's General-Secretary, succeeded him as interim president. Jacob ZUMA became president after the ANC won general elections in April 2009. In January 2011, South Africa assumed a nonpermanent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2011-12 term.