1.
South Africa
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South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is the southernmost country in Africa. South Africa is the 25th-largest country in the world by land area and it is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World or the Eastern Hemisphere. About 80 percent of South Africans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different Bantu languages, the remaining population consists of Africas largest communities of European, Asian, and multiracial ancestry. South Africa is a multiethnic society encompassing a variety of cultures, languages. Its pluralistic makeup is reflected in the recognition of 11 official languages. The country is one of the few in Africa never to have had a coup détat, however, the vast majority of black South Africans were not enfranchised until 1994. During the 20th century, the black majority sought to recover its rights from the dominant white minority, with this struggle playing a role in the countrys recent history. The National Party imposed apartheid in 1948, institutionalising previous racial segregation, since 1994, all ethnic and linguistic groups have held political representation in the countrys democracy, which comprises a parliamentary republic and nine provinces. South Africa is often referred to as the Rainbow Nation to describe the multicultural diversity. The World Bank classifies South Africa as an economy. Its economy is the second-largest in Africa, and the 34th-largest in the world, in terms of purchasing power parity, South Africa has the seventh-highest per capita income in Africa. However, poverty and inequality remain widespread, with about a quarter of the population unemployed, nevertheless, South Africa has been identified as a middle power in international affairs, and maintains significant regional influence. The name South Africa is derived from the geographic location at the southern tip of Africa. Upon formation the country was named the Union of South Africa in English, since 1961 the long form name in English has been the Republic of South Africa. In Dutch the country was named Republiek van Zuid-Afrika, replaced in 1983 by the Afrikaans Republiek van Suid-Afrika, since 1994 the Republic has had an official name in each of its 11 official languages. Mzansi, derived from the Xhosa noun umzantsi meaning south, is a name for South Africa. South Africa contains some of the oldest archaeological and human fossil sites in the world, extensive fossil remains have been recovered from a series of caves in Gauteng Province. The area is a UNESCO World Heritage site and has termed the Cradle of Humankind
2.
Monarchy of South Africa
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The monarchs constitutional roles were mostly delegated to the Governor-General of the Union of South Africa. South Africa became a republic and left the Commonwealth on 31 May 1961, on 31 May 1994, South Africa rejoined the Commonwealth as a republic, after the end of apartheid. The monarchy was created by the South Africa Act 1909 which united four British colonies in southern Africa, Cape of Good Hope, Natal, Orange River Colony and Transvaal. The Act also made provisions for admitting Southern Rhodesia as a province of the Union in the future. South-West Africa became a League of Nations mandate of the Union in 1915, following a referendum on the subject, South Africa adopted a new constitution in 1961 which abolished the monarchy. King George VI, his wife Queen Elizabeth, and their daughters Elizabeth and Margaret, Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, visited South Africa in her capacity as Head of the Commonwealth, in 1995 and 1999. State President of South Africa President of South Africa
3.
George V
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George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. He was the son of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales. From the time of his birth, he was third in the line of succession behind his father and his own brother, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence. From 1877 to 1891, George served in the Royal Navy, on the death of his grandmother in 1901, Georges father became King-Emperor of the British Empire, and George was created Prince of Wales. He succeeded his father in 1910 and he was the only Emperor of India to be present at his own Delhi Durbar. His reign saw the rise of socialism, communism, fascism, Irish republicanism, the Parliament Act 1911 established the supremacy of the elected British House of Commons over the unelected House of Lords. In 1917, George became the first monarch of the House of Windsor, in 1924 he appointed the first Labour ministry and in 1931 the Statute of Westminster recognised the dominions of the Empire as separate, independent states within the Commonwealth of Nations. He had health problems throughout much of his reign and at his death was succeeded by his eldest son. George was born on 3 June 1865, in Marlborough House and he was the second son of the Prince and Princess of Wales, Albert Edward and Alexandra. His father was the eldest son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and he was baptised at Windsor Castle on 7 July 1865 by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Charles Longley. As a younger son of the Prince of Wales, there was expectation that George would become king. He was third in line to the throne, after his father and elder brother, George was only 17 months younger than Albert Victor, and the two princes were educated together. John Neale Dalton was appointed as their tutor in 1871, neither Albert Victor nor George excelled intellectually. For three years from 1879, the brothers served on HMS Bacchante, accompanied by Dalton. They toured the colonies of the British Empire in the Caribbean, South Africa and Australia, and visited Norfolk, Virginia, as well as South America, the Mediterranean, Egypt, Dalton wrote an account of their journey entitled The Cruise of HMS Bacchante. Between Melbourne and Sydney, Dalton recorded a sighting of the Flying Dutchman, after Lausanne, the brothers were separated, Albert Victor attended Trinity College, Cambridge, while George continued in the Royal Navy. He travelled the world, visiting many areas of the British Empire, during his naval career he commanded Torpedo Boat 79 in home waters then HMS Thrush on the North America station, before his last active service in command of HMS Melampus in 1891–92. From then on, his rank was largely honorary
4.
Governor-General of the Union of South Africa
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The Governor-general of the Union of South Africa was the representative of the British and later South African Crown in the Union of South Africa between 31 May 1910 and 31 May 1961. The Union of South Africa was a Commonwealth realm in which Queen Elizabeth II was given the title Queen of South Africa, as in other Dominions, this would change, and from 1943 onward only South Africans held the office. The office was established by the South Africa Act 1909, although the Governor General was nominally the countrys chief executive, in practice he was bound by convention to act on the advice of the prime minister and the cabinet. In the interim, the National Party used the Governor-Generals post as a sinecure for retired National Party ministers. In 1957, God Save the Queen ceased to have status with Die Stem van Suid-Afrika as a national anthem. However, it was not until 1960 that prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd advised governor-general Swart to hold a referendum on the issue, the result was 52 per cent in favour of the change. Swart, the last governor-general, asked the Queen to relieve him of his duties on 30 April 1961, state President of South Africa President of South Africa Prime Minister of South Africa
5.
Prime Minister of South Africa
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The Prime Minister of South Africa was the head of government in South Africa between 1910 and 1984. The position of Prime Minister was established in 1910, when the Union of South Africa was formed and he was appointed by the head of state—the Governor-General until 1961 and the State President after South Africa became a republic in 1961. In practice, he was the leader of the majority party or coalition in the House of Assembly, the first Prime Minister was Louis Botha, a former Boer general and war hero during the Second Boer War. He was the leading political figure and de facto chief executive. The last Prime Minister, Pieter Willem Botha, became the first executive State President after the constitutional reform, parties South African Party United Party National Party State President of South Africa President of South Africa Governor-General of the Union of South Africa
6.
Louis Botha
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Louis Botha was a South African politician who was the first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa—the forerunner of the modern South African state. A Boer war hero during the Second Boer War, he would fight to have South Africa become a British Dominion. He was born in Greytown, Natal as one of 13 children born to Louis Botha Senior and he briefly attended the school at Hermannsburg before his family relocated to the Orange Free State. The name Louis runs throughout the family, with every generation since General Louis Botha having the eldest son named Louis, Botha led Dinuzulus Volunteers, a group of Boers that had supported Dinuzulu against Zibhebhu in 1884. He later became a member of the parliament of Transvaal in 1897, in 1899, Botha fought in the Second Boer War, initially under Lucas Meyer in Northern Natal, and later as a general commanding and fighting impressively at Colenso and Spion Kop. On the death of P. J. Joubert, he was made commander-in-chief of the Transvaal Boers, after the battle at the Tugela, Botha granted a twenty-four-hour armistice to General Buller to enable him to bury his dead. Winston Churchill revealed that General Botha was the man who captured him at the ambush of a British armoured train on 15 November 1899, coetzer 1996, p.30 also claims that Botha captured Churchill at train ambush 15 November 1899. Churchill was not aware of the mans identity until 1902, when Botha travelled to London seeking loans to assist his countrys reconstruction, the incident is also mentioned in Arthur Conan Doyles book, The Great Boer War, published in 1902. But more recent sources claim that Field-Cornet Sarel Oosthuizen was in fact the Boer-soldier who, at gunpoint, another version claims that the unit to capture Churchill was the Italian Volunteer Legion and its commander, Camillo Ricchiardi. After the fall of Pretoria in June 1900, Botha led a guerrilla campaign against the British together with Koos de la Rey. The success of his measures was seen in the resistance offered by the Boers to the very close of the three-year war. Botha was a representative of his countrymen in the negotiations of 1902. He later worked towards peace with the British, representing the Boers at the negotiations in 1902. In the period of reconstruction under British rule, Botha went to Europe with de Wet and his war record made him prominent in the politics of Transvaal and he was a major player in the postwar reconstruction of that country, becoming Prime Minister of Transvaal on 4 March 1907. In 1911, together with another Boer war hero, Jan Smuts, he formed the South African Party, widely viewed as too conciliatory with Britain, Botha faced revolts from within his own party and opposition from James Barry Munnik Hertzogs National Party. When South Africa obtained dominion status in 1910, Botha became the first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, after the First World War started, he sent troops to take German South-West Africa, a move unpopular among Boers, which provoked the Boer Revolt. At the end of the War he briefly led a British Empire military mission to Poland during the Polish-Soviet War and he argued that the terms of the Versailles Treaty were too harsh on the Central Powers, but signed the treaty. Botha was unwell for most of 1919 and he was plagued by fatigue and ill-health that arose from his robust waist-line. ”General Louis Botha died of heart failure following an attack of Spanish influenza on 27 August 1919 in the early hours of the morning
7.
James Rose Innes
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Sir James Rose Innes, KCMG PC was the Chief Justice of South Africa from 1914 to 1927 and, in the view of many, its greatest ever judge. Before becoming a judge he was a member of the Cape Parliament, the Cape Colonys Attorney-General, Innes was born in Grahamstown in 1855. I have neither Voortrekker nor Huguenot blood in my veins, but I am proud to be a South African, and I claim to stand on the same national footing as if my forebears had landed with Van Riebeeck or followed Piet Retief over the Drakensberg. Innes did not stay long in Grahamstown, in the year after his birth, and his fathers job caused the family to relocate three more times over the next few years, first to Uitenhage, then to Bedford, and from there to Somerset East. Innes consequently attended a variety of schools, all influenced by his grandfathers Presbyterian. W. Leonard, who likewise became Attorney-General, W. P. Schreiner, the future Prime Minister, in Somerset East Innes attended Gill College. His fondest childhood memories were of his days on the veld and of holiday trips by ox-wagon to East London and to Lynedoch, when Innes left school he began working to support himself and his tertiary studies. He worked briefly in a bank and, later, the Native Affairs Department in Cape Town in the government of the Capes first Prime Minister, John Molteno. Innes passed his BA examinations in 1874, the year after the University of the Cape of Good Hope was founded, in 1878, Innes was admitted to the Cape bar and began legal practice. His practice and reputation grew steadily and he fondly recalled his time riding circuit, which allowed him to return by ox-wagon to the countryside of his childhood. In 1884, Innes stood for election for Victoria East, a district around Alice. He won a seat in the Cape House of Assembly, partly thanks to support from the regions Xhosa voters, mobilised by his political ally, Innes stood for election on an uncompromisingly liberal Native policy, he policy of repression has been tried, and it has failed. Innes spent his years in Parliament resisting the forced removals of Xhosas across the Kei River. Together with John X. Merriman and J. W. Sauer he formed part of a trio of powerful liberal MPs who were prominent actors for the rest of the Cape Parliaments history, usually in opposition. Innes served as Attorney-General in Cecil Rhodess government from 1890, Rhodess right-hand man James Sivewright had given a lucrative government railway contract to his friend and business associate James Logan without going to tender. Innes refused to work with Sivewright, with the effect that Rhodes had to dissolve his government, the nadir was Rhodess involvement in the Jameson Raid, an event which, Innes said, no one. Concerned for the interests of South Africa can recall without regret. The Raid inflamed racial tension between the English and Afrikaners, and President Krugers suspicions, and thus led to the Second Boer War, Rhodess attitude after the Raid had not helped
8.
German South West Africa
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German South West Africa was a colony of the German Empire from 1884 until 1915. With an area of 835,100 km², it was one, the colony had a population of around 2,600 Germans. In 1915, during the First World War, German South West Africa was invaded by the Western Allies in the form of South African and British forces. After the war its administration was taken over by the Union of South Africa and it became independent as Namibia in 1990. However, for centuries, European settlement would remain limited. In February 1805 the London Missionary Society established a mission in Blydeverwacht. In 1840 the London Missionary Society transferred all of its activities to the German Rhenish Missionary Society, some of the first representatives of this organisation were Franz Heinrich Kleinschmidt and Carl Hugo Hahn. They began founding churches throughout the territory, the Rhenish missionaries had a significant impact initially on culture and dress, and then later on politics. During the same time that the Rhenish missionaries were active, merchants, on 16 November 1882 a German merchant from Bremen, Adolf Lüderitz, requested protection for a station that he planned to build in South West Africa, from Chancellor Bismarck. Once this was granted, his employee Heinrich Vogelsang purchased land from a native chief, on 24 April 1884, he placed the area under the protection of Imperial Germany to deter British encroachment. In early 1884, the gunboat SMS Nautilus visited to review the situation, a favourable report from the government, and acquiescence from the British, resulted in a visit from the SMS Leipzig and SMS Elisabeth. The German flag was raised in South West Africa on 7 August 1884. The German claims on land were confirmed during the Conference of Berlin. In October, the newly appointed Commissioner for West Africa, Gustav Nachtigal, in April 1885, the Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft für Südwest-Afrika was founded with the support of German bankers, industrialists and politicians. DKGSWA was granted rights to exploit mineral deposits. The new Society soon bought the assets of Lüderitzs failing enterprises, later, in 1908, diamonds were discovered. Thus along with gold, copper, platinum, and other minerals, earlier, the colonial aim was to dispossess the indigenous peoples of their land, for use of German settlers, as well as be a source of raw materials and a market of German industrial products. Lüderitz drowned in 1886 while on an expedition to the Orange River, the company bought all of Lüderitz land and mining rights, following Bismarcks policy that private rather than public money should be used to develop the colonies
9.
Tsumeb
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Tsumeb is a city of 15,000 inhabitants and the largest town in Oshikoto region in northern Namibia. Tsumeb is the gateway to the north of Namibia and it is the closest town to the Etosha National Park. Tsumeb used to be the capital of Oshikoto until 2008 when Omuthiya was proclaimed a town. The area around Tsumeb forms its own constituency and has a population of 44,113. The town is the site of a mine, that in its heyday was known simply as The Tsumeb Mine but has since been renamed the Ongopolo Mine. The name Tsumeb is generally pronounced SOO-meb, the name is not a derivative of German, Afrikaans, or English. It has been suggested that it comes from Nama and means either Place of the moss or Place of the frog, perhaps this old name had something to do with the huge natural hill of green, oxidized copper ore that existed there before it was mined out. The town was founded in 1905 by the German colonial power, Tsumeb is notable for the huge mineralized pipe that led to its foundation. The origin of the pipe has been hotly debated, the pipe penetrates more or less vertically through the Precambrian Otavi dolomite for at least 1300 m. One possibility is that the pipe was actually an ancient cave system. If the pipe is volcanic, as some have suggested, then the rock filling it is peculiar in the extreme, the pipe was mined in prehistoric times but those ancient workers barely scratched the surface. Most of the ore was removed in the 20th century by cut-and-fill methods, the ore was polymetallic and from it copper, lead, silver, gold, arsenic and germanium were won. There was also an amount of zinc present but the recovery of this metal was always difficult for technical reasons. The pipe was famous for its richness, many millions of tonnes of ore of spectacular grade were removed. A good percentage of the ore was so rich that it was sent straight to the smelter situated near the town without first having to be processed through the enrichment plant. The Tsumeb mine is renowned amongst mineral collectors. Between 1905 and 1996, the mine produced about 30 million tons of ore yielding 1.7 Mt copper,2.8 Mt lead 0.9 Mt zinc, as well as 80 t germanium. The average ore grade was 10% Pb,4. 3% Cu,3. 5% Zn,100 ppm Ag,50 ppm Ge and it is noted for 243 valid minerals and is the type location for 56 types of mineral
10.
Johannesburg
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Johannesburg is the largest city in South Africa and is one of the 50 largest urban areas in the world. It is the capital of Gauteng, which is the wealthiest province in South Africa. While Johannesburg is not one of South Africas three capital cities, it is the seat of the Constitutional Court, the city is located in the mineral-rich Witwatersrand range of hills and is the centre of large-scale gold and diamond trade. In 2011, the population of the city of Johannesburg was 4,434,827, in the same year, the population of Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Area was 7,860,781. Some view the surrounding the city of Johannesburg yet more broadly than the metropolitan area, adding Ekurhuleni, West Rand and Lenasia. The land area of the city is large in comparison with those of other major cities, resulting in a moderate population density of 2. The city was established in 1886 following the discovery of gold on what had been a farm, the city is commonly interpreted as the modern day El Dorado due to the extremely large gold deposit found along the Witwatersrand. The name is attributed to one or all of three men involved in the establishment of the city, in ten years, the population was 100,000 inhabitants. A separate city from the late 1970s until the 1990s, Soweto is now part of Johannesburg, Soweto, although eventually incorporated into Johannesburg, had been separated as a residential area for blacks, who were not permitted to live in Johannesburg proper. Lenasia is predominantly populated by English-speaking South Africans of Indian descent, controversy surrounds the origin of the name. There were quite a number of people with the name Johannes who were involved in the history of the city. Among them are the principal clerk attached to the office of the surveyor-general Johannes Rissik, Christiaan Johannes Joubert, another was Stephanus Johannes Paulus Paul Kruger, president of the South African Republic 1883-1900. Johannes Meyer, the first government official in the area is another possibility, precise records for the choice of name were lost. Rissik and Joubert were members of a delegation sent to England to attain mining rights for the area. Joubert had a park in the city named after him and Rissik Street is today a street where the historically important and dilapidated Post Office, since burnt out. The region surrounding Johannesburg was originally inhabited by San people, the Sotho–Tswana practised farming and extensively mined and smelted metals that were available in the area. The most prominent site within Johannesburg is Melville Koppies, which contains an iron smelting furnace, the main Witwatersrand gold reef was discovered in June 1884 on the farm Vogelstruisfontein by Jan Gerritse Bantjes that triggered the Witwatersrand Gold Rush and the start of Johannesburg in 1886. The discovery of gold rapidly attracted people to the area, making necessary a name, Johannes Meyer, the first government official in the area is another possibility
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