1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
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
3.
Gauteng
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Gauteng, which means place of gold, is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. It was formed part of the old Transvaal Province after South Africas first all-race elections on 27 April 1994. It was initially named Pretoria–Witwatersrand–Vereeniging and was renamed Gauteng in December 1994, situated in the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province in South Africa, accounting for only 1. 5% of the land area. Nevertheless, it is highly urbanised, containing the countrys largest city, Johannesburg, its capital, Pretoria. As of 2015, it has a population of nearly 13.2 million, the name Gauteng is derived from the Sotho name, gauta meaning gold with the locative suffix -eng. There was a thriving industry in the province following the 1886 discovery of gold in Johannesburg. In Sesotho, the name Gauteng was used for Johannesburg and surrounding areas long before it was adopted in 1994 as the name of a province. Gauteng, formerly known as Pretoria–Witwatersrand–Vereeniging, was carved out of the old Transvaal province in 1994, although the terminology PWV, after the discovery of gold in 1886, the region proceeded to become the single largest gold producer in the world and the city of Johannesburg was founded. The older city Pretoria was not subject to the same attention, Pretoria grew at a slower rate and was highly regarded due to its role in the Second Boer War. The Cullinan Diamond which is the largest diamond ever mined was mined near Pretoria in a town called Cullinan in the year 1905. Gauteng has only been documented since the 1800s and as a result. At the Sterkfontein caves, some of the oldest fossils of hominids have been discovered, such as Mrs. Ples, today, the Apartheid Museum stands testament to these struggles in Johannesburg. Gauteng is governed by the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, a 73-person unicameral legislature elected by party-list proportional representation. The most recent election of the legislature was held on 7 May 2014, and the African National Congress won 53. 59% of the vote. The official opposition is the Democratic Alliance, which won 30. 78% of the vote and 23 seats, other parties represented are the Economic Freedom Fighters with eight seats and the Freedom Front Plus and the Inkatha Freedom Party with one seat each. Premier David Makhura of the ANC was elected on 21 May 2014, the Gauteng Division of the High Court of South Africa, which has seats in Pretoria and Johannesburg, is a superior court with general jurisdiction over the province. Johannesburg is also home to the Constitutional Court, South Africas highest court, Gautengs southern border is the Vaal River, which separates it from the Free State. It also borders on North West to the west, Limpopo to the north, Gauteng is the only landlocked province of South Africa without a foreign border
4.
City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality
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The City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality is a metropolitan municipality that manages the local governance of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is divided into branches and departments in order to expedite services for the city. Johannesburg is a city, the poor mostly live in the southern suburbs or on the peripheries of the far north. As of 2012, unemployment is near 25% and most young people are out of work, around 20% of the city lives in abject poverty in informal settlements that lack proper roads, electricity, or any other kind of direct municipal service. Another 40% live in housing with insufficient municipal housing. During the apartheid era, Johannesburg was divided into 11 local authorities, seven of which were white, the first post-apartheid City Council was created in 1995. The council adopted the slogan One City, One Taxpayer in order to highlight its primary goal of addressing inequal tax revenue distribution, to this end, revenue from wealthy, traditionally white areas would help pay for services needed in poorer, black areas. The City Council was divided into four regions, each with an autonomous local regional authority that was to be overseen by a central metropolitan council. The four councils or Metropolitan Local Councils were the Northern MLCl, Southern MLC, Eastern MLC and Western MLC, in 1999, Johannesburg appointed a city manager in order to reshape the citys ailing financial situation. The manager, together with the Municipal Council, drew up a blueprint called Igoli 2002 and this was a three-year plan that called upon the government to sell non-core assets, restructure certain utilities, and required that all others become self-sufficient. The plan took the city from near insolvency to a surplus of Rand 153 million. The plan was contested by trade unions, who argued that it would result in job losses. The core of Igoli 2002 was to restructure Metro Gas, Rand Airport, the city bus service, the Johannesburg Zoo, the Civic Theatre, the Fresh Produce Market, and the citys property holdings were turned into corporations with the city as the single shareholder. Each was run as a business, with management hired on performance contracts, in 2010/11 the municipality faced a qualified audit from the Auditor-General following a large number of billing issues, as the result of the flawed implementation of a SAP system. The citys call centre also experienced a crisis at the same time, the municipality covers an area of 1,645 square kilometres, stretching from Orange Farm in the south to Midrand in the north. The 2011 census divided the municipality into the main places. In the election of 3 August 2016 the African National Congress won the largest share of the seats on the council with 121 but did not achieve a majority. On 22 August 2016, minority parties voted with the DA to elect its candidate, Herman Mashaba
5.
Coloureds
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Coloureds are a multiracial ethnic group originating in colonial South Africa, who possess ancestry from European, African and Asian ethnic groups. Different families and individuals have a variety of different physical features, there were extensive relationships and unions among these diverse peoples in the Western Cape — in which a distinctive Cape Coloured and affiliated Cape Malay culture developed. In other parts of Southern Africa, people classified as Coloured were usually the descendants of individuals from two distinct ethnicities, genetic studies suggest the group has the highest levels of mixed ancestry in the world. Mitochondrial DNA studies have demonstrated that the lines of the Coloured population are descended mostly from Khoisan women. The Coloured community is descended from numerous interracial sexual unions between Western European men and Khoisan women in the Cape Colony from the 17th century onwards. In KwaZulu-Natal, Coloureds possess a diverse heritage including British, Irish, German, Mauritian, Saint Helenians, Indians, Xhosa, zimbabwean Coloureds are descended from Shona or Ndebele mixing with British and Afrikaner settlers. Griqua, on the hand, are descendants of Khoisan. Despite these major differences, their ancestry from more than one naturalised racial group means that they are coloured in the South African context, such people did not necessarily self-identify this way, some preferred to call themselves black or Khoisan or just South African. The Griqua were subjected to an ambiguity of other people within Southern African social order. With territories beyond the VOC’s administration, Kok provided refuge to deserting soldiers, runaway slaves, the imperial and apartheid governments categorized them as Coloureds. In addition, other groups also traditionally viewed them as a separate group. Coloured people are made up of Indonesian, mixed-race, and people from Khoisan ancestry, the Apartheid government thus treated them as one people, despite their differences. Cape Muslims are also classified as coloured and they generally have Indonesian and black ancestry, as many Indonesian slaves had children with African partners. Many Griqua began to self-identify as Coloureds during the apartheid era, for example, Coloureds did not have to carry a dompas, while the Griqua, who were seen as an indigenous African group, did. Coloured people constitute a plurality of the population in the Western Cape, most speak Afrikaans, while about twenty percent of Coloureds speak English as their mother tongue, mostly in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. Virtually all Cape Town Coloureds are bilingual, some can comfortably codeswitch between Kaapse taal and suiwer Afrikaans, and South African English. At least one study indicates that Cape Coloureds have ancestries from the following ethnic groups. This genetic admixture appears to be gender-biased, a majority of maternal genetic material is Khoisan
6.
Indian South African
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Indian South Africans are South Africans of Indian descent. The majority live in and around the city of Durban, making it the largest Indian city outside India, many Indians in South Africa are descendents of migrants from colonial India during late 19th-century through early 20th-century. At times Indians were subsumed in the broader geographical category Asians, there remains a cultural, religious and racial overlap for Asians and Indian South Africans. During the most intense period of segregation and apartheid, Indian, Asian, Coloured, during ideological apartheid from 1948 to 1994, Indians were called, and often voluntarily accepted, terms that ranged from Asians to Indians. Some citizens believed that terms were improvements on the negatively defined identity of Non-White. Politically conscious and nationalistic Indian South Africans wanted to both their heritage and their local roots. Increasingly they self-identified as African, South African and, when necessary, nonetheless, the spread of democratic elections has sometimes heightened ethnic loyalties. Politicians and groups have looked for means to power in the competitive parliamentary democracy which South Africa has become since 1994. A significant proportion of slaves imported into the Cape were from parts of India including Bangladesh, many slaves had no identity as Indians and were conveniently classified by the Dutch in the Cape as part of Cape Coloured and Cape Malay communities. There is no reference to the names of these Indians and were given Christian names for convenience. This all contributed to the loss of identity similar to the Mozambicans, an early Indian to settle in South Africa was Kalaga Prabhu, a Goud Saraswat Brahmin merchant from Cochin. He was the foremost among the Konkani merchants in Cochin, no further record of this individual and his descendants if any exists. The modern South African Indian community is descended from Indians who arrived in South Africa from 1860 onwards. The first 342 of these came on board the Truro from Madras, the indentured labourers tended to speak Tamil, Telugu and Hindi, and the majority were Hindu with Christians and a few Muslims among them. The Mercury newspaper favoured the importation of labour, although other Natal newspapers were against the idea. It should be noted that although 1860 is dated as the beginning of Indian settlement in Natal, indentured labourers on sugar plantations were frequently mistreated, and lived in unsanitary conditions. Indians also became fishermen, and worked as clerks, in the postal service and these immigrant Indians who became traders were from varying religious backgrounds, namely Hindu and Muslims but largely from Gujarat, later joined by Kokanis, and Urdu speakers from Uttar Pradesh. These Muslims played an important part in the establishment of Islam in the areas where they settled, there was also a significant number of Gujarati Hindus in this group
7.
Asian South Africans
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They are largely English speaking, although many also retain the languages of their ancestors. There is also a significant group of Chinese South Africans, of whom the majority are recent immigrants of the last two decades. In total the 1.2 million Asians in South Africa represent about two percent of the nations population, traditionally, the group does not include the Cape Malays, who were descended from South East Asians, who were classified as Coloured under apartheid. The term Indian is far more commonly used than Asian in South Africa and they were hired to work in sugar plantations or mines in the Colony of Natal. Traders, known as Passenger Indians also subsequently immigrated, Indian South Africans form the largest grouping of people of Indian descent born outside India. Since 1994 however, there has been a trickle of immigrants from the Indian subcontinent. Most Indian South Africans live in KwaZulu-Natal, particularly in the cities of Durban, Pietermaritzburg, the smaller Chinese community was initially descended from migrant workers who came to work in the gold mines around Johannesburg in the late nineteenth century. Some of those workers were repatriated, estimates vary, but the Chinese population is reckoned to have increased from 10,000 in the early 1980s to more than 100,000 in the early 2000s. Chinese immigration caused difficulties for the apartheid regime, in late 2006, the Chinese Association of South Africa filed suit to have Chinese South Africans recognised as having been disadvantaged under apartheid, to benefit from Black Economic Empowerment. Complicating this attempt was the presence of recent immigrant Chinese who had not been disadvantaged by apartheid and they much outnumber native Chinese South Africans. Because Chinese under apartheid had somewhat less rigid restrictions than indigenous blacks, in addition, the status of Taiwanese, Japanese and South Koreans as honorary whites under apartheid complicated the case. Nonetheless, in June 2008, Chinese South Africans were fully recognised as having been disadvantaged and entered the BEE ethnic groups if they arrived before 1994. For separate political reasons, the government had classified Taiwanese, Japanese and South Koreans, as honorary white, a number of people from Pakistan have also immigrated to South Africa following the end of apartheid. They often, but not always, live in the areas as the Indian South Africans. The Cape Malays are Indonesian and Malaysian South Africans who were the largest group of immigrants adapted to the society of South Africa, during the apartheid regime, they were both classified as part of the Coloured racial group and thus considered non-white and treated as such
8.
White South African
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White South Africans are people from South Africa who are of European descent and who do not regard themselves, or are not regarded as, being part of another racial group. In 2011, 61% were native Afrikaans speakers, 36% were native English speakers, White South Africans are by far the largest European-descended population group in Africa. The history of European settlement in South Africa started in 1652 with the settlement of the Cape of Good Hope by the Dutch East India Company under Jan van Riebeeck. The colony remained under Dutch rule for two centuries, after which it was annexed by Great Britain around 1806. At that time, South Africa was home to about 26,000 people of European descent, however, beginning in 1818 thousands of British immigrants arrived in the fledgling Cape Colony, looking to join the local workforce or settle directly on the frontier. About a fifth of the Capes original Dutch-speaking white population migrated eastwards during the Great Trek in the 1830s, nevertheless, the population of European origin continued increasing at the Cape as a result of immigration, and by 1865 had reached 181,500 people. Between 1880 and 1910, there was an influx of Eastern Europeans of various nationalities, the first nationwide census in South Africa was held in 1911 and indicated a white population of 1,276,242. By 1936 there were an estimated 2,003,857 white South Africans, South Africas white population increased to over 3,408,000 by 1965, reached 4,050,000 in 1973, and peaked at 5,044,000 in 1990. The number of white South Africans resident in their home country began gradually declining between 1990 and the mid-2000s as a result of increased emigration, whites continue to play a role in the South African economy and across the political spectrum. Whites number approximately 4.5 to 5 million, or nearly 9% of South Africas population and this represents a decline, both numerically and proportionately, since the countrys first multiracial elections in 1994. Just under a million white South Africans are also living as expatriate workers abroad, under the 1950 Population Registration Act, each inhabitant of South Africa was classified into one of several different race groups, of which White was one. Many criteria, both physical and social were used when the decided to classify someone as white or coloured. This was ventral extended to all those considered the children of two White persons, regardless of appearance, the Act was repealed on 17 June 1991. The 1994 Employment Equity legislation favours employment of black South Africans over the white population, however, private enterprise adheres to this legislation voluntarily. This combined with a wave of violent crime has led to vast numbers of Afrikaners, there are 40,000 white farmers in South Africa. Since 1994 close to three thousand farmers have murdered in thousands of farm attacks, with many being brutally tortured and/or raped. Some victims have been burned with smoothing irons or had boiling water poured down their throats, since 1994 there has been significant emigration of white people from South Africa. There are thus currently large Afrikaner and English-speaking South African communities in the UK, between 1995 and 2005, more than one million South Africans have emigrated, citing violent and racially motivated black on white crime as the main reason
