INTERESTING FACTS WORLD

Incredible and fun facts to explore

South Africa facts

While investigating facts about South African Airways and South Africa News, I found out little known, but curios details like:

When Lawrence Anthony, known as "The Elephant Whisperer", passed away. A herd of elephants arrived at his house in South Africa to mourn him. Although the elephants were not alerted to the event, they travelled to his house and stood around for two days, and then dispersed.

how south africa is today?

Conservationists in South Africa have been injecting rhino horns with red dyes and toxins to prevent poaching. The mixture renders the horn completely useless to those trying to sell it commercially and is also toxic for human consumption.

What time is it at south africa?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what's south africa currency. Here are 50 of the best facts about South Africa Vs England and South Africa Map I managed to collect.

what is happening at south africa?

  1. In South Africa,2009, an employee of an IT company complained that data would get transferred faster by carrier pigeon than on ASDL. Winston the pigeon armed with 4gb memory stick took two hours to carry the data 60 miles - in the same time the ADSL had sent 4% of the data.

  2. Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' was banned in South Africa after schoolchildren started chanting itslyrics to protest an inferior educational system.

  3. In apartheid South Africa, a bus driver was fired for refusing to pick up a Japanese man (considered white at the time), but was reinstated after he stated he couldn't tell the difference between a Japanese person (white) and a Chinese person (not white).

  4. The language spoken in Wakanda is Xhosa, an official language of South Africa and Zimbabwe and that John Kani who played King T'Chaka is a native speaker

  5. A man was snorkeling off the coast of South Africa when an enormous Bryde's whale scooped him up in his mouth headfirst. The man felt pressure on his body but soon realized he was too big for the whale to swallow him whole which was "kind of an instant relief." The whale spat him out unharmed.

  6. Scientists found cancer in a 1.7 million year old foot bone and a 2 million year old spine from two ancient hominin specimens in South Africa. Before these finds, the oldest dated cancer in a human was only 120,000 years old.

  7. According to scientists the South China Tiger is "functionally extinct" as one has not been spotted in the wild for over 25 Years, however a banker known as Stuart Bray has 19 of them held in captivity at the Laohu Valley Reserve in South Africa.

  8. Many countries have their own version of “when pigs fly.” In South Africa it’s “When horses grow horns.” In Russia: “When the crawfish whistles on the mountain.” In Albania: “On August 36.” In Greece: “Right on the Day of St. Dick’s”

  9. When Elon Musk was 28 in the year 2000 he contracted one of the most lethal forms of Malaria while on vacation in South Africa and nearly died, losing 45 pounds and taking six months to recover. He cites this near-death experience as the moment that gave him a renewed focus and energy.

  10. In 2005 Benedict Cumberbatch was abducted and held at gunpoint by armed men in South Africa. After being let go he was eventually rescued by a stranger. He commented: "It taught me that you come into this world as you leave it, on your own. It's made me want to live a life less ordinary."

south africa facts
What south africa zip code?

South Africa data charts

For your convenience take a look at South Africa figures with stats and charts presented as graphic.

south africa fact data chart about Isochrone map of South Africa showing travel time to Johanne
Isochrone map of South Africa showing travel time to Johannesburg

south africa fact data chart about ACLED: Conflict areas across Africa, the Middle East and Sou
ACLED: Conflict areas across Africa, the Middle East and South Asia during 2017-2018

Why south africa was colonized?

You can easily fact check why south africa is rsa by examining the linked well-known sources.

Trevor Richards, a 16-year-old South African immigrant, got suspended from his Omaha, Nebraska school when he nominated himself for a "Distinguished African-American Student of the Year" prize. He was the only pupil in this school to have ever lived in Africa.

A kidney can be purchased for $650 in Kenya and sold for $200,000 in South Africa. - source

Michael Caine saw an Afrikaans foreman punch a black labourer in the face while filming Zulu (1964). He swore to never film in South Africa again while Apartheid existed; he kept his word. - source

Benedict Cumberbatch was kidnapped at gunpoint in South Africa. He talked his way out of being killed and said "It taught me that you come into this world as you leave it, on your own. It's made me want to live a life slightly less ordinary”

In 1970 John Lennon paid all of the fines for 96 people who had been arrested for protesting against the apartheid South Africa rugby team playing in Britain. - source

When south africa was colonized?

Conservationists in South Africa are infusing a special red dye into the horns of live rhinos. The mixture renders the horn completely useless to poachers trying to sell it commercially, and is also toxic for human consumption.

How south african accent?

In 2009 a pigeon named Winston raced Telkom, South Africa's largest ISP, to see who could deliver 4GB of data to a location 60 miles away the fastest. By the time Winston arrived with the 4GB flash drive, Telkom had transmitted only 4% of the data.

South Africa is the only country to have ever developed its own nuclear weapons and then voluntarily dismantled them.

Elephants killed 605 people in Assam b/w 1994-2006. In South Africa, 3 elephants killed 63 rhinos. Biologists think increased elephant aggression is the result of species-wide trauma from poaching & habitat loss, and direct trauma for those who saw family members murdered before their eyes.

The world's largest diamond was discovered in South Africa, and it was shipped to England on a steamboat under heavy security. But it just was a diversion, beacause the real stone was sent in a plain box via post

In 2009 a pigeon named Winston raced Telkom, South Africa's largest ISP, to see who could deliver 4GB of data to a location 60 miles away the fastest. By the time Winston arrived with the 4GB flash drive, Telkom had transmitted only 4% of the data.

South africa infographics

Beautiful visual representation of South Africa numbers and stats to get perspecive of the whole story.

south africa fact infographic about Electrification in South Africa over 20 years [animated GIF]

Electrification in South Africa over 20 years [animated GIF]


south africa fact infographic about South Africa now on top of this key Rugby World Cup statisti

South Africa now on top of this key Rugby World Cup statistic. There is a near symmetry with the four final percentages of Titles to Tournaments (43%, 33%, 22% and 11%)


When south africa lockdown will end?

There's a bar in South Africa entirely inside a 6,000 year old baobab tree, a species which naturally begins to hollow after it reaches about 1,000 years old.

A group of amateur scientists launched 200 paper airplanes from an elevation of 23 miles with a weather balloon. Launched in Germany, the airplanes flew as far as Canada, Australia, India, and even South Africa.

Roger Federer's coach, Peter Carter, was killed in a car crash in South Africa in 2002. Every year since 2005, Federer arranges for Carter's parents to fly out of Adelaide to attend the Australian Open in Melbourne, where they sit in his box, stay at his hotel, and attend the celebrations.

The Prawns in the movie District 9 are not called that because of shrimp, but are in reference to the Parktown prawn which is a cricket native to South Africa.

During Apartheid in South Africa, Glasgow renamed the street which at the time was the address of the South African Consulate from St George's Place to Nelson Mandela Place. Consular officials would be forced to look at his name when reading and addressing postal correspondence.

How south african food?

There is a fictional island in the South Atlantic, off the west coast of Africa, at lat/long 0,0, called 'Null Island'. Although it doesn't exist in reality, it serves as an error trap for map systems. Map enthusiasts have given the island its own history, geography and even flag.

Scientists from South Africa discovered a formula that calculates how likely a frog is to eat another frog. "For every one millimeter increase in body size, a frog is 2.8 percent more likely to eat other frogs."

Trey Parker, co-creator of South Park, threatened to pull a Dave Chappelle by showing Comedy Central's head of network a plane ticket to Africa because one of their episodes were censored against their will

Last year rhino poaching related arrests in South Africa doubled. 680 arrests reported in 2016 compared to that of 318 in 2015.

In 2007 two teams of armed intruders stormed their way into a nuclear plant used to store weapons grade uranium from South Africa's decommissioned arsenal. The coordinated assault was thwarted by an off-duty firefighter, a plant employee, and their dog.

There is a security system designed in South Africa to protect against the abundance of carjackers. The security system is just an under mounted flamethrower that the driver can use to light potential thieves on fire. It is completely legal in South Africa.

In 1959 Apartheid South Africa, the words "European" and "Non-European" were replaced by "Whites" and "Non-Whites" at Johannesburg Airport, because Americans tended to use the Non-European doors in order to distinguish themselves from actual Europeans.

An estimated 50% of all gold ever mined on Earth came from a single plateau in South Africa: Witwatersrand.

During his time as President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki banned the use of antiretroviral drugs in hospitals because he did not believe HIV caused AIDS. During his presidency over 330,000 people died of AIDS.

An all-female Anti-Poaching Unit in South Africa called Black Mambas. They reduced the number of incidents of snaring and poaching by as much as 76 percent

South Africa developed 6 nuclear bombs but dismantled all of them in the early 90s

The longest Cricket Test match was played over 12 days between England and South Africa and it was eventually abandoned, otherwise the England team would have missed the boat for home.

Leka II, Crown Prince of Albania, was born in South Africa. The South African government declared his maternity ward temporarily Albanian territory to ensure that Leka was born on Albanian soil.

A baboon named Jack worked as a railroad signalman for 9 years in South Africa and never made a mistake.

AA (South Africa's equivalent of AAA) will send armed guards to your location in the event of a car break down

This is our collection of basic interesting facts about South Africa. The fact lists are intended for research in school, for college students or just to feed your brain with new realities. Possible use cases are in quizzes, differences, riddles, homework facts legend, cover facts, and many more. Whatever your case, learn the truth of the matter why is South Africa so important!

Editor Veselin Nedev Editor