South Africa – Exercises
1 Answer the questions in your own words
- Neighbours to the north: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Swaziland (today Eswatini).
- Country completely within South Africa: Lesotho.
- Two oceans: the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean.
- Biggest river: the Orange River – it rises in the Drakensberg and flows into the Atlantic.
- Two deserts: the Kalahari and the Namib.
- Highest mountains: the Drakensberg (highest part of the Great Escarpment), about 3,350 m.
- Climate: moderate with mild temperatures; some areas get too little rain, so droughts are common; the south has a Mediterranean climate.
- Four ethnic groups:
- Blacks – almost 80 % (largest tribes: Zulu and Xhosa)
- Whites – about 10 % (English-speaking South Africans and Afrikaners)
- Coloureds (people of mixed race) – about 9 %
- Asians (mostly descendants of settlers from India) – about 2 %
- Descendants of the Dutch settlers: Afrikaners (Boers).
- Where most people live: about 95 % in the eastern half and along the southern coast – the north and west are too dry.
- Big cities: Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Pretoria, Bloemfontein.
- Three capitals: Parliament – Cape Town, government – Pretoria, highest court – Bloemfontein.
- Raw materials: gold, diamonds, coal, copper (also iron).
- First Europeans to sail around Africa: the Portuguese – Bartolomeu Dias reached the Cape of Good Hope in 1488.
- Great Trek: after the British took over the Cape Colony (1815), many Dutch Boers moved north into the interior and founded the Transvaal and the Orange Free State.
- Apartheid: laws of the white government to keep the races apart (“separateness” in Afrikaans). Blacks were the majority but had to live in separate areas, use separate schools and facilities, could not vote and had no political power.
- First black president: Nelson Mandela (1994).
- Problems today: HIV/AIDS, crime and corruption, high unemployment, skilled workers leaving the country.
2 Multiple choice
1 a · 2 c · 3 d · 4 a · 5 a · 6 b · 7 b · 8 a · 9 d · 10 b · 11 d · 12 b
3 Match the words with the definitions
| Definition | Word |
|---|---|
| hard metal that you make steel out of | F iron |
| made of wood or metal around a house | O fence |
| take a person to a police station | R arrest |
| deep hole where people dig | P mine |
| paid to help work in a household | I servant |
| group with the same skin colour | N race |
| to say officially | A announce |
| to stretch, expand | L spread |
| layer of rock with minerals in it | C deposit |
| person of someone’s family from long ago | T descendant |
| soft reddish brown metal | B copper |
| goes to live in a new place | J settler |
| cows and bulls on a farm | S cattle |
| largest group of people in a country | G majority |
| people who rule a country | E government |
| topic, subject | Q issue |
| plant for white bread | K wheat |
| stop working because you are too old | H retire |
| to set free | M release |
| long period of very dry weather | D drought |
4 Sentences that do not belong
- There are separate beaches for the black and white population.
- It got its name because it has orange water after it rains a lot.
- Their huts are made up of leaves.
- The Dutch queen also visited South Africa.
- Factories give Whites more money than Blacks.
- Many Bantu tribes live in homelands near the city.
5 Cities on the map
Pretoria, Johannesburg, Bloemfontein, Durban, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha).
6 Crossword
Across: 1 PRETORIA · 4 WITWATERSRAND · 9 APARTHEID · 11 ZULU · 12 AFRIKAANS · 13 DRAKENSBERG · 14 CAPETOWN
Down: 2 ORANGE · 3 NAMIBIA · 5 TABLEMOUNTAIN · 6 BOER · 7 MANDELA · 8 CORRUPTION · 10 LESOTHO
7 True or false
| Statement | |
|---|---|
| Most of South Africa lies on a plateau. | T |
| The biggest river is the Orange. | T |
| Durban is the city where the government meets. | F (Pretoria) |
| Johannesburg became famous as a gold mining town in the 19th century. | T |
| The northern part of the country gets a lot of rain. | F |
| Many blacks still work for white people in gold mines. | T |
| Whites make up the majority of the population. | F |
| During apartheid the whites had to leave South Africa. | F |
| The Boers won the war against the British colonists. | F |
| During the Great Trek many Boers moved to the northern parts. | T |
| Most of the country’s Asian population live on the eastern coast. | T |
| Wines are produced in regions with a Mediterranean climate. | T |
| Table Mountain overlooks Cape Town. | T |
| The aim of the ANC was to put white people in charge. | F |
| Nelson Mandela was the first black president. | T |
| In 1902 the British and Dutch colonies united to form a single state. | T (according to the text) |
| Gold was discovered near Cape Town and Durban. | F (Transvaal / Witwatersrand) |
| During apartheid many countries increased trading with South Africa. | F |
| South Africa has more HIV infected than any other country. | T |
| The country will host the 2010 Olympic Games. | F (football World Cup) |
| Many educated and skilled South Africans go to Europe or the USA. | T |
8 Letter to the government
Soweto, 15 March 1985
To the Government of South Africa, Union Buildings, Pretoria
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am writing to you as a Black South African to ask you for a fair and equal treatment of my people. Blacks make up almost 80 % of the population, but we have no right to vote and no say in how our country is governed.
Every day we feel the injustice of apartheid. We have to carry passes, we are forced to live in overcrowded townships far away from our work, and we are not allowed to use the same buses, hospitals, beaches or schools as white people. Our children get a much worse education, so they have little chance of finding a good job later. Many of us work hard in the gold and diamond mines for very low wages, while the profits go to white companies.
Therefore, I kindly ask you to:
- abolish the pass laws and let us live and work wherever we want,
- give every South African the right to vote, whatever the colour of his or her skin,
- give our children the same education as white children,
- pay Black workers fair wages and give them the same chances of promotion,
- release political prisoners such as Nelson Mandela and make the ANC legal again.
We do not want revenge – we want to live together peacefully with all South Africans. Please listen to us before even more violence happens.
I look forward to your reply.
Yours faithfully,
Thabo Nkosi