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19 unusual facts about South Africa


2009 Kyalami Superbike World Championship round

It took place on the weekend of May 15–17, 2009 at Kyalami, South Africa.

Amandla

Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony, a 2002 documentary film depicting the role music played in the activist struggle against South African apartheid

Andrew Jordaan

All of his appearances were in the Howa Bowl, a South African cricket competition which was contested between Eastern Province, Natal, Transvaal and Western Province.

Benjamin Jennings Caddy

Benjamin (Ben) Jennings Caddy (November 1881 - 13 March 1955) was a militant trade unionist who is regarded as the doyen of the trade union movement in South Africa.

Cacadu District Municipality

The municipality is a new, multi-ethnic administration, formed by the ANC government through the merging of the predominantly Afrikaans-speaking western part of the Eastern Cape, together with Xhosa areas near the Fish river, and the English district of Albany (with its own distinctive local culture, dating back to the 1820 settlers).

Cape grysbok

The Cape or southern grysbok (Raphicerus melanotis) is a small antelope that is endemic to the Western Cape region of South Africa between Albany and the Cederberg mountains.

Chrysoblephus laticeps

Its distribution extends over the southeastern Atlantic and southwestern Indian Ocean, Mauritius, southern Madagascar and along the southern African coastline from northern Namibia to northern Natal.

Cluster Publications

Cluster Publications is a non-profit publishing enterprise of the Pietermaritzburg Cluster of Theological Institutions (South Africa).

Cordylobia anthropophaga

This fly is said to be the most common cause of human or animal myiasis in tropical Africa, from Senegal to Natal.

Discrimination

Racial discrimination differentiates individuals on the basis of real and perceived racial differences and has been official government policy in several countries, such as South Africa in the apartheid era.

Falling Mirror

Falling Mirror was an alternative rock band from Cape Town, South Africa founded in 1978 by cousins Allan Faull and Nielen Marais.

Harts River

The Newlands Mine is located some 60 km northwest of Kimberley on the river.

Isaiah Shembe

Isaiah Mloyiswa Mdliwamafa Shembe (1870– 2 May 1935), was the founder of the Zulu Nazareth Baptist Church and a figure in the African independent church movement in South Africa.

Jacob Letterstedt

Jacob Letterstedt (1796 – 1862), born Lallerstedt in Östergötland, was a Swedish businessman who settled in South Africa (Cape Colony).

Renaming in South Africa

The KwaZulu-Natal province was formed in 1994 from the merger of the then province of Natal and former homeland of KwaZulu.

Southern African vlei rat

The range extends from the far South Western Cape of South Africa, around the southern and eastern coast and adjacent interior, to subtropical regions in southern Natal.

Thillaiaadi Valliammai

Thillaiyadi Valliammai (22 February 1898 - 22 February 1914) was a South African Tamil woman who worked with Mahatma Gandhi in her early years when she developed her nonviolent methods in South Africa fighting its apartheid regime.

Tsere tsere

Tsere tsere is a children's game from South Africa.

Wall of Fire

"Wall of Fire" (mountain), a 700 m cliff face of vertically displaced quartzite in the Swartberg mountain range South Africa


25th South African Parliament

The 25th South African Parliament is the fourth Parliament of South Africa to convene since the introduction of multiracial government in South Africa in 1994.

ArrayComm

The company's hardware solutions enjoyed their greatest commercial successes in Australia and South Africa under the iBurst brand name which continues to be owned by Kyocera.

Barbara Becnel

On Sunday, June 25, 2006, Becnel and Neal released Williams' ashes into a lake in Thokoza Park, located in the black township of Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Ben Sharpa

Kgotso Semela aka Ben Sharpa aka Oh Kaptin My Kaptin (born 25 March 1977 in Soweto, South Africa) is a veteran underground rapper and music producer.

Blood Knot

The play was most recently performed in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2010 as part of Mandela Day celebrations, with Michael Brando playing the lead role of Morris.

Carisbrook

The last international game was expected to be the All Blacks versus South Africa Tri Nations match on 12 July 2008.

CD Tuilla

After winning the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa and the 2011 UEFA Champions League Final, International footballer David Villa - who was born in Tuilla and enjoyed individual success with Sporting de Gijón, Real Zaragoza, Valencia CF, FC Barcelona and Spain - waved a CD Tuilla scarf at the crowd.

Ceres, Fife

The name has led to contact with Ceres, Italy (visited by the local pipe band in the 1970s) and Ceres, Western Cape, South Africa (with which gifts were exchanged in the 1990s).

Diving petrel

The prehistoric fossil record was long limited to very fragmentary remains described as P. cymatotrypetes found in Early Pliocene deposits of Langebaanweg, South Africa; while this bird apparently was close to the Common Diving Petrel, no members of the genus are known from South African waters today.

Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry

Surfing Tommies is a 2009 play by the Cornish author Alan M. Kent which follows the lives of three members of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry on a journey from the mines of Cornwall to the fields of Flanders, where they learned to surf with South African troops.

European Union Baroque Orchestra

Outside of Europe, as well as tours to Japan, USA and South Africa, EUBO has played in less favoured parts of the world as Ramallah and the Gaza Strip, Botswana, Soweto and others.

Financial statement

IASB develops International Financial Reporting Standards that have been adopted by Australia, Canada and the European Union (for publicly quoted companies only), are under consideration in South Africa and other countries.

Frank Underwood

Underwood was commissioned to write and perform music to honour the 1980s UK visit of Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, and has become known as a performer at festivals and cultural events in Oxfordshire.

Gei Zantzinger

He directed and produced films about the musics of Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Cape Verde, Lesotho, South Africa, and Brittany.

Glen Grey Provincial Hospital

Glen Grey Provincial Hospital is a Provincial government funded hospital for the Emalahleni Local Municipality area in Lady Frere, Eastern Cape in South Africa.

Jaco Alberts

Jaco Alberts is a South African rugby league player who represented his country in the 1995 World Cup, playing in two matches.

Jewish Museum, Emmendingen

Emma Schwarz: Emmendingen - Gurs - Johannesburg, a Jewish woman from Emmendingen writes about her life under the Nazi regime and her later emigration with her son to South Africa.

Joel Pollak

Pollak was born in Johannesburg, South Africa but his parents emigrated to the United States shortly after his birth.

Joggie Viljoen

Viljoen, a native of South Africa's Eastern Cape Province, currently resides in New Zealand and is the first choice scrum-half for Manawatu in the NPC.

Johannesburg Muslim School

Johannesburg Muslim School is a partly private school situated in Fordsburg, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Lasith Malinga

Malinga became a highlight during the 2007 Cricket World Cup, when on March 28, 2007, against South Africa he became the first ever player to take four wickets in four consecutive balls in international cricket.

Lined catshark

The lined catshark or banded catshark (Halaelurus lineatus) is a species of catshark, family Scyliorhinidae, found from Beira, Mozambique to East London, South Africa between latitudes 19° S and 31° S, from the surface to 290 m.

M. C. Bradbrook

She held visiting professorships at numerous universities, including Santa Cruz, Tokyo, and Rhodes, South Africa, and received honorary degrees from many more.

Macassar Dunes Conservation Area

In the 1600s under colonial rule, the first Muslim community in South Africa was founded here by Sheikh Yusuf of Indonesia, who named the area after his home in Indonesia – the original Khoi name for the area was not recorded.

Malibongwe Drive

The change was part of an ongoing plan by the city of Johannesburg to create politically neutral names to replace "upsetting" reminders of South Africa's racial past.

Maris Stella School

Maris Stella School is a private Roman Catholic day school for girls from four to eighteen years old (grades 0-12 or pre-primary, primary and secondary phases), located on the Berea in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Melanie Weisner

At the 2012 World Poker Tour in Johannesburg, South Africa, Weisner claimed her first major title, taking down the $1,000 no-limit six-max event for $41,289, defeating former EPT champion Lucien Cohen heads-up.

Mich d'Avray

Jean-Michel (Mich) d'Avray (born 19 February 1962 in Johannesburg, South Africa) is a former professional association footballer who spent the majority of his playing career at Ipswich Town.

Midlands Provincial Hospital

Midlands Provincial Hospital is a Provincial government funded hospital in the Camdeboo Local Municipality area in Graaff-Reinet in South Africa.

Natal Railway 0-4-0WT Natal

It was, however, not the first locomotive to arrive in South Africa, having been denied that honour by nine engines in the Cape Colony.

Pitika Ntuli

Pitika Ntuli (born 1942, Springs, Gauteng) is a South African sculptor, poet, writer, and academic who spent 32 years of his life in exile in Swaziland and the UK.

Qkumba Zoo

Qkumba Zoo was a dance music trio from Johannesburg, South Africa, consisting of vocalist Levannah, dancer/sculptor Tziki and musician/producer Owl.

Rob Purdham

This followed selection for an England U21 tour of South Africa and an impressive start to the 2002 season with Whitehaven.

Ronald K. McMullen

Other overseas assignments include serving as Deputy Principal Officer in Cape Town, South Africa; Economic Officer in Libreville, Gabon; Political Officer in Colombo, Sri Lanka; and Vice Consul in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Rosarita Tawil

She was between the Finalists of The Miss World Beach Beauty event that took place at The Beverly Hills Hotel in Durban, South Africa and she was between the 32 Top Model semi-finalists in Miss World Top Model fast track event .

South Africa national cricket team

The South African national cricket team, nicknamed the Proteas, represent South Africa in international cricket.

South African general election, 2004

The Inkatha Freedom Party lost some support, including the majority in their stronghold province of Kwazulu-Natal, while the United Democratic Movement also lost support, barely hanging on as opposition in their stronghold, the Eastern Cape.

SS West Saginaw

She then sailed to Bathurst, South Africa, arriving on 10 June and departing the same day for Dakar.

Stefan Terblanche

Terblanche played in 37 tests for South Africa, scoring 19 tries, including a South African test record of four tries (equalled with Chester Williams and Pieter Rossouw) on debut against Ireland at Bloemfontein on 13 June 1998, which he later bettered by scoring a then record five tries against Italy on 19 June 1999.

Stratos Boats

Stratos began building boats in 1984, and sells throughout a network of dealers throughout the United States, Australia, France, Japan, Mexico, Portugal, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Italy and Venezuela.

Tete veld aethomys

However, the current best estimate suggests that Tete veld rats are found in Swaziland and northeastern South Africa, where they are found in the North West, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces, and the northern part of Free State province.

The Jackals

A remake of 1948's Yellow Sky, it stars Vincent Price as a South African prospector named Oupa (grandpa) Decker and contract Fox star Robert Gunner.

Thretton Palamo

He played his only match of the tournament in the 15-64 loss to South Africa on 30 September 2007.

Thulani Hlatshwayo

Thulani Hlatswayo (born 18 December 1989 in Soweto, Gauteng) is a South African professional footballer, who currently plays as a defender for Ajax Cape Town.

Trans Air Congo

Late 1997 saw the airline having to move temporarily to Johannesburg in South Africa to avoid a civil war.

Tydeus munsteri

It has been recorded from various plants in the vicinity of Munster in South Africa including Citrus limonia, Erythrina caffra and Psidium guajava.

United National South West Party

The UNSWP favoured incorporation of South West Africa into South Africa, and won elections to the Legislative Assembly elections in 1929, 1934, 1940 and 1945.

Universal Channel

In South Africa, Hallmark Channel was re-branded under that name on March 24, 2010 for DStv subscribers.

Wilhelm Otto Kühne

Wilhelm Otto (WO) Kühne (1924–1988) award-winning author of children's literature and editor of Die Jongspan and Die Burger in Cape Town, South Africa.