South Africa: Political Geography

South Africa is divided into nine provinces—Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, North West, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga. Before 1994, there were four provinces: Cape Province, Natal (largely coextensive with KwaZulu-Natal), Orange Free State (largely coextensive with Free State), and Transvaal. In addition, during apartheid rule about 14% of the country's land area was set aside for blacks in pseudoindependent territories (originally called “bantustans”), allegedly to allow them self-government and cultural preservation. In fact, these “homelands” were used to give the white government greater control and to exclude blacks from the political process. Gazankulu, Kangwane, KwaNdebele, KwaZulu, Lebowa, and QwaQwa were Bantu national homelands that existed under South African sovereignty. Transkei, the first homeland (1963), Bophuthatswana, Ciskei, and Venda were all granted “independence” by the early 1980s and existed as nominal republics, although none were recognized internationally. With the end of white minority rule in 1994, the black homelands were abolished.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• The New South Africa
• A Regime Unravels
• The Republic of South Africa and Racial Strife
• National Party Ascendancy and Apartheid
• The Union of South Africa
• Natural Riches and British Victory
• The British and the Boers
• Colonialism and African-European Relations
• Early History
• Government
• Economy
• People
• Political Geography
• Physical Geography
• Bibliography

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