Company Name:	About South Africa
Location:	South Africa
Services/Products:	Information
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Geography: The terrain ranges in altitude from sea level to South Africa's highest peak, Injasuti (3,408m) in the Drakensberg, near the border with Lesotho, and covers ecosystems from tropical forest to desert dunes. Almost every crop known to man can find a natural home somewhere in the country.

The Western Cape, cut off from the hinterland by the mountains of the Cederberg, Hex River and Swartberg, has a distinct, Mediterranean climate with cool, grey, wet and windy winters and warmer, sunny summers. It is ideal for wine and deciduous fruits. The more northerly KwaZulu-Natal coast, also cut off by the vast wall of the Drakensberg, is subtropical, hot and humid, clipped by the south-west monsoon. Here, the main crops are tropical fruits, such as bananas (the country's most profitable product), pineapples and sugar cane. Beyond the mountains is the Karoo, a dramatic semi-desert capable of supporting only sheep, ostriches and, increasingly, antelope, while in the west blow the barren red sands of the Kalahari. In the centre, the land climbs on to the high, flat central plateau, to the cattle and corn prairies of the Free State and, most importantly, the diamond and gold deposits of Kimberley and the Witwatersrand. Finally, in the north-east, the highveld drops off a dramatic escarpment in a flurry of mountains where tea and avocados, cherries and bananas, eucalyptus and pine all flourish cheek by jowl. Below, the lowveld provides a hot, dry habitat for baobabs and acacias, elephant and lion.

Water: South Africa is a land of plenty, rich in agriculture, industry and minerals, but there are only two major rivers, the Vaal and the Orange (Gariep). The whole subcontinent has been gripped by drought for many of the last 15 years, the population is rising steadily, and with the new government have come schemes for creating proper water supplies, plumbing and drains in all the black towns and villages. The demand for water is increasing sharply and, in spite of careful management and the occasional season of magnificent rains, the water table is dropping below the level of the boreholes, and the desert is expanding. In some areas, people have already been forced off the land, while the government is hurriedly trying to implement massive projects to bring water down from the mountains of Lesotho and even from as far north as the Zambezi (despite the fact that Zimbabwe has its own serious problems to contend with).

Sanctions: During the last years of apartheid, sanctions were enforced officially by the United Nations. However, South Africa was situated strategically across the Cape sea route and was a major supplier of vital minerals such as uranium and chrome. Most First World countries continued to trade under the counter, while neighbouring black countries were totally reliant on South Africa's ports for survival. The economy was battered but it survived and, turning inwards, became broad-based and self-sufficient. South Africa is the world's leading supplier of alumino-silicates, chromium (72 per cent). gold (40 per cent). platinum (88 per cent) and vanadium (44 per cent). It ranks second for vermiculite and zirconium; third for antimony, fluorspar, phosphate rock, and uranium; fourth for diamonds, titanium and zinc; and fifth for coal and nickel. It also has significant deposits of iron, lead, manganese, silver and copper.

The new world: Since the 1994 elections, the country has been welcomed back into the global fold. Exports are rising rapidly and multinational companies are queuing for information, with the government doing all it can to reassure anyone prepared to invest. Everything should be rosy. However, massive new imports are damaging the balance of trade, and increasingly powerful trades unions are making vociferous demands for black wages to meet those of the white workers, a shorter working week, better conditions and improved housing. Meanwhile, the Government of National Unity instituted a policy of affirmative action, providing much needed fast-track promotion for black managerial candidates.

All these are laudable aims, but there has been a heavy price to pay. Nervous white workers are creating a brain drain before there are enough well-qualified and experienced black workers to take their place. Constant strikes, lockouts and other industrial action are crippling some industries, while wage demands are pushing prices up so sharply that some South African products are in danger of becoming too expensive to survive in the world market.

Unemployment is running at over 40 per cent; the drift from the land to the cities has become a deluge; the black market, or 'informal sector', runs most small businesses in the townships; and, as a final complication, an estimated 4 million illegal immigrants from elsewhere in Africa have flooded the jobs market.