Economy
1. The rand was the best performing currency against the US Dollar between 2002 and 2005
(Bloomberg Currency Scoreboard)
2. South Africa has 55,000 high net-wealth individuals holding at least US$1million in financial assets
(World Wealth Report 2008)
3. South Africa has the 27th biggest economy in the world, with a Gross Domestic Product of US$254 billion
(World Bank)
4. South Africa accounts for almost 25% of the GDP of the entire African continent, with an economy more than twice the size of the second biggest – Algeria.
(World Bank)
5. Gauteng is South Africa’s smallest province but produces 34% of South Africa’s Gross Domestic Product
(Stats SA)
6. The JSE Securities Exchange is the 14th largest equities exchange in the world, with a total market capitalisation of some R2.3 trillion
(JSE)
7. More than 12,000 'Black Diamond' families (South Africa’s new black middle class) - or 50,000 people - are moving from the townships into the suburbs of South Africa's metro areas every month
(UCT Unilever Institute)
8. The black middle class grew by 30% in 2005, adding another 421,000 black adults to SA's middle-income layer and ramping up the black population's share of SA's total middle class to almost a third. Between 2001 and 2004, there were 300,000 new black entrants to the middle class
(Financial Mail)

Infrastructure
1. South Africa generates two-thirds of Africa’s electricity
(Eskom)
2. South African power supplier provides the fourth cheapest electricity in the world
3. Chris Hani-Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto is the biggest hospital in the world
4. Durban is the largest port in Africa and the ninth largest in the world.
5. There are 39 million cell phone users in South Africa (International Telecommunication Union)

Tourism
1. The number of tourists visiting South Africa has grown by 200% since 1994, from 3 million to over 9 million in 2007
(Dept of Environment and Tourism)
2. The Singita game reserve was voted the best hotel in the world by the readers of a leading travel magazine
(Conde Nast Traveller)
3. The world's best land-based whale-watching spot is located in Hermanus in the Western Cape.
4. In 2002, South Africa was the world’s fastest growing tourist destination. In 2006, South Africa’s tourism grew at three times the global average.

Sport
1. South Africa hosts the largest timed cycle race in the world (the Cape Argus Cycle Tour), the world's oldest and largest ultra-marathon (the Comrades Marathon) and the world's largest open water swimming event (the Midmar Mile).
2. South Africa will become the first African country to host the Soccer World Cup in 2010 … and only the second country in the world to have hosted the Cricket, Rugby and Soccer World Cups.
3. Since the 1940s, South African golfers have won more golf majors than any other nation, apart from the United States.
4. In 1994, we won 11 medals in the Commonwealth Games. In 2002, we won 46.

SA Teaching the World
1. South Africa houses one of the three largest telescopes in the world at Sutherland in the Karoo
2. South Africa is the first, and to date the only, country to build nuclear weapons and the voluntarily dismantle its entire nuclear weapons programme
3. South Africa Constitution is widely regarded as being one of the most progressive in the world, drawing from the experiences of the world’s most advanced democracies
4. The South African oil company Sasol has established the only commercially viable oil-from-coal operations in the world.
5. Two of the world's most profoundly compassionate philosophies originated in South Africa – Ubuntu (the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity) and Gandhi's notion of "passive resistance"
(Satyagraha), which he developed while living in South Africa.

Education
1. Almost a quarter of South Africa’s non-interest budget is spent on education
2. The University of South Africa UNISA is a pioneer of tertiary distance education and is the largest correspondence university in the world with 250,000 students.
3. Our learner to teacher ratio has improved from 1:50 in 1994 to 1:34 in 2004
4. South Africa’s matric pass rate has improved from 49% in 1994 to 70% in 2004, but student’s receiving university exemptions has remained at 18%
5. The first MBA programme outside of the United States was started by the University of Pretoria in 1949.

Social
1. Over thirteen million South Africans (a quarter of the population) have access to social grants
(Department of Social Development)
2. Since 1994, 500 houses have been built each day for the poor and 1,000 houses per day have received electricity
3. Seventy percent of South Africa’s population is urbanised

© South Africa: The Good News
To the best of our knowledge, these facts are correct.
If you have evidence that any of the above are incorrect or inaccurate, please contact us at +27 (0)11 463 5713
ian@sagoodnews.co.za
http://www.sagoodnews.co.za

Environmental
1. The Kruger National Park supports the greatest variety of wildlife species on the African continent
2. The Cango Caves near Oudsthoorn is the world’s longest underground cave sequence
3. South Africa is the only country to house an entire floral kingdom (fynbos), one of only 6 on the planet
4. In 1991, South Africa became the first country in the world to protect the Great White shark.
5. South Africa has the oldest meteor scar in the world, at the Vredefort Dome near Parys. The scar is 2 billion years old.
6. South Africa has the 3rd highest level of biodiversity (SA Tourism)
7. The Cape Hyrax’s (dassie) closest relative is the African elephant
8. South Africa has embraced the concept of trans-frontier ‘peace parks’, linking ecological reserves across national borders

General
1. South Africa is the cradle of mankind
2. Afrikaans is the youngest official language in the world
3. The Western Deep Levels is the world’s deepest mine at 3777 metres
4. South Africa has the world’s largest deposits of gold, chromium, platinum and manganese
5. The only street in the world to house two Nobel Peace Prize winners is in Soweto. Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu both have houses in Vilakazi Street, Orlando West.
6. South Africa has the world's second oldest air force, established 1920.
7. South African Breweries (SAB-Miller) ranks as the second largest brewing company in the world. It supplies up to 50% of China's beer.
8. South Africa has the second oldest film industry in the world
9. In 2007 South African businessman Cyril Ramaphosa was included in the Time 100, an annual list, assembled by Time magazine, of the 100 most influential people in the world
10. Cape Town has the fifth-best blue sky in the world, according to the UK's National Physical Laboratory

Quite impressive. But when we decide to visit y'all go xenophobic on our as.ses.

Horus:

Kai that is harsh

JeSoul:

Kai that is harsh

Don't mind Horus, he and RSA have beef o!

And it has the highest HIV infected people in the world.

Half of the black population will die before they reach 35years old.

80% of the black lives in 'getto'

It has the highest crime rates in the world.

otawa:

And it has the highest HIV infected people in the world.

Half of the black population will die before they reach 35years old.

80% of the black lives in 'getto'

It has the highest crime rates in the world.

Highest r,ape per head (One of every two WOMEN precisely . South Africa woman stand a chance to be r,aped more than learning English)
World's highest producers of Cannabis
ONLY country where 80% of land is owned by foreigners
50 people die to gang related crime on daily bases (More than daily death of Iraq and Arfgan combined)

@ Poster, if you have four females in your life . . . it doesn't matter who they are to you GUARANTEE two of them has been r,aped .  .  .  H m m m m (i understand its not bad to say that in SA)

jealousy can make people sound so stupid sometimes! especially some of these backward terrorists from that third world, filthy, overcrowded hot place called Nigeria!!

Horus:

Che! Horus

thats quite harsh!!

^^ its not even harsh enough in response to this kind of rubbish

Mpele:

jealousy can make people sound so silly sometimes! especially some of these backward terrorists from that third world, filthy, overcrowded hot place called Nigeria!!

morpheus24:

Che! Horus

thats quite harsh!!

Burning people alive is more than harsh. Do you have any compassion for the victims?

Horus:

Burning people alive is more than harsh. Do you have any compassion for the victims?

They do that all across Africa including Nigeria

4. South Africa accounts for almost 25% of the GDP of the entire African continent, with an economy more than twice the size of the second biggest – Algeria.

wrong or 1990s info mate. . . .

top 4 economies in africa
1. south africa. . . .$277 bln
2.nigeria . . , $220 bln
3.algeria ,  $174 billion
4.Egypt. . , $163 billion
see link. . .
http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=ny_gdp_mktp_cd&idim=country:NGA:ZAF:DZA:EGY&tstart=-315619200000&tunit=Y&tlen=48

so cut that more than twice bullshit. . .

Horus:

I feel you my brother,but go to hell cause you'll never be welcomed in heaven SA

Steven Bantu Biko one said 'Black man you're on your own'.So with those words keep your hatred somewhere only you and your loved one will experience it.

Niggar I don't give a sh@@t what you think or wish about my country,you are no one and nothing,so scream to the top of your lungs if you can,no one is listening

Like it or not South Africa will continue to lead Africa into a modern civilisation,eat that.

otawa:

And it has the highest HIV infected people in the world.

Half of the black population will die before they reach 35years old.

80% of the black lives in 'getto'

It has the highest crime rates in the world.

;DAtleast according to your biafran stats 80% of blacks lives in gheto,In Nigeria the whole country is a Ghetto and therefore I could proudly say 100% of 160 million of your population lives in GHETTO .Something I know you're very proud about on top of being the purest blacks in the world and having the most educated blacks,and that 1 in 4 stats? of criminals overseas is a Nigerian or something

Half of blacks are dying in Nigeria today,please stop this you're embarrasing yourself now,omo.

THE TRUTH IS SOUTH AFRICA AT IT'S WORST IS STILL BETTER THAN NIGERIA AT IT'S BEST BY FAR,now that should give you sleepless nights if you're normal.

RSA it is pretty obvious that you are getting unnecessarily emotional about this issue.

First the picture that Horus attached was drawn by a South African Zapiro the cartoonist and satirist, whom I'm sure is no stranger to you.

Second, your exaggerated opinion of your country is such that it reduces Nigeria to a place of nothingness; an opinion that is evidenced by some of your remarks and is by no means whatsoever accurate. One who asserts that the worst of Soweto or Alexandra is better than the best of Abuja or Lekki and still suggests that those who opine the contrary are wrong is seriously deluded.

I suggest you go through this thread to correct some of the rather embarrassing (on your part) opinions about Nigeria.

go to hell cause you'll never be welcomed in heaven SA

South Africa is already Hell, so yes I agree I will never go to South Africa, bulletproof vest are not practical to wear and I dont want to burned alive.

RSA and co . . . . where are you suppose to be? its not hard to know

otawa: And it has the highest HIV infected people in the world.

Half of the black population will die before they reach 35years old.

80% of the black lives in 'getto'

It has the highest crime rates in the world.

lol I love it when you Nija guys give your imaginative state|time for some real stats|1.S.A may have the highest no.of people living with HIV but according to the latest 2013 UN stats Nigeria is hot on South Africa's hills,2.the average life expencency for all races in S.A is 65 years 3.S.A does not have the highest crime rate in the world,Colombia does so please do your homework next time

Horus:

South Africa is already Hell, so yes I agree I will never go to South Africa, bulletproof vest are not practical to wear and I dont want to burned alive.

come here and we'll kick your dark poor Nigerian primitive ass

otawa: And it has the highest HIV infected people in the world.

Half of the black population will die before they reach 35years old.

80% of the black lives in 'getto'

It has the highest crime rates in the world.

Did u check the UN reports on life expectancy which clearly states that an average black South African in is live to see the age of 60 which is twice that of Nigeria.

What ghetto are u talking Soweto which is not even classified as a slum.

80% wow wonder where u got ur stats from because the majority of SA citizens live in urban areas.

I don't wanna go on this countrybashing session again because its played out already, but I will gladly take on ur ignorant *ss every single bullsh*t u posted here.

Nsikelelo: come here and we'll kick your dark poor Nigerian primitive ass

Using the term "Dark" in your response just goes to show how Apatheid has sickened your mind, unless of course you are "colored" or "Afrikaner white"

Horus:

Burning people alive is more than harsh. Do you have any compassion for the victims?

Only have two words for you, ALU4.



SA ranked top African emerging economy
18 February 2013

South Africa has been ranked as the leading emerging economy in Africa and the only country on the continent to be ranked in the top 15 worldwide, according to the Emerging Markets Opportunity Index done by international advisory firm Grant Thornton.

The country also ranked ahead of Nigeria as a potential investment destination, coming in at 14th on the index while Nigeria ranked 17th. "Although recent events in the mining sector have hurt our country's reputation as a destination of choice for foreign direct investment (FDI), there are significant benefits that continue to attract investors," Grant Thornton South Africa's national chairperson, Deepak Nagar, said in a statement on Wednesday.

The index analayses a variety of indicators from Grant Thornton's International Business Report, the International Monetary Fund and United Nations Human Development Report. Indicators include economic size, population, growth prospects and levels of development to rate the countries potential to attract business investment. "With Nigeria improving its ranking by nine places since the previous survey, South Africa will need to improve its competitive edge in order to maintain its leading ranking in the years to come," Nagar said. The index showed inflows of foreign direct investment into South Africa have been irregular over the past 10 years and that FDI in the first six months of 2012 dropped by 44% compared to the same period in 2011.

The growth of the country's banking sector and financial services could help improve levels of FDI though. "It is a well-known fact internationally that SA's financial systems are sophisticated, robust and well-regulated while its economy boasts a world-class securities exchange," he said.


"The government has identified massive infrastructure projects as key to boosting the economic growth rate, as well as creating employment, and it is spending billions of rand on getting the investment ball rolling." The index also showed that business expect to grow in 2013; 71% of local businesses expect an increase in revenue and forecast 4.1% growth
between 2013 and 2017.

http://www.southafrica.info/about/science/ska.htm

morpheus24:
Using the term "Dark" in your response just goes to show how Apatheid has sickened your mind, unless of course you are "colored" or "Afrikaner white"

He is not coloured, he is black or rather brown

otawa: And it has the highest HIV infected people in the world.

Half of the black population will die before they reach 35years old.

80% of the black lives in 'getto'

It has the highest crime rates in the world.

ATLEAST WE HAVE STATS UNLIKE NIGERIA, YOU HAVE NO TRACKING/STATS CAPABILITIES/ SYSTEMS WHATSOEVER. YOU CANNOT EVEN TRACK YOUR OIL LOSSES OR GAINS, EVEN YOUR CRIME RATES DOES NOT EXIST AND LOOKS LIKE NOBODY GIVES A RAT AZZ ABOUT IT.

NIGERIA IS AN AIDS DISASTER TIME BOMB!

THIS IS THE TRUE STATE OF NIGERIA'S AIDS STATUSN/A)

1. In Nigeria there is a distinct lack of HIV testing programmes.

2. In 2010 there was only 1.4 HIV testing and counselling facilities for approximately every 100,000 Nigerian adults and only 11.7 percent of women and men aged 15-49 had received an HIV test and found out the results.

3. This shows how desperately the government needs to scale up HIV testing services.

5. Whilst (only) an estimated 2.2 million people aged 15 years and above received HIV testing and counselling in 2010, this amounts to only around 31 people per 100,000 of the total adult population.

6.Moreover, HIV testing and counselling of pregnant women is central to the prevention of mother-to-child transmission, yet this remains extremely low with only 1 in 7 pregnant women receiving it in 2010. The uptake of HIV testing among most-at- (read further for yourself)

http://www.avert.org/aids-nigeria.htm

yeswecan:

Highest r,ape per head (One of every two WOMEN precisely . South Africa woman stand a chance to be r,aped more than learning English)
World's highest producers of Cannabis
ONLY country where 80% of land is owned by foreigners
50 people die to gang related crime on daily bases (More than daily death of Iraq and Arfgan combined)

@ Poster, if you have four females in your life . . . it doesn't matter who they are to you GUARANTEE two of them has been r,aped .  .  .  H m m m m (i understand its not bad to say that in SA)

sweetcheecks:

He is not coloured, he is black or rather brown

point exactly. The obvious consequence of living in a color concious society and to make it worse IN AFRICA.

THe effrontery!!

morpheus24:
Using the term "Dark" in your response just goes to show how Apatheid has sickened your mind, unless of course you are "colored" or "Afrikaner white"

true man true lol I'm sorry about that though,just got pissed

RSA, just curious but have you ever been to Naija? I noticed some Nigerianess in your language.

Frankly, you can't compare Nigeria to South Africa, not in economy, infrastructure , education etc. it pisses me off when Nigerians argue all is hunky dory in Nigeria. We have serious issues in Nigeria. Issues that would make any investor dread setting foot in this country. The most poignant is the level of ignorance and corruption on display.