South Africa

South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is the southernmost sovereign state in Africa. It is bounded on the south by 2,798 kilometers of coastline of southern Africa stretching along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans, on the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, and on the east by Mozambique and Swaziland, and surrounding the kingdom of Lesotho. South Africa is the 25th-largest country in the world by land area, and with close to 53 million people, is the world's 24th-most populous nation. It is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World or the Eastern Hemisphere.

South Africa is a multiethnic society encompassing a wide variety of cultures, languages, and religions. Its pluralistic makeup is reflected in the constitution's recognition of 11 official languages, which is among the highest number of any country in the world. Two of these languages are of European origin: Afrikaans developed from Dutch and serves as the first language of most white and coloured South Africans; English reflects the legacy of British colonialism, and is commonly used in public and commercial life, though it is fourth-ranked as a spoken first language.

South

South is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. It is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. South is the polar opposite of north and is perpendicular to east and west.

Etymology

The word south comes from Old English sūþ, from earlier Proto-Germanic *sunþaz ("south"), possibly related to the same Proto-Indo-European root that the word sun derived from.

Navigation

By convention, the bottom side of a map is south, although reversed maps exist that defy this convention. To go south using a compass for navigation, set a bearing or azimuth of 180°. Alternatively, in the Northern Hemisphere outside the tropics, the Sun will be roughly in the south at midday.

South Pole

True south is the direction towards the southern end of the axis about which the earth rotates, called the South Pole. The South Pole is located in Antarctica. Magnetic south is the direction towards the south magnetic pole, some distance away from the south geographic pole.

Roald Amundsen, from Norway, was the first to reach the South Pole, on 14 December 1911, after Ernest Shackleton from the UK was forced to turn back some distance short.

Parliament of South Africa

The Parliament of South Africa is South Africa's legislature and under the country's current Constitution is composed of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces.

It has undergone many transformations as a result of the country's tumultuous history. From 1910 to 1994, it was elected mainly by South Africa's white minority, before the first elections with universal suffrage were held in 1994.

History

Before 1910

The predecessor of the Parliament of South Africa, before the 1910 Union of South Africa, was the bicameral Parliament of the Cape of Good Hope. This was composed of the House of Assembly (the lower house) and the Legislative Council (the upper house). It dated back to the beginnings of Cape independence in 1853, and was elected according to the multi-racial Cape Qualified Franchise system, whereby suffrage qualifications were applied equally to all males, regardless of race.

The buildings of the Cape Parliament went on to house the Parliament of South Africa, after union.

Pan-African Parliament

The Pan-African Parliament (PAP), also known as the African Parliament, is the legislative body of the African Union and held its inaugural session in March 2004. The PAP exercises oversight, and has advisory and consultative powers, lasting for the first five years. Initially the seat of the Pan-African Parliament was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia but it was later moved to Midrand, South Africa.

On 28 October 2009, the second legislature of the Pan-African Parliament opened its first ordinary session and began a new 5-year mandate. South African president, Jacob Zuma, gave the opening speech and called for the PAP to be given full legislative powers and its members elected by universal suffrage.

Structure

The Parliament is made up of three main bodies. There are also Ten Permanent Committees which were created to deal with different sectors of life in Africa.

Plenary

The Plenary is the main decision-making body of the Parliament. The Plenary consists of the delegates from the member states, and is chaired by the President. It is the body which passes resolutions.

Trevor Noah

Trevor Noah (born 20 February 1984) is a South African comedian, television and radio host, and actor. He is the host of American news satire television program The Daily Show, succeeding Jon Stewart.

Early life and family

Noah was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. His mother, Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah, is of mixed Xhosa and Jewish ancestry, and his father, Robert, is white and of Swiss German ethnicity. Noah spent his early youth in the private school of Maryvale College, a Catholic school in Johannesburg. His parents' relationship was illegal at the time of his birth because of apartheid. His mother was jailed and fined by the South African government, and his father later moved back to Switzerland. Noah was raised by his mother and maternal grandmother, Nomalizo Frances Noah. During his childhood, he attended church every Sunday.

Noah has two younger half-brothers by his mother's husband, Ngisaveni Shingange, whom she later divorced. In 2009, after she became engaged to another man, Shingange shot her in the back and face; he was unable to continue shooting as the gun jammed. He later threatened to kill Trevor Noah, forcing him to leave Johannesburg for Los Angeles. In 2011, Shingange was convicted of attempted murder. Noah stated that he hoped the attention surrounding the incident would help the domestic abuse problem in South Africa: "For years my mother reached out to police for help with domestic abuse, and nothing was ever done. This is the norm in South Africa. Dockets went missing and cases never went to court." In 2012, Shingange was sentenced to three years of correctional supervision for the attempted murder.