THERE are many positive things about South Africa which should be highlighted at dinner tables, instead of the tendency of focusing on what is wrong in our country.
Listed below are a number of some unique facts that will make you the boffin at the next dinner party.
General
• Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto is the third largest hospital in the world, occupying around 70 hectares, with approximately 3 200 beds and about 6 760 staff members.
• South Africa is one of only 12 countries where tap water is safe to drink.
• Pretoria has the second largest number of embassies in the world after Washington DC.
• South Africa mines deeper than any other country in the world, up to depths of 3.9km at the Western Deep Levels Mine.
• It has the largest hydro-electric tunnel system in the world at the Orange-Fish River Tunnel.
• Electricity costs are the second lowest in the world.
• South Africa is the world’s largest producer of macadamia nuts.
• South Africa is the world’s biggest producer of gold, platinum, chromium, vanadium, manganese and alumino-silicates. It also produces almost 40% of the world’s chrome and vermiculite.
• Durban is the largest port in Africa and the ninth largest in the world.
• South Africa generates two-thirds of Africa’s electricity.
• There are about 280 000 windmills on farms across South Africa, second in number only to Australia.
• The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT), now rising from a Karoo koppie in Sutherland, is the largest telescope in the southern hemisphere (and third largest in the world).
• South Africa has 19 004 miles of railway track – 80% of Africa’s rail infrastructure.
Travel and nature
• The St. Lucia estuarine system in KZN is the largest estuarine system in Africa.
• It is home to more kinds of mammals than North and South America combined; or Europe and Asia together.
• South African grasslands have approximately 30 species per square kilometer, greater than the biodiversity of rain forests.
• Kimberley’s ‘Big Hole’ is the largest hand-dug hole in the world and is deeper than Table Mountain is high. Kimberley also has the only drive-in pubs in the world.
• The Tugela Falls in KZN, at 948m, is the second highest waterfall in the world.
• The 2,02 billion-year-old crater in Vredefort is the oldest known crater on Earth. The general estimate of its original diameter is roughly 300km, which makes it the largest crater on the planet as well.
• The Sterkfontein Caves, in Gauteng, is the site where the oldest human skeletal remains were found in the world (3,5 million years old). This is the place where the human race was born.
Entertainment
• South Africa has the second oldest film industry in the world, established in 1915.
• The Cape Argus Cycle Tour is the largest timed cycle race in the world.
• South Africa has the longest wine route in the world.
• South Africa has the highest commercial bungi jump in the world (216.4 meters).
• M-Net is Africa’s largest pay television service, delivering 24-hour programming to dozens of countries across the continent.
• The Lost City Resort is the largest thermal resort in the world, as well as the largest building project undertaken in the Southern Hemisphere.
Military History
• South Africa has the world’s second oldest air force, established in 1920.
• The Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) was the first war of the 20th century and saw the introduction of trench warfare, the first large-scale use of concentration camps for non-combatants, and the most prolonged period of guerrilla warfare by a conquered nation’s military against a victorious army.
• Camouflage was first used in battle by the Boers, who used camouflaged trenches and adapted battle dress to blend into treeless landscapes.
• The world’s first news footage and propaganda films were shot during the Anglo-Boer War.
• Technologically, it saw the first use of a generation of weapons that are still with us today – automatic handguns, magazine-fed rifles and machine guns.
• The Guinness Book of Records lists the Anglo-Boer War as Britain’s most costly war outside of the two World Wars.
