Provinces Of South Africa
South Africa is currently divided into nine provinces. On the eve of the 1994 general election, South Africa's former homelands, also known as Bantustans, were reintegrated and the four existing provinces were divided into nine. The twelfth, thirteenth and sixteenth amendments to the constitution changed the borders of seven of the provinces. The provinces are as follows:
| Province | Capital | Largest city | Area (km²) | Population (2011) | Pop. density (per km²) | HDI (2003) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern Cape | Bhisho | Port Elizabeth | 168,966 | 6,562,053 | 38.8 | 0.62 |
| Free State | Bloemfontein | Bloemfontein | 129,825 | 2,745,590 | 21.1 | 0.67 |
| Gauteng | Johannesburg | Johannesburg | 18,178 | 12,272,263 | 675.1 | 0.74 |
| KwaZulu-Natal | Pietermaritzburg² | Durban | 94,361 | 10,267,300 | 108.8 | 0.63 |
| Limpopo | Polokwane | Polokwane | 125,754 | 5,404,868 | 43.0 | 0.59 |
| Mpumalanga | Nelspruit | Nelspruit | 76,495 | 4,039,939 | 52.8 | 0.65 |
| North West | Mahikeng | Rustenburg | 104,882 | 3,509,953 | 33.5 | 0.61 |
| Northern Cape | Kimberley | Kimberley | 372,889 | 1,145,861 | 3.1 | 0.69 |
| Western Cape¹ | Cape Town | Cape Town | 129,462 | 5,822,734 | 45.0 | 0.77 |
¹: The Prince Edward Islands, South African territories in the sub-Antarctic Indian Ocean that are part of the Western Cape for legal purposes, are not included in these statistics.
²: Pietermaritzburg and Ulundi were joint capitals of KwaZulu-Natal from 1994 to 2004.
North West Northern Cape Gauteng Limpopo Mpumalanga Free State KwaZulu-Natal Eastern Cape Western CapeRead more about Provinces Of South Africa: History, Government
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“We have heard all of our lives how, after the Civil War was over, the South went back to straighten itself out and make a living again. It was for many years a voiceless part of the government. The balance of power moved away from it—to the north and the east. The problems of the north and the east became the big problem of the country and nobody paid much attention to the economic unbalance the South had left as its only choice.”
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—Marcus Garvey (1887–1940)