...ince, Mpumalanga, North-est Province, Free State, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, estern Cape, and KaZulu-Natal. The country has three capitals Cape Ton is the legislative capital Pretoria, the executive capital and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.LAND AND RESOURCES South Africa stretches for some 1500 km 950 mi from east to est and 1000 km 640 mi from north to south. It has an area of 1,219,090 sq km 470,693 sq mi. A ridge called the Great Escarpment forms a boundary beteen the interior plateaus and the coastal regions.Natural Regions The interior plateaus occupy about to-thirds of South Africa, reaching their greatest height in the southeastern Drakensberg Mountains, part of the Great Escarpment. Champagne Castle, a peak of the Drakensberg, is the highest point in the country at 3375 m 11,072 ft. The plateau region consists of three main areas the High Veld, the Middle Veld, and the Bush Veld. The High Veld, the largest of the three areas, is the southern continuation of the great African plateau that stretches north to the Sahara Desert. In South Africa it ranges in elevation from about 1200 to 1800 m about 4000 to 6000 ft and is characterized by level or gently sloping terrain. Land use varies from cattle grazing in the est to mixed farming both crops and livestock in the center to groing grain, especially maize corn, in the east. The northern boundary of the High Veld is marked by the gold-bearing reef of the itatersrand, hich became the industrial heartland of South Africa in the 20th century.est of the High Veld is the Middle Veld, hich lies mainly at an elevation of 600 to 1200 m 2000 to 4000 ft. The Middle Veld is part of the larger Kalahari Basin that extends north to Botsana and Namibia and contains the southernmost portion of the Kalahari Desert. Surface ater is rare in the Middle Veld because the soils, hich consist largely of unconsolidated sand, quickly absorb rainfall. Plant life in this arid place is limited to drought-resistant grasses, bushes, and shrubs. Much of the area is used for sheep grazing. North of the High Veld is the Bush Veld also called the Transvaal Basin. This region averages less than 1200 m 4000 ft in elevation. It is broken into basins by rock ridges, and slopes donard from the Transvaal Drakensberg in the east to the Limpopo River in the est. The Bush Veld receives more rain than the High Veld or Middle Veld and includes large areas of intensive cultivation as ell as mixed-farming and cattle-grazing districts.Beteen the edge of the high central plateau region and the eastern and southern coastline the land descends in a series of abrupt steps. In the east an interior belt of hill country gives ay to a lo-lying plain knon as the Eastern Lo Veld. In the south to plateaus, the Great, or Central, Karoo and the Little, or Southern, Karoo, are situated above the coastal plain. The plateau of the Great Karoo is separated from the loer Little Karoo by the Sartberg mountain range. A second range, the Langeberg, separates the Little Karoo from the coastal plain. Both the plateaus and the coastal plain are areas of mixed farming.The southestern edge of the central plateau region is marked by irregular ranges of folded mountains hich descend abruptly to a narro coastal plain, broken by the isolated peak of Table Mountain. The loer parts of this southestern region are the centers of ine and fruit industries.Rivers and Lakes The chief rivers are the Orange, Vaal, and Limpopo. The Orange is the longest, stretching about 2100 km about 1300 mi. It rises in Lesotho, here it is called the Senqu, and flos northestard to the Atlantic, forming the boundary ith Namibia along the rivers esternmost section. The Vaal rises in the northeast, near Saziland, and flos southestard to its confluence ith the Orange. The Limpopo rises further north, floing northeastard to the Botsana border and then eastard along the Botsana and Zimbabe borders until it enters Mozambique, here it empties into the Indian Ocean. Many shorter rivers flo south to the Indian Ocean, including the Sondags, Great Fish, and Kei in the Eastern Cape, and the Tugela in KaZulu-Natal.Most of South Africas rivers are irregular in flo and are dry during much of the year. Consequently, they are of little use for navigation or hydroelectric poer, but of some use for irrigation and ater supply. The Orange River Project, begun in 1962, transfers ater from the Orange River to the Great Fish and Sondags river basins. In the late 1970s, ater began to be pumped from the Tugela to the Vaal to meet the groing needs of the itatersrand industrial region. This is supplemented by the major Lesotho Highlands ater Project, begun in 1986, hich diverts ater from the Senqu and other rivers. ith the exception of Fundudzi Lake, hich as formed by a huge landslide in the northeastern Soutpansberg Range, South Africas only notable lakes are artificial, including those created by the Vaal Dam and Gariep Dam on the Orange River.Plant and Animal Life South Africa has remarkably diverse plant life for a country of its size, comprising about 22,000 different species, many of them native. Grasslands cover most of the plateau areas, resembling a prairie on the nearly treeless High Veld. The Bush Veld is characterized by savanna vegetation, consisting of mixed grassland ith trees and bushes such as the baobab tree in Northern Province and the mopani tree in the central Bush Veld. On the Great Karoo and Little Karoo, the grasslands are sparse. Vegetation consists of coarse desert grasses that gro in tufts and become green only after rain. The semidesert Northern Cape is transformed after spring rains ith blooming ildfloers in the Namaqualand region.Areas on the Cape Peninsula, and about 70,000 sq km about 27,500 sq mi of southern estern Cape Province, contain the distinctive Fynbos biome, an ecological community. Although relatively small in area, this region constitutes one of the six recognized floral kingdoms of the orld. It includes 8500 plant species, of hich more than 6000 are indigenous. This biome is home to the protea, an evergreen shrub for hich South Africa is renoned.The only significant forests in South Africa lie along the coasts of estern Cape and Eastern Cape provinces, although there are patches of protected rain forest in the Eastern Lo Veld. Hardood species such as yelloood, ironood, and lemonood trees are found in these areas, but softoods are scarce coniferous pines from Europe and North America have been planted to provide timber and ood pulp.Numerous large mammals, including lions, elephants, zebras, leopards, monkeys, baboons, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, and antelope, are indigenous to South Africa. For the most part such animals are found only on game reserves. Much of Kruger National Park, the oldest game reserve, as a protected area as early as 1898. It covers an area of 19,485 sq km 7523 sq mi along the Mozambique border. Kruger National Park includes nearly every species of indigenous ildlife and i...
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