SOUTH AFRICA
T EACHER ’ S N OTES
Q UIZ
Give the students the following quiz about South
Africa:
1. What is the capital of South Africa?
Bloemfontein (judicial), Pretoria (executive),
Cape Town (legislative)
2. How many official languages are there? 11
3. Who is the current president? Jacob Zuma
4. What percentage of the population is black?
79% black, 9% white, 9% coloured, 2,5%
Indian/Asian
5. What countries border on South Africa (there
are 6)? Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Botswana,
Namibia, Swaziland, Mocambique
6. What oceans border on South Africa (there are
2)? Indian, Atlantic
7. Which is the largest city? Johannesburg,
population 1 million (Soweto has 850,000)
8. Which side of the road do they drive on? Left
9. What is the currency? South African Rand
10. When was the first democratic election? 1994
V OCABULARY
Cut out the words and definitions from the
Students’ Notes, and get them to match the word
with the definition. Then go through the following
collocations with the students:
C OLLOCATIONS
Write the following 4 words onto pieces of paper
and hang them on the wall. Get the students to fill
in as many collocations as they can think of. Once
they have finished go through them with the
students and add some of your own:
D ASH
quick, sudden, frantic, headlong, mad, final, last
minute, make, across, for, from to
I MPACT
dramatic, massive, significant, cumulative, overall,
catastrophic, devastating, alleviate, minimize,
measure, monitor, highlight, appreciate, full, initial,
moment of, point of
F ORMIDABLE
be, look, seem, sound, remain, find something,
really, truly, pretty, somewhat
P ATROL
routine, armed, foot, border, police, maintain, go on
R EADING
In the Students Notes are 4 segments about South
Africa: Animals, Geography World Heritage and
Crime. Cut them out, distribute them to the
students and get them to do an information share.
Get them to find the new vocabulary and let the
others know in what context the words are being
used.
L ISTENING
The students are going to watch a 13 minute
documentary about Nelson Mandela. As a warmer,
ask them to share anything that they know about
him. Then give them the following questions to
answer as they watch and listen.
http://www.nelsonmandela.org/multimedia/entry/
nelson-mandelas-life-story-documentary
1. What was Mandela’s childhood like? He lived in the
country, in a hut, he swam in streams, rode on bulls
and roasted mielies (sweetcorn)
2. What did he do when he moved to Johannesburg?
He worked in the mines, studied law and joined the
ANC
3. What was the freedom charter? A blueprint put
together in 1955 for a free multi-racial democratic
South Africa, where all races would be treated
equally. Mandela was banned from the meeting in
Kliptown when it was put together, but it was used
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40 years later. In 1956 there was a treason trial for
the organisors of the freedom charter, which was
designed to pre-occupy the opposition and keep
them out of politics
4. What were the effects of martial law? The
opposition was banned, thousands were jailed and
Mandela became the leader of the armed struggle
5. What was his life like in prison? He was sent to the
bleak island prison of Robben Island, where he had
to do hard labour in a lime quarry. His moral
leadership and stature grew.

S ONG
The students are going to listen to a song by Johnny
Clegg called Impi. Get them to read the
introduction, and then play them the song and get
them to fill in the blanks (you can find it on
Grooveshark, Spotify of YouTube).

1. crush
2. exact
3. saddled up
4. heel
5. polished
6. seeping
7. glimpse
8. destined
9. Victorian
10. Scouts
11. hand
12. vultures
13. fallen
14. ashes

H OMEWORK
You can recommend to the students that they
watch the movie ‘Invictus’ if they are able to get a
copy of it.

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S TUDENTS ’ N OTES
A NIMALS
T HE B IG F IVE
Best known are the mammals, and the best known
of these are the famous Big Five: elephant, lion,
rhino, leopard and buffalo. Not that giraffe, hippo or
whale are small ...
South Africa's bushveld and savannah regions are
still home to large numbers of the mammals
universally associated with Africa. The Kruger
National Park alone has well over 10 000 elephants
and 20 000 buffaloes. In 1920 there were an
estimated 120 elephants left in the whole of South
Africa.
The white rhino has also been brought back from
the brink of extinction and now flourishes both in
the Kruger National Park and the Hluhluwe Umfolozi
Park in KwaZulu-Natal. Attention now is on
protecting the black rhino.
T HE BIG CATS
Aside from occupying the top rung of the predation
ladder, the lion also tops the glamour stakes. Sadly,
it does have one formidable enemy in humankind,
which has expelled it from most of the country so
that it now remains almost exclusively in
conservation areas.
The beautiful leopard survives in a larger area,
including much of the southern Cape and far north
of the country, although numbers are small in some
places.
The cheetah is the speed champ, capable of dashes
of almost 100 kilometres an hour. Its population is
comparatively small and confined mostly to the far
north (including the Kruger National Park), the
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in the Northern Cape,
and reserves in KwaZulu-Natal and North West
province.
http://www.southafrica.info/about/geography/geography.htm#.UXp146J7LoI
G EOGRAPHY
South Africa occupies the southern tip of Africa, its
long coastline stretching more than 2 500km from
the desert border with Namibia on the Atlantic
coast, southwards around the tip of Africa, then
north to the border with subtropical Mozambique
on the Indian Ocean..
S IZE AND PROVINCES
South Africa is a medium-sized country, with a total
land area of slightly more than 1.2-million square
kilometres, making it roughly the same size as
Angola, Mali, and Colombia. It is one-eighth the size
of the US, twice the size of France, and over three
times the size of Germany. South Africa measures
about 1 600km from north to south, and roughly the
same from east to west.
C ITIES
South Africa has three capitals:
Cape Town, in the Western Cape, is the legislative
capital and is where the country's Parliament is
found. Bloemfontein, in the Free State, is the
judicial capital, and home to the Supreme Court of
Appeal. Pretoria, in Gauteng, is the administrative
capital, and the ultimate capital of the country. It is
home to the Union Buildings and a large proportion
of the public service.
The largest and most important city is
Johannesburg, the economic heartland of the
country. Other important centres include Durban
and Pietermaritzburg in KwaZulu- Natal, and Port
Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape.
O CEANS AND RIVERS
By far South Africa's biggest neighbour is the ocean
or two oceans, which meet at the southwestern
corner. Its territory includes Marion and Prince
Edward Islands, nearly 2 000km from Cape Town in
the Atlantic Ocean.
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W ORLD HERITAGE South Africa's main watershed. For more than 4 000
years they were home to the indigenous San people,
South Africa is home to eight of the world's official
who created a vast body of rock art the largest
heritage sites, as determined by Unesco's World
collection in Africa.
Heritage Committee.
C APE F LORAL R EGION
R OBBEN I S LAND
The Cape Floral Region takes up only 0.04% of the
Robben Island is most famous as the place where
world's land area, yet contains an astonishing 3%
Nelson Mandela, the first democratically elected
percent of its plant species. This makes it one of the
president of South Africa, was imprisoned for 18 of
richest areas for plants in the world and one of the
his 27 years in jail. The island has since become a
globe's 18 biodiversity hot spots.
symbol of the triumph of democracy and freedom
over oppression. Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden on the slopes of
Table Mountain is part of the region, making it the
Lying 11 kilometres offshore from Cape Town, the
first botanical garden ever included in a World
small, windswept island is now home to the world-
Heritage site. The rich diversity of the Cape Floral
renowned Robben Island Museum, a highlight of
Region contributes to South Africa having the third-
any visit to South Africa.
highest level of biodiversity in the world. Table
Following the unbanning of the ANC and other Mountain National Park, for example, has more
opponents of apartheid in 1990, political prisoners plant species in its 22 000 hectares than the British
were released from the island, the last leaving in Isles or New Zealand.
May 1991. The last common-law prisoners left in
1996, when the island ceased to be a jail. V REDEFORT D OME
Some 2-billion years ago a meteorite 10 kilometres
U K HAHLAMBA D RAKENSBERG P ARK in diameter hit the earth about 100km southwest of
The uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park has outstanding Johannesburg, creating an enormous impact crater.
natural beauty, Africa's highest mountain range
The meteorite, larger than Table Mountain, caused
south of Kilimanjaro, and the largest and most
a thousand-megaton blast of energy. The impact
concentrated series of rock art paintings in Africa
would have vaporised about 70 cubic kilometres of
making it a World Heritage site of both natural and
rock and may have increased the earth's oxygen
cultural significance.
levels to a degree that made the development of
The park lies in the west of KwaZulu-Natal on the multicellular life possible.
Lesotho border. It is 243 000 hectares in size,
The world has about 130 crater structures of
stretching 150 kilometres from Royal Natal National
possible impact origin. The Vredefort Dome is
Park in the north to Cobham Forest Station in the
among the top three, and is the oldest and largest
south. Both the Zulu name uKhahlamba (barrier of
clearly visible meteorite impact site in the world.
spears) and the Afrikaans name Drakensberg
(dragon mountains) fit the formidable horizon The original crater, now eroded away, was probably
created by the range. 250 to 300 kilometres in diameter. It was larger than
the Sudbury impact structure in Canada, about
A massive basaltic cap set on a broad base of
200km in diameter.
sedimentary rocks belonging to the Stormberg
http://www.southafrica.info/travel/cultural/worldh
series of 150 million years ago, the mountains are
eritagesites.htm#.UXp5uqJ7LoI
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C RIME
V IOLENT C RIME
A survey for the period 1998–2000 compiled by the
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime ranked
South Africa second for assault and murder (by all
means) per capita and first for rapes per capita in a
data set of 60 countries. Total crime per capita was
10th out of the 60 countries in the dataset.
M URDER
Around 50 people are murdered in South Africa
each day. The murder rate has increased by an
order of magnitude in South Africa during the last
40 years, though it has fallen from 66.9 per 100,000
people in 1994–95 to 37.3 in 2008–09. From 2003–
2009, crime decreased significantly according to
official police data. Between 1994 and 2009, the
murder rate reduced by 50% to 34 murders per
100,000 people. The annual crime statistics released
in 2011 show a continuing downward trend, except
for rape, which went up by 2.1%. Business Against
Crime attributed the reduction to improvements in
the criminal justice system and policing. There have
been numerous press reports on the manipulation
of crime statistics that have highlighted the
existence of incentives not to record violent crime.
C AR HIJACKINGS
South Africa also has a high record of car hijackings
when compared with industrialised countries.
A South African insurance company, Hollard
Insurance, stated in 2007 that they would no longer
insure Volkswagen Citi Golfs manufactured in the
previous two years as they were one of the most
frequently hijacked vehicles in South Africa. Certain
high-risk areas are marked with road signs indicating
a high incidence of car hi-jackings within the locality.
G ATED COMMUNITIES
Gated communities are popular with the South
African middle class, black as much as white. Gated
communities are usually protected by high
perimeter walls topped with electric fencing, guard
dogs, barred doors and windows and alarm systems
linked to private security forces. The Gauteng
Rationalisation of Local Government Affairs Act 10
of 1998, allows communities to "restrict" access to
public roads under the supervision of the
municipalities. The law requires that entry control
measures within these communities should not
deny anyone access. The Tshwane municipality
failed to process many of the applications it has
received, leaving many suburbs exposed to high
levels of crime. Several communities successfully
sued, won and are now legally restricting access.
These measures are generally considered effective
in reducing crime (within those areas).
Consequently the number of enclosed
neighbourhoods (existing neighbourhoods that have
controlled access across existing roads) in Gauteng
has continued to grow.
P RIV ATE SECURITY COMP ANIES
In order to protect themselves and their assets,
many businesses and middle- to high-income
households in South Africa make use of privately
owned security companies with armed security
guards.
The South African Police Service employ private
security companies to patrol and safeguard certain
police stations, thereby freeing fully trained police
officers to perform their core function of preventing
and combating crime.
It is argued that the police response is generally too
slow and unreliable, thus private security companies
offer a popular form of protection. Private security
firms promise response times of two to three
minutes. Many levels of protection are offered,
from suburban foot patrols to complete security
checkpoints at the entry points to homes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_South_Africa
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V OCABULARY

to flourish to succeed

formidable powerful and respected

to dash to move quickly

renowned famous

impact powerful effect

perimeter outer edge

to patrol to guard

rung step of a ladder

L ISTENING
http://www.nelsonmandela.org/multimedia/entry/nelson-mandelas-life-story-documentary

1. What was Mandela’s childhood like? He lived in the country, in a hut, he swam in streams, rode on bulls and
roasted mielies (sweetcorn)
2. What did he do when he moved to Johannesburg? He worked in the mines, studied law and joined the ANC
3. What was the freedom charter? A blueprint put together in 1955 for a free multi-racial democratic South Africa,
where all races would be treated equally. Mandela was banned from the meeting in Kliptown when it was put
together, but it was used 40 years later. In 1956 there was a treason trial for the organisors of the freedom
charter, which was designed to pre-occupy the opposition and keep them out of politics
4. What were the effects of martial law? The opposition was banned, thousands were jailed andMandela became
the leader of the armed struggle
5. What was his life like in prison? He was sent to the bleak island prison of Robben Island, where he had to do hard
labour in a lime quarry. His moral leadership and stature grew.
4
SOUTH AFRICA
S TUDENTS ’ N OTES
S ONG
I NTRODUCTION
Johnny" Clegg (born 7 June 1953) is a British-born musician from South Africa, who has recorded and performed
with his bands Juluka and Savuka. Sometimes called Le Zoulou Blanc ("The White Zulu"), he is an important figure
in South African popular music history, with songs that mix Zulu with English lyrics and African with various
Western music styles. His song ‘Impi’ is about the Battle of Isandlwana.

The Battle of Isandlwana on 22 January 1879 was the first major encounter in the Anglo–Zulu War between the
British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom. Eleven days after the British commenced their invasion of Zululand in South
Africa, a Zulu force of some 20,000 warriors attacked a portion of the British main column consisting of about
1,800 British, colonial and native troops and perhaps 400 civilians.[11] The Zulus were equipped mainly with the
traditional assegai iron spears and cow-hide shields,[12] but also had a number of muskets and old rifles[13]
though they were not formally trained in their use.[14] The British and colonial troops were armed with the state-
of-the-art[15] Martini-Henry breech-loading rifle and two 7 pounder artillery pieces as well as a rocket battery.
Despite a vast disadvantage in weapons technology,[16] the numerically superior Zulus ultimately overwhelmed
the poorly led and badly deployed[17] British, killing over 1,300 troops, including all those out on the forward
firing line. The Zulu army suffered around a thousand killed.[18]

The battle was a crushing victory for the Zulus and caused the defeat of the first British invasion of Zululand.[19]
The British Army had suffered its worst defeat against a technologically inferior indigenous force.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Isandlwana

I MPI (J OHNNY C LEGG )

Impi! wo ‘nans’ impi iyeza (Here comes the
army)
Obani bengathinta amabhubesi? (Who can
touch the lions?)
All along the river Chelmsford’s army lay asleep
Come to 1.________ the Children of Mageba
Come to 2. _________ the Realm’s price for
peace
And in the morning as they 3. ________ to ride
Their eyes shone with the fire and the steel
The General told them of the task that lay
ahead
To bring the People of the Sky to 4. ________
Impi! wo ‘nans’ impi iyeza
Obani bengathinta amabhubesi?
Mud and sweat on 5. _________ leather
Warm rain 6. __________ to the bone
They rode through the season’s wet weather
Straining for a 7. _________of the foe
Hopeless battalion 8. _________ to die
Broken by the Benders of Kings
Vainglorious General and 9. ________ pride
Would cost him and eight hundred men their
lives
Impi! wo ‘nans’ impi iyeza
Obani bengathinta amabhubesi?
They came to the side of the mountain
10. _______ rode out to spy the land
Even as the Realm’s soldiers lay resting
Mageba’s forces were soon at 11. _______
And by the evening the 12. ________ were
wheeling
Above the ruins where the 13. ___________ lay
An ancient song as old as the 14. __________
Echoed as Mageba’s warriors marched away
(Written by Johnny Clegg)