South Africa is a large, diverse and
incredibly beautiful country. The
size of France and Spain combined,
it varies from the picturesque
Garden Route towns of the Western
Cape to the raw stretch of
subtropical coast in northern
KwaZulu-Natal. It's also one of the
great cultural meeting points of the
African continent, a fact obscured
by years of enforced racial
segregation, but now manifest in the
big cities. Yet South Africa is also
something of an enigma; it has the
best travel facilities on the
African continent, but also the most
difficult surface to scratch. After
so long as an international pariah,
the "rainbow nation" is
still struggling to find its
identity.
Many visitors are pleasantly
surprised by South Africa's excellent
infrastructure , which draws
favourable comparison with countries
such as Australia or the United
States. Good air links and bus
networks, excellent roads and a
growing number of first-class
B&Bs and guesthouses make South
Africa a perfect touring country and
- with the dramatic slide of the
rand in 2001 - a cheap one too for
visitors. For those on a budget,
rapidly mushrooming backpacker
hostels and backpacker buses
provide an efficient means of
exploring.
However, as a visitor, you'll
have to make an effort to meet
members of the country's African
majority on equal terms. Apartheid
may be dead, but its heritage
continues to shape South Africa in a
very physical way. The country was
organized for the benefit of whites,
so it's easy to get a very
white-orientated experience of
Africa. Nowhere is this more in
evidence than in the layout of towns
and cities, where African areas -
often desperately poor - are usually
tucked out of sight.
Some visitors are surprised to
discover that South Africa's population
doesn't reduce simply to black and
white. The country's majority group
are Africans (77 percent of
the population); whites make
up 11 percent, followed by coloureds
(9 percent) - the descendants of
white settlers, slaves and Africans,
who speak English and Afrikaans and
comprise the majority in the Western
Cape. Indians (3 percent),
most of whom live in KwaZulu-Natal,
came to South Africa at the
beginning of the twentieth century
as indentured labourers.
Crime isn't the
indiscriminate phenomenon that press
reports suggest, but it is an issue.
Really, it's a question of
perspective - taking care but not
becoming paranoid. Statistically,
the odds of becoming a victim are
highest in downtown Johannesburg,
where violent crime is a daily
reality. Other cities present a
reduced risk - similar to, say, some
parts of the United States; many
country areas are safe by any
standards.
