Did You Know

Interesting Facts about South Africa

Trivia, oddities, and curious tidbits about South Africa.

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Did You Know?

9 curious facts about South Africa.

When a child loses a tooth they leave their tooth in a slipper in their room. That night a mouse will come, take the tooth and leave a gift.
After the Anglo-Boer War, three capitals were established: an administrative capital in Pretoria, a legislative capital at Cape Town and a judicial seat at Bloemfontein. This arrangement continues today.
Ceremonial clothing and adornment play an important role in traditional customs of the Black peoples and vary according to such things as age and marital status.
South Africa has mines deeper than any other country in the world. The Western Deep Levels Mine is almost four kilometres deep.

Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the world's first heart transplant operation in Groot Schur Hospital in Cape Town in 1967.
A system of Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) has been introduced recently by the government to promote literacy and numeracy among adults.
The first deaf school was established in South Africa around 1846. The North British sign system was used for the deaf in White English-speaking families. In 1881, a school for Afrikaans-speaking families was begun using British sign language. Now there are 29 schools in the country. There are several African dialects used unofficially in different schools for the deaf throughout the country.
The most famous Indian with South African connections was Mahatma Gandhi who arrived in 1893 and spent 20 years in the country. It was in South Africa that he created his successful and internationally famous philosophy of passive resistance or Satyagraha to help South African Indians organize politically and attain acceptance and better living standards.
One birthday tradition in South Africa is a presentation of a key at age twenty-one. On the twenty-first birthday a key made of anything from paper to aluminum foil to silver to gold is presented by the parents as a sign that the child is ready to unlock the door to their future.