Provinces of South Africa

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 Cape

Read more about Provinces Of South Africa:  History, Government

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