South Africa is a unitary parliamentary republic at the southern tip of Africa whose statehood has no single founding year every citizen would recognize as their own. The Union of South Africa formed as a self-governing British dominion in 1910 on a racially restricted franchise, gained full sovereign standing under the Statute of Westminster in 1931, became a republic outside the Commonwealth in 1961, and became a democracy inclusive of its entire population only in 1994, when Nelson Mandela was elected president after the end of apartheid. This atlas leaves which of those a reader should call the founding as an open question rather than answering it by omission.
Facts
Founding YearDates the founding of the Union of South Africa, unifying the four former colonies into one state. The later Republic of South Africa (1961) and the first democratic, universal-suffrage election (1994) are alternative candidate founding points depending on definition, but 1910 is the conventional single state-founding date and is recorded here as attested rather than debated. Classification
Freedom Status South Africa
Filter Results2 entries
Connections
Associated With
This source names South Africa directly: "It was officially launched in July 2002 in Durban, South Africa, succeeding the Organisation of African Unity."
Source Overview (African Union)
Source Constitution of South Africa (Wikipedia)
This source names South Africa directly: "later said his own resistance work in South Africa was already well underway before he read Thoreau's essay, and treated it as confirming a method he had already begun rather than originating it."
Source Henry David Thoreau (Wikipedia)
South Africa's National Assembly is elected entirely by closed-list proportional representation, half the seats from nine provincial lists and half from national lists to restore overall proportionality.
Source The South African Electoral System (Helen Suzman Foundation)
Governed By
Source Cyril Ramaphosa (Wikipedia)
Practices
Shaped By
Signed
Original 1959 signatory to the Antarctic Treaty.
Source Antarctic Treaty System (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases
Has Member
Also in Economics Atlas: a member of this subject.
Member Of
Also in Economics Atlas: which this subject is a member of.
Source New Development Bank (Wikipedia)tier 3
Sources
1. Freedom House: South Africa (Freedom in the World 2025)
Freedom HouseOverview, Global Freedom Score 81/100 (free)Quote, Overview, Global Freedom Score 81/100 (free)
South Africa is a constitutional democracy.
2. Union of South Africa (Wikipedia)
Wikipedialead paragraphQuote, lead paragraph
It came into existence on 31 May 1910 with the unification of the Cape, Natal, Transvaal, and Orange River colonies.
South Africa (Britannica)
The South African Electoral System (Helen Suzman Foundation)
Helen Suzman FoundationAssociated With: Party-List Proportional RepresentationView the Source British Empire (Britannica)
Part Of: British Empire
Cyril Ramaphosa (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationGoverned By: Ramaphosa Administration, Lead sectionQuote, Governed By: Ramaphosa Administration, Lead section
is a South African businessman and politician who is serving as the fifth president of South Africa since 2018
Constitution of South Africa (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Constitution of South Africa, IntroductionQuote, Associated With: Constitution of South Africa, Introduction
The Constitution of South Africa is the supreme law of the Republic of South Africa.
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