South Africa is a republic; the present Head of State is Thabo Mbeki. He is also the Head of Government. He was recently re-elected in spring, 2004.s There is a bi-cameral legislature, the National Assembly is elected by popular vote; the National Council of Provinces is elected by the nine provincial legislatures.
South Africa lies at the southern tip of Africa. It is slightly smaller than two times the size of the State of Texas. It is mostly a semi-arid, high plateau, surrounded by a narrow coastal plain. It is rich in natural resources, gold, Chromiium, antimony, coal, iron ore, manganese, phosphates, tin, uranium, gem diamonds, platinum, copper, vanadium, salt, natural gas. Only a little over twelve percent of the land is arable. When counting the population, estimates must take into account the excess mortality due to AIDS, which results in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality, lower population and growth rates. The population presently is estimated at 42,500,000. Life expectancy, due to AIDS, has fallen to 42. The estimate at the end of 2003 for HIV/AIDS adult prevalence rate is 21.5%.
When apartheid ended, South Africa was faced with such a multitude of problems that AIDS was put on the back burner. The infection rate at that time, (1990) was less than 1%, and problems such as social unrest, unemployment and poverty seemed more pressing. As a result, the population was not educated about AIDS, even when the facts awere known. The result is the epidemic has become out of control; the infection rate is now one of the highest, estimated at 25.6%. The people of South Africa, especially those in rural areas, are just beginning to learn about the causes of AIDS; the subject of sex is one which is not normally spoken of, and parents and teachers are still reluctant to discuss it. As in other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, sex is almost always controlled by men, and young girls are the ones most at risk. Girls generally marry young, and most often to older men, many of whom already are infected with HIV. When the generation of men now living with HIV become inflicted with full-blown AIDS, South Africa will have even more of a crisis on its hands; people in all sectors are infected, since much of the actual infection began before the causes of HIV were widely known.