South Africa is located at the southernmost tip of the African continent, bordering the Indian Ocean in the east and the Atlantic Ocean in the west, on the boundary between the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, with an area of about 1,219,100 square kilometers, ranking second among the provincial administrative regions of the mainland.
South Africa has six land neighbours, from west to east, bordered by the Orange River with Namibia, a vast desert with Botswana, bounded by the Limpopo River with Zimbabwe, bounded by Mount Lebampo from Mozambique, and Eswatini by the British Reserve in southern Africa. There is also Lesotho, which is the country of South Africa.
South Africa has a population of about 60.6 million (2022), with 7.6% white, 8.8% coloured (mulatto), 81% black, and 2.6% Asian.
South Africa has three capitals, Pretoria is the executive capital (seat of government), Cape Town is the legislative capital (seat of parliament), and Bloemfontein is the judicial capital (seat of the Supreme Court).
But South Africa's largest and richest city is Johannesburg, not far south of Pretoria, which is the gold capital of the world.
South Africa's urban agglomerations include the coastal port cities of Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban, as well as Pretoria, Johannesburg, Soweto, Sasolburg, Kimberley, Bloemfontein, etc. in the northeastern mining areas.
The hollowed-out piece in the middle of the map of South Africa looks like someone has dug a big hole with a shovel, and it is a country called Lesotho.
With an area of about 30,300 square kilometers, Lesotho is the largest country in the world. With a population of about 2.3 million (2022), the vast majority of the population is of the Bantu language family, Basutuo and Zulu, English and Sesutu are spoken, and about 90% of the inhabitants are Christian.
South Africa covers an area of about 1,219,100 square kilometers, about 40 times the size of Lesotho, so why not annex Lesotho? After all, there is a big hole in its map, which is really not very good-looking. Lesotho has affected South Africa's internal traffic, for example, from Bloemfontein in the centre to Durban on the Indian Ocean coast.
Lesotho is located in the highest altitude area in the middle of the Drakens, with the highest point at about 3,482 meters above sea level, the lowest point at about 1,388 meters above sea level, and an average altitude of more than 2,000 meters. The Orange River, South Africa's longest and largest river, has its source in the mountains of Lesotho. The Orange River originates in the Drakens Mountains and flows from west to east into the Atlantic Ocean. The Orange River is about 2,200 kilometers long and has an average flow of about 365 cubic meters per second.
In 1868 (the seventh year of the reign of Emperor Muzong of the Qing Dynasty), the British officially declared Lesotho (then known as Basutoland) as its "protectorate".
In 1871 (the tenth year of the reign of Emperor Muzong of the Qing Dynasty), Basutolan was incorporated into the British Cape Colony in South Africa, and at this time South Africa and Basutolan were one family. At that time, the weapons of the Basutolan people were also swords, guns, swords, halberds, axes, hooks, forks, sticks, mallets, whips, hammers, etc., and they could only bow down to their subordinates.
In 1961, South Africa became independent and withdrew from the British Commonwealth. When the British colonies became independent, they generally did not immediately withdraw from the Commonwealth, for example, India is still a Commonwealth country. South Africa's apartheid policy was opposed by many countries around the world, and in 1960-1963, South Africa expelled 3.5 million non-white (mostly black) South Africans from their original homes and relocated to Bantustan. South Africa did not want to see the British and American dictatorship, let alone the long-arm jurisdiction of the United Kingdom, so it simply withdrew from the British Commonwealth at independence (rejoined in 1994).
Since South Africa did not cooperate, Britain also had to restrain it, so it took Basutoland as a reserved territory and diveds it from South Africa, which was in line with the British principle of divide and rule in the colonies.
In 1966, Basutoland declared independence and was named the Kingdom of Lesotho, with a constitutional monarchy and remained a Commonwealth country. Lesotho's emergence as an independent country was born out of the special context of the conflict between South Africa and the United Kingdom.
Lesotho is closed to traffic, the roads are mainly gravel and dirt roads, there are not many asphalt roads, and there are no highways. Lesotho has no independent railway system, only a 2.6-kilometre railway from South Africa to the capital, Maseru. Maseru Airport has four daily flights to and from Johannesburg, South Africa, and is the only airport in Lesotho that flies civil flights.
Lesotho is one of the world's least developed countries declared by the United Nations due to its poor natural resources and weak economic base. Lesotho has 80 per cent of the country's agricultural population and only about 30 per cent of its food self-sufficiency rate, with at least 700,000 people facing food shortages in 2019. Lesotho's livestock sector is okay, with 66 per cent of the land available for grazing, mainly sheep farming, which somewhat compensates for the lack of agriculture.
Lesotho has close ties with South Africa, imports most of its products from South Africa, and tens of thousands of miners work in South Africa. The HIV infection rate in South Africa is about 13% (2020) and the situation is even worse in Lesotho.
In November 2019, the United States released an HIV impact assessment report, which found that the HIV infection rate among adults in Lesotho was 25.6%, of which 30.4% were among women and 20.8% were among men.
After Lesotho's independence, its development was not good, with Lesotho's GDP per capita at $969 (2022), ranking 176th in the world. South Africa has a per capita GDP6766 US dollars (2022), ranking 104th in the world.
Lesotho is too poor, and South Africa does not want to break with Britain with this burden, so South Africa has not been a annexing country, China Lesotho.
Maseru, the capital of Lesotho, is located on the east bank of the Caledon River on the western border, on the opposite bank of South Africa, and the city center is latitude 29°18′55 south latitude.
With a population of about 331,000 (2016), Maseru has a subtropical highland climate with cool summers and the hottest January with temperatures ranging from 15°C to 33°C.