South Africa trivia: 47 questions and answers

Pretoria. Pretoria is the executive capital, with the President's offices in the Union Buildings. Parliament sits in Cape Town, the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein, and Johannesburg is the largest city but not a capital.

Cape Town. Cape Town is the legislative capital, where Parliament sits. Pretoria is the seat of government and Bloemfontein the judicial capital.

12. South Africa has 12 official languages. The twelfth, South African Sign Language, was added by a constitutional amendment signed in 2023.

Lesotho. Lesotho is an enclave, a mountain kingdom entirely surrounded by South Africa. Eswatini also borders Mozambique.

True. True. South Africa drives on the left, like its neighbours and like the United Kingdom.

1948. Apartheid began after the National Party won the 1948 election, and it lasted until the democratic election of 1994.

27. Mandela spent 27 years in prison, from 1962 to 1990. 18 of those years were on Robben Island, and he spent his last years in Pollsmoor Prison and then Victor Verster Prison near Paarl.

Being forced to learn in Afrikaans. They were marching against being forced to learn in Afrikaans. Police opened fire, and 16 June is now Youth Day.

Freedom Day. Freedom Day falls on 27 April. Youth Day (16 June) remembers the Soweto uprising, Human Rights Day (21 March) Sharpeville, and Heritage Day is 24 September.

Britain and the two Boer republics. The war was fought between Britain and the two Boer republics, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Britain won, and the republics became British colonies.

False. False. Human Rights Day remembers the Sharpeville massacre of 21 March 1960. The Soweto uprising of 16 June 1976 is remembered on Youth Day.

True. True. Mandela signed it at Sharpeville on 10 December 1996, and it came into force in February 1997.

Durban. Bunny chow was created in Durban in the 1940s, in the city's Indian South African community.

Cape Malay. Bobotie is a classic of Cape Malay cooking in Cape Town and the Western Cape, served with yellow rice and chutney.

Air-dried cured meat. Biltong is air-dried cured meat, usually beef or game, flavoured with vinegar, salt, coriander and pepper.

Farmer's sausage. Boerewors means farmer's sausage. Small-pot food is potjiekos, and fat cake is vetkoek.

True. True. Rooibos, 'red bush' in Afrikaans, is a herbal tea with no caffeine, grown around the Cederberg in the Western Cape.

True. True. The name comes from a campaign backed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and on Heritage Day many South Africans gather round the fire for a braai.

False. False. Melktert, milk tart, is a sweet pastry filled with a light milk custard and dusted with cinnamon.

Johannesburg. Johannesburg was founded in 1886 on the Witwatersrand, and within ten years it had more than 100,000 people.

Port Elizabeth. Gqeberha was called Port Elizabeth until 2021, when it took the Xhosa name of the river that flows through it.

True. True. That is why Bloemfontein is called the judicial capital.

False. False. The Constitutional Court, the highest court, sits on Constitution Hill in Johannesburg. Bloemfontein is home to the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Robben Island. Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in prison on Robben Island in Table Bay, now a museum and World Heritage Site.

False. False. The southernmost point is Cape Agulhas, about 150 km to the east-southeast of the Cape of Good Hope.

Giraffe. The giraffe is not one of the Big Five. The Big Five are lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo, and all of them live in Kruger National Park.

The Union Buildings in Pretoria. He was sworn in at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, the seat of government, where a 9 m statue of him now stands.

Fossils of early human ancestors. Its limestone caves hold fossils of early human ancestors, including 'Mrs Ples', found at Sterkfontein in 1947.

False. False. The Big Hole was dug for diamonds, from 1871 to 1914. Gold was found near Johannesburg.

Cape Town. Dr Christiaan Barnard carried it out at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town on 3 December 1967.

5. It is sung in 5 languages: isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sesotho, Afrikaans and English.

4. The Springboks have won it 4 times: in 1995, 2007, 2019 and 2023.

J. R. R. Tolkien. J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings, was born in Bloemfontein and left for England as a small child.

True. True. Both lived on Vilakazi Street, and Mandela's house is now a museum.

True. True. The Cullinan weighed 3,106 carats as found, and its two biggest cut stones are in the Crown Jewels.

Hello. Sawubona means hello, said to one person. To a group you say sanibonani.

A traffic light. A robot is a traffic light in South African English, so 'turn left at the robot' means turn left at the traffic light.

False. False. Yebo means yes. It is also used in South African English.

It is tasty. Lekker, from Afrikaans, means it is tasty, or simply nice or great, and South Africans of every background use it.

Ngiyabonga. Ngiyabonga means thank you. Sawubona is hello, hamba kahle is goodbye and yimalini asks the price.

Hamba kahle. You say hamba kahle, go well. The person leaving answers sala kahle, stay well.

How much is it?. Yimalini? asks how much is it, useful at any market stall.

True. True. Sanibonani greets two or more people; sawubona greets one person.

10111. The police number is 10111. 10177 is for an ambulance or the fire service, and from a mobile you can also dial 112.

Around 10 percent. A tip of around 10 percent is normal, and many waiters depend on it.

Loadshedding. Planned power cuts are called loadshedding. As of 2026 they are much rarer than before, but can still happen.

True. True. The low-lying areas of Mpumalanga and Limpopo, including Kruger, have a malaria risk, mainly from September to May, and so does the far northeast of KwaZulu-Natal.