Portal:South Africa/Selected article

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The layout design for these subpages is at Portal:South Africa/Selected article/Layout.

  1. Add a new Selected article to the next available subpage.
  2. Update "max=" to new total for its {{Random portal component}} on the main page.

Selected articles list

Selected article 1

Portal:South Africa/Selected article/1 The Krugerrand is a South African gold coin, first minted in 1967 to help market South African gold and produced by the South African Mint. By 1980 the Krugerrand accounted for 90% of the global gold coin market. The name itself is a compound of "Kruger" (the man depicted on the obverse) and "rand", the South African unit of currency.

During the great bull market in gold of the 1970s, the gold Krugerrand quickly became the No.1 choice for investors worldwide wanting to buy gold. Between 1974 and 1985, it's estimated that 22 million gold Krugerrand coins were imported into the United States alone.

Selected article 2

Portal:South Africa/Selected article/2

Black December refers to numerous shark attacks that occurred along the coast of KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa, from December 1957 to Easter 1958. At least five humans died over the 107-day period.

Selected article 3

Portal:South Africa/Selected article/3

The Battle of Spion Kop (Dutch: Slag bij Spionkop; Afrikaans: Slag van Spioenkop) was fought about 38 km (21 miles) west-south-west of Ladysmith on the hilltop of Spioenkop(1) along the Tugela River, Natal in South Africa. The battle was fought between Boer and British forces from 23-24 January 1900 as part of the Second Boer War, and resulted in a famous British defeat.

Selected article 4

Portal:South Africa/Selected article/4

The Siege of Kimberley took place during the Second Boer War at Kimberley when Boer forces from the Orange Free State and the Transvaal besieged the diamond mining city. The Boers moved quickly to try to capture the British enclave when war broke out between the British and the two Boer republics in October 1899. The city was ill-prepared, but the defenders organised an energetic and effective defence that was able to prevent it from being taken.

Selected article 5

Portal:South Africa/Selected article/5

The Gautrain is an 80-kilometre (50 mi) mass rapid transit railway system in Gauteng Province, South Africa, which links Johannesburg, Pretoria, and OR Tambo International Airport. It was built to relieve the traffic congestion in the Johannesburg–Pretoria traffic corridor and offer commuters a viable alternative to road transport, as Johannesburg has limited public transport infrastructure. The project was completed with the opening on 7 June 2012 of the final section between Rosebank and Johannesburg Park Station, which had been delayed by problems with excess water seeping into the tunnel between the two stations.

Selected article 6

Portal:South Africa/Selected article/6

The Denel Rooivalk (previously designated AH-2 and CSH-2) is an attack helicopter manufactured by Denel of South Africa. Rooivalk is Afrikaans for "Red Kestrel".[1]

The South African Air Force (SAAF) ordered 12 Rooivalks, designated the Rooivalk Mk 1 in SAAF service, the first of was officially handed over in April 2011. The helicopters are flown by 16 Squadron, which is based at AFB Bloemspruit near Bloemfontein.

Due to the SAAF's decades of helicopter experience in the harsh African environment, the Rooivalk has been designed to operate for prolonged periods without sophisticated support. All that is needed to keep the Rooivalk flying is a medium transport helicopter equipped with a basic spares supply plus four groundcrew.

The Rooivalk carries a range of weapons depending on the mission profile. It is generally fitted with a nose-mounted 20 mm cannon and can also carry air-to-air missiles, anti-armour missiles and unguided rockets. The Rooivalk has a fire control system for target acquisition and tracking as well as an advanced navigation system using Doppler radar and GPS. Also incorporated is an electronic countermeasures suite coupled with chaff and flare dispensers.

Selected article 7

Portal:South Africa/Selected article/7

Joule was an electric five seat passenger car by Optimal Energy, a South African company based in Cape Town. According to the company, it was to have a nominal driving range of 150 km and a top speed of 135 km/h. Designed to achieve a Euro NCAP 4 star safety rating, it complied with the stringent EU standards. It was never released commercially; production ceased in April 2012, and in June 2012 Optimal Energy announced its intention to close down.

The Joule was the first electric car to be produced by Optimal Energy, the Cape Town based company has been working on the concept since 2004. The design of the car was done by Jaguar car designer Keith Helfet. Keith is best known for the XJ220, and the concept car. The Joule showed the same 'flowing lines' as his previous designs.

Selected article 8

Portal:South Africa/Selected article/8

SAS Spioenkop (F147) is the third of four Valour class frigates for the South African Navy built by the European South African Corvette Consortium. She was named by Ms Thandi Modise, the then Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Defence, in Hamburg, Germany, on 4 June 2003.

As with all the other ships of the Valour class, the Spioenkop is named after a famous South African battle or instance of great valour. In this case the famous Battle of Spioenkop between the Boers and Great Britain, during the Anglo-Boer War.

Selected article 9

Portal:South Africa/Selected article/9

The San people (or Saan), also known as Bushmen or Basarwa are members of various indigenous hunter-gatherer people of Southern Africa, whose territories span Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
From the 1950s through the 1990s, the San switched to farming because of government-mandated modernisation programs.
Despite the lifestyle changes, they have provided a wealth of information in anthropology and genetics. One broad study of African genetic diversity completed in 2009 found that the San were among the five populations with the highest measured levels of genetic diversity among the 121 distinct African populations sampled. The San are one of 14 known extant "ancestral population clusters" from which all known modern humans descend.

Selected article 10

Portal:South Africa/Selected article/10

Water supply and sanitation in South Africa is characterised by both achievements and challenges. After the end of Apartheid South Africa's newly elected government struggled with the then growing service and backlogs with respect to access to water supply and sanitation developed. The government thus made a strong commitment to high service standards and to high levels of investment subsidies to achieve those standards. Since then, the country has made some progress with regard to improving access to water supply: It reached universal access to an improved water source in urban areas, and in rural areas the share of those with access increased from 66% to 79% from 1990 to 2010.

Selected article 11

Portal:South Africa/Selected article/11

The flag of South Africa was adopted on 27 April 1994, at the beginning of South Africa's 1994 general election, to replace the flag that had been used since 1928. The new national flag, designed by State Herald Frederick Brownell, was chosen to represent the new democracy.
The flag has horizontal bands of red (on the top) and blue (on the bottom), of equal width, separated by a central green band which splits into a horizontal "Y" shape, the arms of which end at the corners of the hoist side (and follow the flag's diagonals). The Y embraces a black isosceles triangle from which the arms are separated by narrow yellow bands; the red and blue bands are separated from the green band and its arms by narrow white stripes. The stripes at the fly end are in the 5:1:3:1:5 ratio.
Three of the colours – black, green and yellow – are found in the banner of the African National Congress. The other three – red, white and blue – are displayed on the old Transvaal vierkleur (which also includes green), the Dutch tricolour and the British Union flag.


Nominations

Feel free to add FA-Class South Africa articles and A-Class South Africa articles, particularly of Top-, High- and Mid-Importance to the above list. GA-Class South Africa articles of Top- and High-Importance also may be preferred. Some articles of lower importance (or not listed under the South Africa project) also might be included as a way to improve the topical contents balance of the selections. Other South Africa-related articles may be nominated here as well.

South Africa popular pages by WikiProject

The following South African WikiProjects include lists of popular pages - the top pages ordered by number of views in the scope of each WikiProject.

National
States
Borders Namibia | Botswana | Zimbabwe | Mozambique
Government
Culture
Society

Preferred articles

Potential articles

The following articles are of higher importance but lower quality. They might already be included here ( Y) or otherwise have a good potential for inclusion with a little improvement. Some articles of lower importance and/or quality also might be included as a way to improve the topical contents balance of the selections.

  1. ^ Frawley, Gerard. The International Directiory of Military Aircraft, p. 71. Aerospace Publications Pty Ltd, 2002. ISBN 1-875671-55-2.