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People have inhabited southern Africa for thousands of years. In the caves of the Drakensberg Mountains there are many rock paintings by Bushmen. The paintings are difficult to date but anthropological evidence suggests that the bushman civilization existed in the Drakensberg at least 40,000 years ago; and possibly over 100,000 years ago. Members of the Khoisan language groups (collective name for Hottentot and Bushmen) are the oldest surviving inhabitants of the land, but only a few are left in South Africa today, and they are located in the western sections. Most of today's black South Africans belong to the Bantu language group, which migrated south from central Africa, settling in the Transvaal region sometime before AD 500. The Nguni, ancestors of the Zulu and Xhosa, occupied most of the eastern coast by 1500.
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach the Cape of Good Hope, arriving in 1488. However, permanent white settlement did not begin until 1652 when the Dutch East India Company established a provisioning station on the Cape. In the late 1700s, the Boers (the settling farmers) slowly started expanding into the interior. In 1795, Britain took control of the Cape and in 1820 a large group of British Settlers arrived in the region. In 1835, large numbers of Boers started out on the Groot Trek into the interior after becoming dissatisfied with the British rule. In the interior, they established their own republics after a number of bloody conflicts with the local population.
In 1852 and 1854, the independent Boer Republics of the Transvaal and Orange Free State were created, but after defeat to the British in the second Boer War (1899-1902), the republics were incorporated into the British Empire. In May 1910, the two republics and the British colonies of the Cape and Natal formed the Union of South Africa, a self-governing dominion of the British Empire.
In 1961 South Africa became an independent republic, but to its great discredit, the government continued its official policy of racial segregation. In 1990, after three decades of brutal racial policies and the oppression of civil rights, the South African government began dismantling their discriminative laws and democratic elections were held in 1994, which was won by Nelson Mandela and African National Congress (ANC) party.
During Nelson Mandela's 5-year term as President of South Africa, the government committed itself to reforming the country. The ANC-led government focused on social issues that were neglected during the apartheid era such as unemployment, housing shortages, and crime. Mandela's administration began to reintroduce South Africa into the global economy by implementing a market-driven economic plan known as Growth, Employment and Redistribution.
South Africa held its fourth democratic election on April 22, 2009. The ANC won with 65% of the vote followed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) with 16% of the vote, and The National Assembly elected Jacob Zuma president, with Motlanthe as his deputy.
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